Category: Phony soldiers

Ralph Ticcioni a Wisconsin World War II veteran has been telling folks for years about his parachute drop into Normandy on D-Day with the 82d Airborne Division. His memories are pretty vivid like they were when he told the story to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters earlier this year;

He even had folks convinced at Defense.Gov when they interviewed him.

He fooled the Army.mil people, too, as well as the French and his surgeon;

And the local news station;

Well, the truth is that Ralph was assigned to the 414th Signal Advanced Warning Battalion on D-Day – they ran LW (light warning) radars for small installations like hospitals, ammunition dumps and airfields. Here is their roster for April 1944. Ralph is near the top of the second page;

On June 6th, 1944, D-Day, their Morning Report says that they were still in England;

On July 9th, 1944, Ticcioni transferred to the 573rd Signal Air Warning Battalion.

Ticcioni didn’t land with the amphibious assault and he certainly didn’t parachute into France. He didn’t get to France until much later, according to the 573rd’s helpful unit history (Word Document download) posted on line;

The concentration area for the move to the Continent was an airfield in Southern England near Chilbolton, where the 573rd arrived on 15 July 1944, which was D-Day plus 39. The mission of the battalion at Chilbolton was primarily that of completing its preparation for movement to the Continent, originally scheduled for D plus 48, some 12 days after the first echelon of the battalion arrived at Chilbolten. Due to changes in the shipping schedule the battalion was staged back until the 27th of August, which was D plus 82.

So, Ol’ Ralph got to Normandy 82 days after his imagined jump into France.

He was still with D Company of the 573rd on July 28th according to the Morning Report;

At one point, some of the members of the 573rd were trained in glider operations in anticipation of their support of the 82d Airborne Division, but that never came to pass because of Patton.

Later it was learned that these units were to have provided air control in an airborne and sea landing on the South side of the Brittany Peninsula. However, General Patton’s Third Army started its drive from the bridgehead the latter part of July, cutting off the Brittany Peninsula ahead of schedule, this terminating the need for such radar units.

When the need for the task force and airborne operation was canceled, most of the personnel reverted to their normal duties within the battalion. One LW Platoon (Lt. Mecklenburg’s ½ U Team), however, with some control personnel was placed on detached service to the 82nd Airborne Division. Here they made practice flights and continued their Airborne training, qualifying for the Airborne Glider Badge.

Ol’ Ralph did complete that training and his Report of Separation reflects that he was awarded a glider badge;

However, he didn’t parachute into France, and a quick reading of the unit history of the 573rd doesn’t indicate that he ever participated in any combat Airborne Operations while he was in Europe. His Report of Separation doesn’t reflect any participation in the D-Day Invasion. No Arrowhead device that would indicate that he was in the assault on the Normandy beaches.

The unit history does mention that some of their units were targets of the German Luftwaffe because their mission hampered air attacks. So it wasn’t all cheese and crackers in the radar units.

I’d much rather be a parachutist than a Gliderman – intentionally crash landing an aircraft ain’t much better than doing it by accident, but, I guess it wasn’t sexy enough for Ol’ Ralph here.

Last Spring we talked about Shane Sperow in Berks County, Pennsylvania, who told the judge in a fraud case that he was a highly decorated Marine who had survived combat in Iraq in order to get a reduced sentence. The detectives and prosecutor doubted his stories, though and discovered that Sperow had no military service.

Today we read that the judge wasn’t very forgiving the second time around;

A judge has ordered a Berks County man to spend time in prison for what prosecutors described as a case of stolen valor.

Shane Sperow entered an open plea in court Tuesday to a charge of unsworn falsification to authorities. He also admitted that he violated his probation for prior convictions for prohibited offensive weapons and theft by deception.

President Judge Paul Yatron sentenced Sperow to 21 months to five years in prison followed by three years of probation.

When police went to Sperow’s apartment, they found uniforms and phony documentation for his pretend military service.

We applaud the judge, but also the detectives and prosecutor who did the actual hard work when they suspected Sperow was a liar. Many wouldn’t go that extra mile.

A few months ago we wrote about Canadian Clayton Donoghue when he was arrested for wearing military awards that he never earned as well as some kiddie pr0n. Well, our Canadian friends tell us he’s about to be back in custody after he violated the terms of his parole. Guess what those conditions were;

As part of the investigation, Orillia OPP executed a search warrant at Donoghue’s Mooney Crescent residence and a storage locker belonging to him. While searching, police said, they found several items related to accessing and possessing child p0rnography.

Donoghue was charged with possession of child pornography, accessing child p0rnography, making a forged document (two counts), using a forged document (two counts), breach of trust, unlawful use of military uniform (wears a distinctive mark), unlawful use of military uniform (possession of a certificate) and obstructing a public officer.

Because there’s always more to it than just wearing fake uniforms.

Juan J. Gonzalez is running for sheriff in Kleberg County, Texas and some controversy was raised over some of his claims of his military service. He was handing out these cards;

The problem is that he never deployed to Desert Storm while he was in the Navy. According to KRISTV;

Although he didn’t actually deploy for combat in Desert Storm, Gonzalez says that quote being a “Desert Storm Veteran” may not be what it seems. Actually, it means,”That anyone who served on active duty from August 2nd 1990 to present, is considered also a Gulf War Veteran,” Gonzalez said.

Although he was never deployed into that war, he was active duty during that era, from September of 1987 until April of 1994. “I never claimed to have war combat experience never, I’m just a Gulf War Era Veteran,” he said.

Yeah, no. I served during the Vietnam War, but I’m not a Vietnam veteran and if I called myself a Vietnam veteran, I’d be rightly called out for lying about my service. I’m also not a Grenada veteran or a Panama veteran or a Somalia veteran – I served during those conflicts, but I wasn’t there.

He also said that he is a Purple Heart recipient. Although it is never made clear where or how he received this medal.

Gonzalez received the Purple Heart Medal during his service with the Kingsville Police Department.

Gonzalez then questioned if where the Purple Heart came from really made a difference. “A purple heart is a Purple Heart,” he said.

If he meant for people to understand that he received the medal during his career as a policeman, he would have said that, not put it where it could be easily misunderstood and misinterpreted on campaign literature.

KRISTV.com | Continuous News Coverage | Corpus Christi

For several years, this fellow Chuck Palazzo has been exploiting the stank-ass hippies claiming that he was a Vietnam veteran who went back to Vietnam to deal with his PTSD. He’s been living in Da Nang where he claimed that he patrolled the outskirts of that city as a Recon Marine in the early 70s, like in this PBS article;

He’s also written a number of articles on the effects of Agent Orange on the local Vietnamese for those cranks at Veterans Today. His crowning achievement, though, seems to be fleecing Veterans For Peace Chapter 160 in Vietnam for several thousand dollars according to Vietnam Express;

This July, Drew Brown, a photographer, journalist and veteran of the U.S. invasion of Panama sent out a letter to members of the Veterans for Peace Chapter 160 accusing Palazzo of lying about his experience in the U.S. Marine Corps.

“Palazzo’s a total fraud,” Brown told VnExpress International when reached on his cell phone in Byron, Georgia.

Brown wrote that he decided to share the findings of his investigation into Palazzo’s military record after receiving a letter from two VFP 160 members announcing that Palazzo had “stolen practically all of chapter 160’s money.”

Brown wrote that he first met Palazzo in 2012 while writing a story on him for McClatchy newspapers.

“Palazzo told me that his recon team had been sent regularly into North Vietnam to locate and ‘take out’ surface to air missile sites,” he wrote in his letter. “He also told me that he had been exposed to Agent Orange when a U.S. helicopter sprayed defoliant nearby while his team was on a mission in the hills near Da Nang […] Palazzo later claimed in a February 2013 interview, for which I shot the pictures, that he had also parachuted into combat on several occasions.”

Profiles offering a similar account of Palazzo’s life have appeared in the Guardian, Bloomberg, The New Yorker and in the Vietnamese media.

Brown says that Palazzo duped them all.

This is from a VFP bio for their annual trek to Vietnam;

Yeah, the real truth is that Palazzo was a Marine 1971- 1975. From his enlistment until September 1972, he was a General Warehouse Man at Camp Lejeune. In September 1972, he went to the Support Company, Support Battalion, 3rd Force Service Regiment Fleet Marine Force, Pacific as a legal clerk. By the time he got there, 3rd Force Service Regiment was in Okinawa. In October, 1973, he returned to El Toro, California as a legal chief where he stayed until he was discharged – no Vietnam;

No Marine Recon training, no parachute training, no service in Vietnam.

Of course, finding a phony veteran among the stank-ass hippies of the VFP is nothing new for us. We’ve been doing that for a decade;

Brown says he initially planned to keep the information to himself for fear that he might cause strife among the veterans community.

“Had I come forward a year ago, when I finally realized that my project with him had really been nothing more than a vehicle to fund his living expenses for a year, then perhaps his embezzlement of Chapter 160’s money might have come to light sooner,” he wrote. “I sincerely regret not doing so.”

VFP isn’t really the “veterans community” per se, they’re just a bunch of stank-ass hippies who love people who will say that which is politically expedient for them. Remember Jaymond Polk?

There’s no Vietnamese prosecutor to get Palazzo arrested, so the only thing Brown could have done was expose him and cut off his funding – but that’s a tough decision to expect from a stank-ass hippie.

The other day, we talked about the sentencing of Paul Tillson of New Jersey for defrauding the Department of Veterans’ Affairs of tens of thousands of dollars based on his lies. Well, I got a copy of the sentencing agreement and it looks like he will indeed pay restitution;

In addition, Paul Tillson agrees to make full restitution for all losses resulting from the offense of conviction or from the scheme, conspiracy, or pattern of criminal activity underlying that offense, to Department of Veterans Affairs in the amount of $150,164.

We also got a copy of the VA OIG investigator’s statement and Paul’s lies go far beyond his uniform. We already knew from his records that he didn’t arrive in Kuwait until four months after the Gulf War in July 1991. But to hear him tell the VA doctors, it was still going on when he got there.

As reflected in the reports from the Compensation Exam, the VA diagnosed TILLSON with PTSD based upon his claim that he had engaged in a “dead body detail” while serving in the Kuwait Tour and that during this assignment, a decomposed enemy body fell on him in a dark tunnel. TILLSON claimed that he experienced “flashbacks” and nightmares from this incident.

On or about June 30, 1997, TILLSON underwent an additional Compensation Exam. During this Compensation Exam, TILLSON reported that while serving in the Kuwait Tour, an Iraqi soldier came toward him with a white rag tied to the end of his rifle and, instead of surrendering, the Iraqi soldier shot the lieutenant standing next to TILLSON (the ”Shooting Incident”). TILLSON claimed that he then opened fire and shot approximately 50 Iraqis.

TILLSON also claimed that, during the Kuwait Tour, he was subjected to “constant” incoming rounds and that he was involved in rounding up prisoners.

That claim was denied in 1998, so he went back for another shot;

As a result, TILLSON submitted an additional “Statement in Support of Claim” dated May 16, 2002 in which he stated, among other things, that he was “not sure of the date” of the Shooting Incident. TILLSON claimed that the Shooting Incident caused a Humvee to crash and tip over, resulting in the death of another U.S. soldier named Tyrone Bowers (“Bowers”).

TILLSON stated that the VA could attempt to identify the date of the Shooting Incident by looking up the Bowers death. TILLSON also indicated that a “Jack Hisson” and “Jack Jones” served on this assignment with him.

[…]

Law enforcement interviewed TILLSON’s commanding officer during the Kuwait Tour (the “CO”). The CO was TILLSON’s direct supervisor during the Kuwait Tour. The CO confirmed that TILLSON’s responsibilities in the HMSC were limited to administrative tasks. CO stated, in substance and in part and among other things, that he had never heard of a “dead body detail” and was not aware of any of the soldiers in the HMSC engaging in one.

The investigation revealed that Tyrone Bowers, the soldier who TILLSON claimed was killed during a shoot-out with Iraqi soldiers (i.e., the Shooting Incident), died in Saudi Arabia as a result of a motor vehicle accident that was unrelated to combat. Additionally, the OIG has not found any evidence that a “Jack Hisson” and/or “Jack Jones” served in the HMSC during the Kuwait Tour, as TILLSON claimed.

So Tillson doubled down on the dumb;

Contrary to prior statements made to the VA that Tyrone Bowers died in a HUMV accident during a shootout with Iraqi soldiers, TILLSON stated, in substance and in part and among other things, that he and Bowers were in a tunnel in Kuwait and Bowers stuck his head out of the tunnel and was shot and killed.

The OIG talked to Tillson’s First Sergeant;

Law enforcement interviewed an individual who served as a First Sergeant in the HMSC during the Kuwait Tour (the “FS”) and who had frequent interaction with TILLSON. The FS stated, in substance and in part and among other things, that he never saw TILLSON carry a weapon and that he did not believe that TILLSON ever engaged the enemy during the Kuwait Tour, let alone shoot multiple individuals.

I commend the VA OIG for thier work on this guy. If ever there was someone who needed to be caught, it was this guy – now if only they’ll go after Joseph Cryer.