The folks at Military Phony send us their work on this Robert Lane fellow who claims to have been in Beirut after the truck-bombing at the barracks on October 23, 1983;
Actually, he was half a world away at Okinawa during that time period. Funny how he doesn’t mention that he was a deserter from April – June 1985. And he earned himself a court martial and put out on the street with a Big Chicken Dinner (BCD – Bad Conduct Discharge) after he did 45 days at hard labor while in confinement;
We were hacked sometime today and they deleted the original post about this guy. He sent us a cease and desist letter yesterday that was useless. We have our sleuths working on the server logs to determine who perpetrated this Federal crime, so you’ll read more about this.
About three years ago we wrote about this Carmine Annunziata fellow who owned a clothing sales store (the Armed Forces MCSS) near Fort Dix, New Jersey. He was investigated for ripping off troops in the area as well as selling drugs and making phony military ID cards. He also claimed to be an Army major, but the NPRC said “Who?”
Now we hear that he has a different scam happening. He’s using a new name; “Luciano Benandanti” and he’s founded a Wiccan church “The Wiccan Church of Benandanti”.
Notice how his address matches the church’s address;
There’s much more about him and his criminal record at Fake Warriors.
Adam sends us a link from Holley, New York where 69-year-old Earl F. Skellen has been passing himself off as a Vietnam veteran even becoming the Post Commander of VFW Post 202 recently;
“As a member of the VFW, Skellen used his position of power to purchase a John Deere zero-turn lawn mower at a greatly reduced price of $500 when the value of the mower at the time of purchase was over $2,000,” a statement released by the Sheriff’s Office said.
An investigation by Investigator Kenneth Strickland and members of the Orleans County Veterans Service Agency determined he had not served either in Vietnam or for any branch of the armed forces at any time.
Orleans County Sheriff Randy Bower said his agency responded quickly to a concern voiced by a member of the VFW post.
Skellen is cooling his heels in jail on $1000 bond on charges of first-degree scheme to defraud, a Class E Felony, and fourth-degree grand larceny, a Class E Felony.
I might drive up to get that deal on a tractor, though.
Someone sent us a link yesterday to an editorial in the Jefferson Post by Ken Lynn in regards to stolen valor. It piqued my interest, so I went looking for the subject of the editorial – it turns out that it was Tim Espinosa, a local business owner. The Post did an article on him and his business in which he claimed to be a 14-year veteran of the Army and that he had suffered a head injury. He also had claimed that his business was veteran-owned;
The Post got suspicious about his claims and did the leg work to get a FOIA;
The Jefferson Post made multiple attempts, beginning June 27, to reach out to Espinosa and his wife seeking documentation of his service claims. While Espinosa claimed through his wife that he had access to those records, he never provided those to the Jefferson Post.
A Freedom of Information Act request was also filed with the U.S. Army’s Human Resources Command, which can provide basic information related to a service member’s career.
On July 28, that office stated Espinosa had never served in the army.
Of course, he denied it at first, claiming that his name was spelled wrong on the FOIA.
Espinosa did, ultimately, admit that afternoon that he had never served in the U.S. Army.
“Look, I’m sorry I said what I did,” Espinosa said. “I’m trying to build something for my family here, for my boys.”
Yeah, well, you don’t start something for your family built on lies.
I’d like to thank the Jefferson Post, Ken Lynn and Adam Orr for taking an interest in the subject. You don’t know how rare it is for newspapers to check facts on these guys.
The folks at Military Phony send us their work on this fellow, Albert Seely. He was easy to catch, because just last year, he was convicted by the Feds for defrauding the Veterans’ Affairs Department of $174,656 for his claims of combat service and some medals that he said he earned.
I guess six months wasn’t enough because Seely is back at it. This was his Facebook profile last night;
The truth is that he did do four years of active duty in the Marine Corps he left as a sergeant. He was in Vietnam from July 1966 – July 1967 and he served as an Engineer Equipment Operator. He doesn’t have a Combat Action Ribbon or any of the other awards that he claimed to have, so it’s doubtful that he ever heard a shot fired in anger.
Leopards can’t change their spots and phonies can’t stop their lies.
AW1Ed sends us the news that Chalice Renee Zeitner the phony busted by Scotty and his gang more than two years ago for being a phony soldier has been convicted of her fraud, according to Fox News;
Zeitner alternately claimed to be a Marine Corps vet, a race-car driver and an attorney from South Africa in an effort to gain standing with the Veterans Hope charity and Armed Forces Racing, prosecutors said. She then allegedly used those relationships to defraud other groups out of tens of thousands of dollars.
Zeitner also opened a credit card account using personal information from the founder of Veterans Hope and spent $25,000, prosecutors added.
She’s set to be sentenced on Sept. 8.
She was convicted of 11 counts of fraud and forgery in April for pretending to have cancer while she was pregnant so she could get a free abortion. This time she got two more counts of fraud added to her record.
Every few months she would email TSO with her threats of suing us for the post. So this is one more that we don’t have to worry about.
Here’s her forged DD214, as if you couldn’t tell;
Her actual records;
Eric Nelson, a member of the Aurora, Colorado school board and running for office in Colorado’s 42d District has been accused of stolen valor by U.S. Representative Mike Coffman who is calling for the US Attorney’s office to investigate Nelson’s claims. If Mr Coffman is successful in that regard, I have list of a few hundred that he can send to the US Attorney’s office.
Nelson posted the above photo on his Facebook page last month which touched off a furor among local veterans. The Air Force claims that Nelson’s military career lasted a few weeks and it was all at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas where all airmen attend initial entry training.
Brent Spahn, a retired Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps and transportation director for [Aurora Public Schools], first took issue with Nelson’s medals and decorations during the public comment portion of an APS board meeting in June. Spahn, who is also a graduate of the esteemed U.S. Naval War College, was skeptical that Nelson had earned many of the decorations he is seen wearing in the previously referenced photo.
“His ribbons are totally out of order … He’s wearing at least two ribbons that are medals that I would be shocked if he is authorized to wear those,” Spahn said. “I typically only see (the medals) on general officers and admirals — flag officers. Never in my 27 years in the Marine Corps have I seen a Major wearing a defense superior service medal.”
There have also been questions about Nelson academic credentials – because stolen valor doesn’t happen in a vacuum. This is what his bio looked like on the School Board’s website back in May;
It’s been whittled down a little lately;
This is probably why that editing happened;
In an updated story at the Colorado Statesman, reporter Ernest Luning confirms with at least one of the schools Nelson claims to have graduated from, Northwest Nazarene University, that the diploma he presented is an (obvious) fake:
Edwin H. Robinson, Ph.D., the vice president for academic affairs at the university, told The Statesman he had never seen a Northwest Nazarene diploma that looked anything like the one furnished by Nelson, and he’s seen plenty of the real ones.
“Thank you for your inquiry concerning the fraudulent diploma from Northwest Nazarene University,” Robinson wrote in an email. “Obviously, the diploma is not one officially granted by our University. The misspelled name on the seal, the mention of ‘Glassboro College,’ the wrong nomenclature for university trustees and officers, and the forged signatures reflect a very poor job of trying to duplicate a diploma.”
Nelson stands by his claims, of course;
“The photograph of me in uniform is from my past. My service record speaks for itself. At no time have I posed in uniform inappropriately during my campaign for the school board nor for house district 42,” said Nelson.
He identifies as an Air Force Major, so who are you to question him and his patriotism?
The folks at Military Phony send us their work on this fellow, Dustin Lynn Caraway, who tells folks that he was a medic in the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell and that he deployed to the Global War on Terror. Notice the picture above where he wears jump wings and a Combat Field Medic Badge on his cowboy hat.
Not according to the National Personnel Records Center. He was at Fort Knox, Kentucky for three months. He probably finished Basic Training and then for some reason he was out and on the street.
It could have been for medical reasons, but looking at his criminal records at Military Phony, probably not.
From his pretend heart attack;
From his pretend bout with cancer and GoFundMe;
