Category: Phony soldiers

Our pals in Canada send us this fellow, Lawrence “Larry” Patterson of Nova Scotia.

Claims he was a reservist serving with the 2nd Bn Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) Battle Group in Croatia in 1993. He solicited members of A Coy, 2 PPCLI on the Op HARMONY FB page, to vouch for his operational service and to validate the injuries he received from an IED strike in order to support a fraudulent Veterans Affairs Disability Award application. Not one soldier stepped forward to help an “injured brother” because, Patterson isn’t one!

Larry the Liar is not listed on the Battle Group’s nominal roll, he’s not on the chalk assignments for the outbound flights to Croatia, and he’s not listed as a recipient of the CinC Commendation… There can only be one conclusion to draw from that information, Patterson never served in Croatia with 2 PPCLI!

Any soldier will know particulars of their overseas service, and would be able to repeat the details in a heart-beat if asked. Soldiers remember the names of their section mates, their commanders, and the dates and locations of significant incidents. Patterson cannot provide this information nor, can any one of the dozens of soldiers we have spoken with vouch for his claimed operational service.

Sources have indicated that there are a number of ongoing investigations regarding Patterson’s fakery including identity theft and fraud.

He claims that he was injured in the Battle for the Medak Pocket in 1993 against Croatians. 45 minutes of background on the battle;

That didn’t work out for him;

Someone sent us their work on this Anthony Bradley Williams fellow. I think he’s a contractor for the Army Corps of Engineers, or maybe not;

Most of his claims about being a Special Forces soldier are verbal. Well, except this one. A picture on his Facebook page implies that his name was on the Fort Bragg Global War on Terror Memorial, but that he was only missing for a period and when he turned up they had to scratch his name from the memorial;

It has been said of him, that he gives advice to youngsters about joining the military and becoming special forces soldiers. Well, he doesn’t have any special insight into that endeavor, actually. The National Personnel Records Center says “Who?”;

This fellow, Morgan Joseph Werlitz, applied to join a group of Special Forces veterans in the Florida panhandle. They doubted his Special Forces and Ranger creds and went to our friends at Green Beret Posers Exposed and they came to us.

Looking around the internet, he’s made the claims several times. Like on LinkedIn;

At VetFriends;

The National Personnel Records Center disagrees with his version of his career;

It looks like his career was spent in the National Guard and the Army Reserves. Somehow he got a deployment to Desert Storm and earned a Combat Infantryman Badge, but then he got tossed as a private a few years later. He’s been busy, since, though,

But, no, no special forces training, no Ranger training, not even Basic Airborne Course – a prerequisite for those assignments.

Someone sent us an article about this guy, Delwyn O’Connor, in Fairfield, California. He attended an event where the Solano County Board of Supervisors welcomed home Vietnam Veterans. Delwyn, a Korean War and Vietnam veteran took the opportunity to tell the reporter about his time in Vietnam;

Delwyn O’Connor has lived nearly 49 years in Solano County – the first 3 1/2 in the hospital at Travis Air Force Base.

Those years were largely due to the 10 days he was held captive by the North Vietnamese in the summer of 1967, a period in which he was repeatedly tortured before he and eight others were rescued by a joint Navy SEALs operation.

He has lost vision in one eye, had his nose replaced and has had multiple operations because of the injuries he sustained as a prisoner. That also includes a belly wound he suffered prior to being captured, shrapnel that was removed by his fellow prisoners because there was no medical care available.

“When we got home, three of the prisoners committed suicide because of what they said about us,” said O’Connor, recalling how the treatment they received back in the U.S. caused the breaking point for men who could not be broken by the enemy.

He is the last survivor.

O’Connor, who also served in Army special forces during the Korean War, was joined by more than 50 other Vietnam-era veterans Tuesday when, more than 40 years since the end of the war and in commemoration of the 50 years since the start of the war, the Solano County Board of Supervisors said, “thanks and welcome home.”

SEALs must’ve been busy in those days, reading about all of the rescues they affected. But according to DPAA, there were no O’Connors who were prisoners of the Communist Vietnamese;

O’Connor has no Purple Heart Medals for his injuries, if you look closely at the hat in the picture above, you’ll see he’s also wearing a Silver Star…nope, no Silver Star. In the interview, he says that he was in the Army and Special Forces in Korea (he’s also wearing a Special Forces DUI on his cap), but, according to his FOIA, he was in the Navy soon after he turned 18 years old during the Korean War from 1952 – 1955. After his Navy service, he enlisted in the Air Force and he retired in 1982. No Army service, let alone special forces duty.

His FOIA says that he was in Vietnam, at Cam Rahn Bay Air Base – he was a loadmaster and an Air Passenger Specialist – not many of those became POWs.

Someone sent us this fellow, Christopher Piscopo who was claiming to be all of the usual – Special Forces, Ranger, combat veteran. He was always telling workmates about his sacrifices. Piscopo gets angry when folks question his service and he threatens real active duty types that he’ll contact his old friends at SOCOM and destroy their careers.

But mostly, he just pumps himself up to be a badass veteran. Here’s an email sample;

Yeah, well, no. He had 66 days in the Navy once, a long time ago;

Cacti35 sends a link to the story of David Bernier, formerly the CEO of Lake Chelan Community Hospital, in Washington state, who tried to cash in on a court settlement for members of the armed forces to recover the costs of the foreclosure on his two condominiums by claiming that he was an active duty Air Force airman and stationed in Iraq;

In 2012, two U.S. lawsuits against banks accused of improperly foreclosing on active service members resulted in a settlement fund, a part of which Bernier tried to claim.

According to the news release, Bernier filed claims for two condominiums he owned in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which went through foreclosure in 2008 and 2009.

“Bernier stated that the properties were foreclosed upon while he was on active duty in the U.S. Air Force in Iraq,” the news release said. “He also provided documentation claiming he had received the Defense Meritorious Service Medal and Citation for conduct in Iraq from July 2008 to March 2010.”

The financial institutions were unable to substantiate those claims, which led to a determination that the documentation he submitted was false, and then to a criminal investigation, the news release said.

Of course, he provided them with forged documents, about 200 pages – he also provided a forged letter from the National Personnel Records Center;

He told a special agent in April 2015 that his military service from 2008 to 2010 was likely not verifiable because he was assigned to a special operations mission in Iraq, the statement said.

“The special agent urged Bernier to help the agents help him by ceasing his repeated false statements.

Yeah, that never works, for some reason. They never want to help themselves. So, Bernier pleaded guilty last month in a DC courtroom and he’s looking at five years in the slammer for his attempt to defraud the settlement fund for nearly 3/4 of a million bucks.

You might remember that we talked about Gregory Owens back in February. He pretended to be Special Forces and a sniper. He was a retired Army Sergeant Major who tried to murder his wife so he could continue to cuddle with his girlfriend unimpeded. He was convicted back in February and he was sentenced by a judge to life in prison today.

An Army veteran convicted of trying to kill his wife and another person in Maine will spend the rest of his life in prison.

A federal judge imposed the life sentence Tuesday on 59-year-old Gregory Owens of Londonderry, New Hampshire. Authorities say Owens drove to Saco, Maine, broke into a home where his wife was staying, and then shot her and one of the home’s occupants on Dec. 18, 2014.

He had been fond of telling the ladies about his secret squirrel military career and how the Pentagon continued to send him on secret missions (that’s how he excused his absences to his mistress and his wife).

Both of his victims survived his attempt on their lives, thankfully.