{"id":85282,"date":"2019-02-27T11:53:07","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T15:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=85282"},"modified":"2022-01-13T20:32:27","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T01:32:27","slug":"how-to-spot-stolen-valor-cases-like-nathan-phillips-connecting-vets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=85282","title":{"rendered":"How to spot stolen valor cases like nathan phillips | Connecting Vets"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Eric Dehm has an excellent article about identifying Stolen Valor.<\/p>\n

1. The “Secret Records” Veteran.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Abe McNatt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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It’s a tactic\u00a0most often used by someone who claims a career\u00a0full of\u00a0secret-squirrel, black ops missions as a SEAL, Green Beret, Ranger, Recon Marine, etc. while telling you not to bother looking into their background\u00a0because their records are sealed.\u00a0Special Operators exist,\u00a0and the details of most of their\u00a0operations\u00a0will likely never see the light of day, but\u00a0each and every one of them\u00a0has a DD-214 which won’t give you every detail of every operation but will damn sure tell you\u00a0what their\u00a0job was.<\/p>\n

The SEAL candidate at BUD\/S pictured above, if he made it through, will have it on his DD-214 when he gets out. Just like Bottle Breacher founder\u00a0Eli Crane’s<\/a>\u00a0DD-214\u00a0will tell you he was a\u00a0SEAL and\u00a0Tim Kennedy’s<\/a>\u00a0will tell you he was a Green Beret\u00a0whenever he finishes up his time in service.If someone was\u00a0SpecOps, it can be verified and\u00a0any\u00a0claim that it can’t should end the conversation immediately\u00a0as the person telling you that\u00a0is\u00a0lying, full stop.<\/p>\n

Even before all that, let’s say someone is presenting as\u00a0a super-double-secret operator. Ask yourself this:\u00a0if their occupation was so hush-hush, to the point that there is\u00a0no documented proof of them existing within the military, why would they be willing and able to tell you all about it?<\/p>\n

2. The “Vague\/Exaggerating” Veteran.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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US Army Photo by Sgt. Ian Ives<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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This is a\u00a0tougher one to spot. A\u00a0recent example of an exaggerator is\u00a0Jamie Morgan Kane, an actual Navy Corpsman who falsely claimed to have worked alongside Recon Marines\u00a0and, like Phillips, was put on blastby retired SEAL\u00a0Don Shipley<\/a>.\u00a0The folks in this category, strangely enough,\u00a0are\u00a0often actually veterans\u00a0but use their military knowledge to exaggerate or fabricate major\u00a0aspects of their service to differing levels of believability. Take for example the case of this fellow listed\u00a0at\u00a0This Ain’t Hell<\/a>\u00a0who had an honorable 20-year career\u00a0in the Navy as an Aviation Ordnanceman, but couldn’t resist throwing on the\u00a0Trident and telling everyone\u00a0about his imaginary SEAL adventures and ethos after he retired.<\/p>\n

Phillips is\u00a0in the “vague” segment of this category. He\u00a0served in the Marine Corps, but\u00a0it seemed\u00a0had never claimed to be a Vietnam vet specifically, instead saying he served during “Vietnam times.”\u00a0Despite that tip-toeing he was referred to as a Vietnam vet in interviews\u00a0dating back\u00a0several years including\u00a0this one<\/a>\u00a0in Vogue.<\/p>\n

If you’re wondering how something like that makes it into an article,\u00a0consider this possible scenario: Someone identifies\u00a0as a Vietnam vet\u00a0to reporters when providing background\u00a0info\u00a0and then switches\u00a0to using something like\u00a0“Vietnam era” or “Vietnam times”\u00a0during the actual interview. The subject is then identified as a Vietnam vet by the reporter, not them, thus offering plausible deniability if\/when it’s revealed they\u00a0never deployed to\u00a0Vietnam. After all\u00a0they<\/em>\u00a0didn’t say it on the record, the\u00a0reporter<\/em>\u00a0did.<\/p>\n

There’s a rather simple way to figure this one out: ask where they were, and when. Unless they did their research (and valor thieves rarely seem to) those details will probably\u00a0turn into one of those “sealed record” deals mentioned above. But think about it, even if they are\u00a0SpecOps personnel, who wouldn’t be very forthcoming with very detailed\u00a0information like that,\u00a0if they have already\u00a0revealed\u00a0they deployed someplace like Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.\u00a0then they’re likely able to give you a general timeframe\u00a0and\/or region.\u00a0Or, as in the first category, be able\u00a0to\u00a0verify that they are a member of that community to explain their reticence.<\/p>\n

For the normal\u00a0vet, it’s not that involved or difficult. I can tell you, with\u00a0a margin of error\u00a0of\u00a0about 2\u00a0weeks, when each of the 9 Permanent Change of Station moves I made from 1998-2011 took place. I can also tell you the exact day (Nov. 6, 2010) that I arrived at my duty station in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. Most importantly I’d never have a problem with someone asking me to clarify that info, particularly if I’m the one who brought it up.<\/p>\n

If someone alludes to being a\u00a0war veteran or claims to be one off-record,\u00a0but\u00a0never actually says they were there and can’t\/won’t\u00a0give\u00a0any detail on when or where they deployed? That’s a red flag. It’s not as big as the “secret records” red flag\u00a0as there\u00a0could be a legitimate reason they’re not being forthcoming\u00a0but it is, at the very least,\u00a0cause to be suspicious.<\/p>\n

3. The “Barely Trying” Veteran<\/strong><\/p>\n

The easiest category to figure out.\u00a0You’re most likely to run into these folks in an\u00a0informal setting telling tales of their\u00a0amazing military service\u00a0and barely bothering, if at all, to get their facts straight. Or you might see them wearing a “uniform”\u00a0like in\u00a0the photo of the… SEAL, Ranger, Chaplain, EOD fellow above.\u00a0They do this because they are betting against the\u00a0likelihood of an actual vet\u00a0being around to correct them, or that\u00a0anyone will bother to look into it. So they just throw some nonsense out there with conviction, and the guys at the bar eat it up.<\/p>\n

With these winners,\u00a0a quick Google search will often expose them.<\/p>\n

As luck would have it, Phillips falls into\u00a0this category, too.\u00a0In\u00a0that same\u00a0interview with Vogue\u00a0last year, the former refrigeration\u00a0electrician\u00a0told the reporter he was a “Recon Ranger” while also seeming to lead\u00a0the reporter to believe he was getting teary-eyed during a prayer walk while reminiscing about his time\u00a0in Vietnam.<\/p>\n

The problem with that is\u00a0nobody knows what a Marine Recon Ranger did in Vietnam, primarily due to it\u00a0not being a job in the United States Marine Corps. To the untrained ear\u00a0it sounds very cool and, to be clear, those are both definitely\u00a0words that exist within the military\u00a0lexicon.<\/p>\n

Still, each branch has their little-known units and in this case,\u00a0it could feasibly be something that used to exist but doesn’t anymore. To check I asked several Marines I know, including some in the recon community, if they’d ever heard of such a thing. One recalled a running cadence, but that was it.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly,\u00a0it was\u00a0revealed<\/a>\u00a0that Phillips was neither a\u00a0Recon Marine, nor an Army Ranger.<\/p>\n

4. The Stolen Valor Hunters<\/strong><\/p>\n

It wasn’t the New York Times, Washington Post or even any military news organization\u00a0that confirmed\u00a0Phillips was a fraud. It was the man pictured above, retired SEAL Senior\u00a0Chief Don Shipley. These days, Shipley\u00a0spends his days treating wounded warriors to\u00a0hunting\/fishing excursions<\/a>\u00a0and exposing valor thieves. While he may be the best known, he’s certainly not alone Groups like\u00a0This Ain’t Hell<\/a>, founded by the late\u00a0John Lilyea,\u00a0the folks at\u00a0Military Phonies<\/a>,\u00a0Guardians of The Green Beret<\/a>\u00a0and many more are out there keeping an eye out for this sort of thing,\u00a0and they\u00a0are most often alerted to stolen valor issues from the public.<\/p>\n

If something about\u00a0a service\u00a0claim\u00a0smells fishy\u00a0these groups are\u00a0great, easily approachable\u00a0resources and don’t mind one bit if you reach out to them with a legitimate question.\u00a0If they don’t know the answer, there’s a very good chance they know someone who does and can point you in the right direction.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thanks Eric, well done.\u00a0 You can read the entire article at the link below.<\/p>\n

Source: How to spot stolen valor cases like nathan phillips | Connecting Vets<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Dehm has an excellent article about identifying Stolen Valor. 1. The “Secret Records” Veteran. U.S. … How to spot stolen valor cases like nathan phillips | Connecting Vets<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":667,"featured_media":85283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[183,389,391],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stolen-valor-act","category-valor","category-valorvultures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85282","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\/667"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/85283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}