This\u00c2\u00a0is what brought this piece to mind today; an article about a former soldier who posed as a former Marine captain;<\/p>\n
For pretending that he was a decorated U.S. military veteran, 59-year-old Reggie L. Buddle of Puyallup must tend to the graves of those who really were.<\/p>\n
U.S. Magistrate Kelly Arnold in U.S. District Court in Tacoma on Monday sentenced the counterfeit Vietnam vet to two years’ probation and 500 hours laboring at Tahoma National Cemetery for posing as a decorated U.S. Marine captain and military chaplain in 2005 and 2006.<\/p>\n
Buddle, who never was in the Marine Corps, pleaded guilty in April to unlawful wearing of U.S. military medals and decorations. That followed an investigation by the inspector general of the Department of Veterans Affairs.<\/p>\n
After the hearing, Buddle, who served two years as an Army enlisted man but never in combat and never earning any of the medals he wore, apologized in court Monday and said he was ashamed, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Now, that’s just silly – this fellow had apparently served in the Army, yet he wanted to pose as a Marine. Why didn’t he join the Marines, then? The judge probably thinks he dealt out an appropriate punishment, but I disagree – Buddle shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near our honored dead – because he tainted every veteran with his BS stories.<\/p>\n
There was a book by BK Burkett called “Stolen Valor<\/a>” that was published a few years back that chronicled some of the more heinous veteran impersonators and their eventual “outing”. There are websites that specialize (or at least partly specialize) in busting fake veterans. SOCNET<\/a>, ArmyRanger<\/a>, and VeriSEAL <\/a>are just a few\u00c2\u00a0(it seems that no one poses as an Army cook or a Navy postal clerk).<\/p>\n
The gamut of fake stories range from John Kerry’s secret squirrel mission into Cambodia<\/a> with a CIA spook who had too many hats, apparently, to Jesse MacBeth<\/a> (fake Ranger)\u00c2\u00a0who claims to have committed atrocities because George Bush told him to do it. Most recently, of course, we have Scott Thomas Beauchamps<\/a>, who appears to have written\u00c2\u00a0at least parts\u00c2\u00a0of his war stories before he even arrived in theater.<\/p>\n