{"id":84748,"date":"2019-02-02T09:15:17","date_gmt":"2019-02-02T13:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=84748"},"modified":"2019-02-02T11:57:00","modified_gmt":"2019-02-02T15:57:00","slug":"what-is-stolen-valor-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=84748","title":{"rendered":"What is Stolen Valor?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What is stolen valor?<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

This may sound like an odd question being asked on a community site that highlights stolen valor, but the question is nuanced.<\/p>\n

It may be best to rephrased\u00a0to – What do you consider stolen valor?<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0The answers may surprise you.<\/p>\n

After screening a tremendous amount of cases, it was my hope that they would settle into logical categories.\u00a0 This would allow us to rack and stack them but maybe it is a bridge too far.\u00a0 I think there are general categories which I will attempt to define here but I’m looking for help in that there may be more categories or fewer, even all lumped into one.\u00a0 All of these are not hypotheticals since they have actually been reported.<\/p>\n

I’m soliciting your\u00a0opinion and looking for things like – “Well the law is the law but in my view any unearned medal claimed is stolen valor.”<\/p>\n

CATEGORY ONE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Violations of the Stolen Valor Act of 2013<\/a>.\u00a0 Claiming the Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross, Air Force Cross, Silver Star, Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, Combat Infantryman’s Badge, Combat Action Badge, Combat Medical Badge, Combat Action Medal, etc.\u00a0 Not all at once, mind you, but any one of these medals.<\/p>\n

It does not include the Bronze Star Medal\u00a0(BSM) or Bronze Star Medal with “V” device.\u00a0 Most of us would consider this an act of stolen valor to claim this.<\/p>\n

Jonn addressed this quite well under TAH FNG:<\/p>\n

20. Q:\u00a0What do you mean by \u201cStolen Valor\u201d?<\/p>\n

A: As used here, \u201cStolen Valor\u201d is a short-term for false claims regarding one\u2019s military service, decorations, badges, or qualifications.\u00a0 As such, it\u2019s a bit broader than the legal definition contained in\u00a018 USC 704<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

CATEGORY TWO<\/strong><\/p>\n

P.O.W. claims.<\/p>\n

False claims of “specialty” forces \/ spec warfare – Green Beret (SF), Ranger, Navy SEAL, USAF PJ, etc.\u00a0 These do not seem to be covered under the Stolen Valor Act but sometimes get the most attention.\u00a0 Perhaps they are the most common.<\/p>\n

However, have they technically stolen valor if not under the legal definition?\u00a0 Jonn addressed this well as pointed out above but this is TAH’s definition and not a legal one.\u00a0 Would a district attorney prosecute on these claims alone?\u00a0 Usually they don’t but if money was being made and that dollar amount is high, they will go after the case but often it will be prosecuted as fraud.<\/p>\n

CATEGORY THREE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Claiming to have served in a theater of war that you have not.\u00a0 This is egregious\u00a0but may not be a category because they would fit into category one unless, say, they claim Grenada and Beirut but did not go to Grenada.\u00a0 Have a Combat Action Ribbon and only claimed one but would not have two due to circumstances, so technically\u00a0they are not claiming another medal, but another theater of operations.\u00a0 Or, in the theater of operations in Vietnam but were not in the country of Vietnam.\u00a0 Basically, avoid claiming medals in Category One.<\/p>\n

CATEGORY FOUR<\/strong><\/p>\n

Claiming to have served and you haven’t, or embellishing your service short of claiming medals in Category One.\u00a0 These tend to be further under the radar but they do upset people that hear the stories.\u00a0 I don’t think this is a violation of the Stolen Valor Act unless it is used to gain money or other things of value.\u00a0 Is a one night stand something of value?\u00a0 Some would argue that it is.<\/p>\n

CATEGORY FIVE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Miscellaneous – claiming PTSD from combat but never served in a conflict, counseling people with PTSD and falsely claiming you have it from combat, deceitfully using a particular set of words – but not technically lying – to lead your listener to draw the conclusion that you were this or that or you did this or that, [fill in the blank].<\/p>\n

Private claims to immediate family – who know he or she is lying but forgive him in spite of it.\u00a0 They are curious enough to want them to\u00a0verify but don’t plan to confront the person.<\/p>\n

CATEGORY SIX<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wearing Army, Navy or Marine Corps bling but have never served.\u00a0 \u00a0I’ve often wondered – What is the difference between this and with someone wearing a ball cap with the Dallas Cowboys’ star on it?\u00a0 We do not accuse them of falsely claiming that they played in the NFL.\u00a0 This argument has a flaw, but I can’t put my finger on it.\u00a0 The wearing of military clothing is freely sold in stores and online – they don’t restrict the sales to people that are SEALs for SEAL bling, or Rangers for Ranger bling.\u00a0 There is theft by implication and this bling is usually a good conversation starter but is there something to the argument that they are wearing the bling to honor and show their respect?<\/p>\n

Then there’s the whole issue of tattoos, which may be a step above clothing, pins, and badges.\u00a0 Probably deserves another category but I don’t want to make this too confusing with too many categories.<\/p>\n

SUMMARY<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m interested in stimulating discussion on this.\u00a0 Should I look at categories another way?\u00a0 i.e. Claims that cause high emotional damage (i.e. killed villagers – women and children, lost buddies in Somalia, etc).\u00a0 Claims to leverage high-stakes (fraud)?\u00a0 Claims that gain low stakes (free meal at Applebees)?\u00a0 Claims in newspapers that may alter history when the person was never there, etc.<\/p>\n

“What is stolen valor?”<\/strong>\u00a0 – it’s a simple question but I’m guessing the answer may vary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is stolen valor? This may sound like an odd question being asked on a community … What is Stolen Valor?<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":663,"featured_media":84749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,183],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-stolen-valor-act"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/663"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/84749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}