Impersonate a veteran, go to jail...

[Nords]

Well, no jail yet, but the new law is on the books and it's being enforced.

I tracked this down through spouse's Naval Reserve Association magazine ("the other NRA"):
"Pretending he was a decorated U.S. military veteran, 59-year-old Reggie L. Buddle of Puyallup, WA must tend to the graves of those who really were veterans. U.S. District Court in Tacoma on Monday setenced the counterfeit Vietnam vet to two years' probation and 500 hours laboring at Tahoma National Cemetery. Buddle, who never was in the Marine Corps, pled guilty in April to unlawful wearing of U.S. military medals and decorations. Congress passed stiffer measures 18 months ago against pretending to be a member of the Armed Forces."

Apparently this guy was one of the more flagrant pretenders:
Man pleads guilty to posing as Marine | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA

Phonies: Buddle

... and it's good to see that they can finally be put out of business.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

i can certainly see the law makes sense in regard to military medics & clergy as there should be (i suppose there is) also such a law for medics & clergy of the civil variety. also it makes sense to have such the law for police & maybe even fire. but, outside of general respect, is there other practical rationale for outlawing military garb on those who have not served? would i be in trouble if i wore my father's medals out of memory to him? as a holloween costume? as a costume in a school play?

we had some people here dressed, i think it was, in florida power & light uniforms a while back who ripped a bunch of older people off. also we've had fake police cause some harm. to think that a bunch of people were married by the creep in the article you cite is pretty horrifying (note how i recognize that even though i'm not allowed to marry). good thing he didn't try surgery.

[Texas Proud]

This is one of those no win items...

Before, IIRC it was only if you held yourself out as a congressional medal of honor winner that it was against the law...

But now there are many people who give benefits to vets... and if you are not one then you are 'stealing'... I agree that is all you are doing is wearing it for a prank or something like that it is different... but you wearing your fathers ribbons is not honoring him IMO... he won them not you.. if you want to display them to show how he sacrificed for the war that is great, but wearing them makes it look like you won or earned them...

I would have a problem if all the guy was doing was wearing fatigues or something and it had some patches on it that made him look military but did nothing else... that is why I say a no win problem..

[Milton]

This discussion reminds me of the scene in Trading Places where Eddie Murphy's character impersonates a legless, blind Vietnam vet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Texas Proud you wearing your fathers ribbons is not honoring him IMO... he won them not you. If you want to display them to show how he sacrificed for the war that is great, but wearing them makes it look like you won or earned them.

Yes, I agree. Think Russell Crowe wearing his grandfather's MBE at the 2001 Academy Awards: tacky, tacky, tacky.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Texas Proud but you wearing your fathers ribbons is not honoring him IMO... he won them not you.. if you want to display them to show how he sacrificed for the war that is great, but wearing them makes it look like you won or earned them...

i absolutely see your point and i am not an army brat but what if i was eight years old and my father just died during duty and my mother placed on my lapel a memory of her husband.

for me this is a law similar to a flag burning law. i would not care to see anyone burn a flag but i also would not want to create a law to prevent it.

[14thMed]

I think they were too easy on Mr Buddle. He was representing himself as a war hero,which of course,he was not. The uniform is just cloth, but the medals are a representation of actions and sacrifice that left scars both physical and mental on the brave men and women that won them. He was using that sacrifice for personal gain. But I may be prejudiced-- Viet Nam 1971..#1 Son Afgan-Pak border for 15 months-#2 son Iraq. AL

[Texas Proud]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazygood4nothinbum i absolutely see your point and i am not an army brat but what if i was eight years old and my father just died during duty and my mother placed on my lapel a memory of her husband. for me this is a law similar to a flag burning law. i would not care to see anyone burn a flag but i also would not want to create a law to prevent it.

Well, my dad was in the army in WWII, but was a clerk stateside... so no real ribbons for me either... but I do have my opinion on the people who fake them being a war hero when they are not...

Your example as to the child is not a problem IMO.. and it is why I said it is a no win situation.. I don't think anybody would be upset at an 8 year old son wearing his dads ribbons at the funeral... but what if it was some bozo that nobody knew who came all decked out with 5 purple hearts and a rack of ribbons up to his chin And did not earn a single one of them...


BTW, it is easy to buy some of the old Soviet ribbons also... many selling them to get money... when I went to St. Pete for a vacation they were in a number of street vendors... one even had a real looking space helmet... don't know if it was real, but it sure did look that way...

[OAG]

Glad to see the law, and I hope "they" actually enforce it. You are what you are and you earn what you earn. BTW I vaguely remember some 4 Star Level Officer some time back that had to retire early because he was wearing a couple of unearned ribbons among all of the other earned ones on his uniform. Actually, I think it was a Navy Flag officer (help; Nords).

[Milton]

I think you're referring to Admiral Mike Boorda, who was discovered to be wearing two Combat "V's" that he had not been officially awarded and may or may not have been entitled to. But he didn't take early retirement, he shot himself.

At the time he committed suicide, he was Chief of Naval Operations. See generally CNN - Navy's top officer dies of gunshot - May 16, 1996.

[OAG]

That was who I was thinking about but had forgot about the outcome; even worse than early retirement, and, even if the V thing was true, a very sad, for both him and his family.

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Milton I think you're referring to Admiral Mike Boorda, who was discovered to be wearing two Combat "V's" that he had not been officially awarded and may or may not have been entitled to. But he didn't take early retirement, he shot himself. At the time he committed suicide, he was Chief of Naval Operations. See generally CNN - Navy's top officer dies of gunshot - May 16, 1996.

Yep, simultaneously the best & worst CNO we ever had. Rose up through the ranks from boot camp, was a surface-warfare officer (instead of a slimy nuke or a flyboy) and was thought to have absolutely no ego. Started a lot of good new programs and actually fixed the FITREP system as far as it could be fixed. A once-every-few-decades CNO.

Quote:

Originally Posted by R Wood That was who I was thinking about but had forgot about the outcome; even worse than early retirement, and, even if the V thing was true, a very sad, for both him and his family.

You know who figured it out? Hack Hackworth, one of America's most decorated veterans and a very patient filer of FOIA requests. He called Boorda's staff with the information before the interview and made sure they understood that he was going to be asking about the combat "V"s. When briefed about the upcoming interview, Boorda's comment was "Well, then we just tell the truth." It turned out to have been nearly his last words.

I think Boorda made one of those "Everyone in this war's entitled to a "V", right?" junior-officer mistakes and never thought about correcting it. By the time his staff got his attention decades later it was too late.

One of my COs had a different insider's perspective. A few months before his death, Boorda had the annual all-flag-officer's conference. Another flag officer (coincidentally a submariner) had just been taken to mast (!) for adultery with his YN3 and it was the culmination of a series of incidents among less-senior officers. Boorda is said to have stood in front of all those flag officers and scolded an empty chair as he would have wanted to admonish that wayward admiral. It was referred to as a "come to Jesus" lecture.

It's rumored that after the conference some other flag officer (familiar with Boorda's own previous liberty behavior while in charge of Second Fleet) made a call to either Boorda or the Inspector General and threatened to go public about Boorda's own past. If that's indeed the case then Hackworth's call may have been the last straw and Boorda may have felt that he had no other choice.

Boorda was also facing heavy media inquiries over his special treatment of an enlisted sailor who happened to be son of the SECNAV at the time. The young seaman was developing a reputation as a conduct problem and ended up on Boorda's Pentagon staff (where an eye could be kept on him) despite the fact that there wasn't an actual billet for him at the time.

One of Boorda's sons is a successful senior Navy officer, married to another successful officer, and by coincidence in 1998-9 they rented up the street we now live on. This was before we moved in, and when we started introducing ourselves to the neighbors we got the "Uh oh, not again" reaction. Apparently Mom & Dad Boorda were so busy with work that the teenage kids had already been brought home several times in handcuffs by the local constabulary. I've wondered how those kids turned out.

The thing that disillusioned me the most about Boorda's suicide is the example he'd been preaching. He never hesitated to portray himself as a member of the Horatio Alger club. He always claimed to be looking out for the sailors by righting the wrongs that were afflicted on him when he was a sailor. While that may be true, he never bothered to discuss a number of other actions, mistakes or not, that tended to tarnish the carefully-crafted image. I've learned that if you're not willing to discuss the ugly then you better not portray yourself as beautiful.

It'll be very interesting to read about Boorda in the history books 25-50 years from now. By then everyone will be wondering what we were fussing about.

ADM Mullen just finished a tour as CNO and took over as CJCS. Another surface warfare officer, I think he's going to turn out to be one of the best JCSs ever.

[Milton]

Brazen hypocrisy is nothing new in the flag officer ranks ... but you already know that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords It'll be very interesting to read about Boorda in the history books 25-50 years from now. By then everyone will be wondering what we were fussing about.

I suspect that he will rate a minor footnote, at best.