Category: Phony soldiers

Last month, we talked about this Casey Gubert fellow who claimed to the local media that he was getting tossed from his apartment because of his service dogs. Documentation that he showed the reporters was forged said the VA.

[KXTV] took a letter the couple claims to have given the property manager and showed the VA Medical Center. At first glance a spokesperson told us it looked real until she confronted the doctor who is listed. She told us the letter is not an official document from the VA Northern California Health Care System, nor is the signature on the document from one of their physicians.

After confronting the couple, they stand by what they said in the previous ABC10 interview. They said they gave us documentation, which the VA tells us is a forgery. We’ve asked several more times for them to talk with us again or if they have any other documents proving his service or even pictures. So far, we’ve received nothing.

The National Personnel Records Center doesn’t recognize his name either;

Dave Hardin sends us links to the story of Michael Bocci who has been taking folks’ money in Oregon with his stories of woe.

Michael Bocci told a heartbreaking story. The Tualatin man claimed he was a combat veteran; a U.S. Marine who was left to care for his two young children after his wife died in childbirth.

[…]

A KGW investigation has identified more than two dozen people, including members of community groups, churches and police agencies, who reached out to help Bocci. They provided money, food or other types of assistance.

He had a phony bomb-sniffing dog that was killed as a result of fireworks;

But on the 4th of July — the second anniversary of his wife’s death in childbirth — the helicopter pilot lost his bomb-sniffing Springer Spaniel who saved his life twice.

That night he was on his way to bed when he let his dog – Ikaika, a USMC sergeant, too — outside to “do his business.”

But the fireworks in a neighbor’s yard scared the dog.

“He heard the fireworks and he was trained to go where a lot of lights are,” Bocci told KOIN 6 News. “Then he realized, ‘Oh, no, that’s not good for me.’ And then he went off I-5 and got killed.”

Ikaika was his companion dog who helped with his PTSD and helped nurse Bocci through a stroke he suffered about a year ago.

He knew how to push the media’s buttons. Apparently he stayed away from veterans, until one caught up to him;

In December, retired U.S. Marine Lon Getlin was asked to meet with Bocci. Getlin has helped numerous wounded veterans through Lines for Life and Semper Fi Odyssey.

Getlin said Bocci told him he was desperate for money. He repeated his heartbreaking story. He claimed to be a single father with two young children after losing his wife, but added a new twist. Bocci said he’d recently started caring for a 6-month-old baby as a foster parent.

Oregon Department of Human Services has no record of any contact with Bocci.

“The more he talked to me, the more fantastical it all became,” said Getlin.

Here’s another one who thinks that he can reoffend as a valor thief because the POW Network took down their archives. Phil Rosenthal has this posted on his LinkedIn profile;

At different times in my career, I have been an athlete; a certified USA Hockey coach; a U.S. Army veteran with 9 years total experience as a helicopter/air cavalry flight leader, tank commander, small arms specialist, pathfinder and military intelligence operative….

Folks tell us that he also claims to have been a Vietnam veteran;

If he did all of that, he sure packed the training into a short span of time. The National Personnel Records Center says that he had four months and 21 days of active duty service;

A bio;

KXTV tells the story of their encounter with this fellow, Case Gubert who told them that he was getting booted from his apartment because of a service dog that he needed to deal with the horrors that he witnessed in war;

Casey shared with us stories of when he went to Afghanistan and Iraq. He said he even received a Purple Heart. The next day we got a call from a woman who claimed she’s known Casey for most of his life and said he lied about being a veteran.

We took a letter the couple claims to have given the property manager and showed the VA Medical Center. At first glance a spokesperson told us it looked real until she confronted the doctor who is listed. She told us the letter is not an official document from the VA Northern California Health Care System, nor is the signature on the document from one of their physicians.

After confronting the couple, they stand by what they said in the previous ABC10 interview. They said they gave us documentation, which the VA tells us is a forgery. We’ve asked several more times for them to talk with us again or if they have any other documents proving his service or even pictures. So far, we’ve received nothing.

It’s always the dogs, I swear.

So they interview this real veteran, Kirsten Rockwood, a pharmacy technician in the early 1990’s who has a real service dog. How a Navy pharmacy technician caught the PTSD in the early 90s, I’ll never understand. Maybe they should just give everyone a service dog with their DD214.

Thanks to AverageNCO for the link.

The folks at Military Phonies send us their work on this fellow, Arthur Rose who claims to have been a member of SEAL Team 5 in Vietnam;

Well, the truth is that he was in the Navy 1965 – 1971 and in a ship that sailed off the coast of Vietnam, but he has no SEAL Training, no Silver Star, no Purple Hearts. SEAL Team 5 didn’t exist during his term of service.

A few weeks ago, we wrote about Art Medina who was sent to us by the folks at Guardian of Valor. He claimed to be a Fallujah Marine and told folks that he was raising money for injured warriors. It seems that he was supposed to be organizing the NFL’s Toys for Tots program this year, too. The truth is that he spent most of time in the Marines as a deserter. Our buddy, Dan Noyes, at ABC7 busted him on camera;

The Redwood City Chapter of the NFL alumni Toys for Tots program is bouncing back with the help of some real marines after the man who organized the toy drive had to resign after getting caught lying about his military record.

Art Medina says he didn’t think he’d ever get caught for the lies he told to so many people even though the San Jose man has seen all the stories ABC7 Investigative Reporter Dan Noyes has done on people who falsely claim to be war heroes.

For three years, Medina was the NFL’s military liaison responsible for arranging color guards and fund-raisers. He has left behind angry football players and military veterans.

But the Supreme Court says that Stolen Valor is a victimless crime.

This fellow, Charles Louis Hopkins, was on the old POW Network website. According to folks who know him, he’s back at his old story-telling since that website came down;

He said he was captured close to Da Nang in 1968, and spent 32 days as a POW in a tiger cage. When asked – since he had been wounded was he drawing any VA benefits and he said, “No” because he had resigned from the Marine Corp and worked for the CIA. He said it was a long story and did not have time to discuss at this time. He also mentioned that he knew Sam Johnson and had discussed things with him. Said he was from Covington, Tennessee and knew Nels Tanner. Works with Shriners.

2008 – Claims he won the Navy Cross saving his recon team near Da Nang in 1968. He claims to have been a Captain in the Marines at the time.

2011 – Charles Louis Hopkins claims to have been a Marine, also receiving the Navy Cross. If you research where he has worked, where he went to college when he was in the Marine Corps. when he got married and had children the timelines do not match.

He continues in his life as nothing is wrong! He has so stated “They can investigate me all they want to, they will find nothing.” Also he claims to have worked for the CIA….he thinks is so smart that no one can bring him down. He continues to get away with his lies.

We got an email the yesterday at that confirms that he’s back at telling his stories.

He avoided the Vietnam-era draft, now he wants to be a POW.