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One of our ninjas sends us this tale of unintended consequences, and how complete strangers unite to correct a fraud on a hero’s record.<\/p>\n
By Jennifer Norris<\/strong><\/p>\n A moment that at first seemed like a highlight in the history of Robert G. Cole Middle and High School this month appears to have been founded on a fraudulent war medal inscription. But the initial mistake may turn out to be cause for the school to celebrate a donation from the son of its namesake.<\/p>\n At a pre-Veterans Day celebration in the school\u2019s gym Nov. 8, the school at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston unveiled a Purple Heart medal inscribed with the name of Lt. Col. Robert G. Cole. The medal had been donated to the school by a woman in Long Island, New York, who said she bought it at a gun show.<\/p>\n The school\u2019s JROTC Senior Instructor Col. William LaChance said he accepted the donated medal after failing to locate any living relatives of Cole. After the ceremony, however, word began reaching school officials that Cole\u2019s son was not only alive but also in possession of his father\u2019s Purple Heart, throwing the authenticity of the donated Purple Heart into doubt.<\/p>\n Cole\u2019s only child, Robert Bruce Cole, is now 77 years old, and resides in Bulverde, north of San Antonio. He was certain the school did not have his father\u2019s Purple Heart because he kept both that medal and his dad\u2019s Medal of Honor in a safe deposit box at a bank. The medals were awarded posthumously and presented to his mother at Fort Sam Houston when he was a baby.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody recognizes it for what it is: just a mistake,\u201d Cole told the Rivard Report. \u201c\u2026 Everybody was well-intentioned.\u201d<\/p>\n The inscription bearing the name of Robert G. Cole, it seemed, apparently had been added at some point to the medal donated to the school. Dishonesty surrounding military medals and honors is common, said Bill Crumlett, senior vice commander with the San Antonio chapter of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, a veterans service organization for recipients of the medal.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have seen an awful lot of frauds,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople that claim they have medals they don\u2019t have, but I\u2019ve never seen it where a medal was forged like that. That\u2019s really strange.\u201d<\/p>\n Bruce Cole said he doesn\u2019t own a computer and doesn\u2019t text or email, so the first he heard about the story of the donated medal was from his half-sister two days after the school\u2019s ceremony.<\/p>\n While he certainly was surprised to learn the school thought he was no longer living, he focused his attention more on the mistake regarding the medal.<\/p>\n \u201cI immediately knew it was a fraud,\u201d he said about the school\u2019s medal. \u201cAnd I just thought the school\u2019s reputation is going to be all shot to hell.\u201d<\/p>\n But as Cole watched news coverage of the school\u2019s ceremony, he said he also was overwhelmed by the excitement and reverence the school showed for the medal and the legacy of his father, a World War II hero who distinguished himself in the days following the D-Day invasion of Normandy. He was killed by a German sniper in the Netherlands in September 1944.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n We have the best ninjas. Read the entire article here: The Rivard Report<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"