Another military imposter
Seems there’s a rash of military impostors, although this one certainly differs in kind and degree from the Blumenthal case:
A Texas man with no military experience managed to trick the Army into letting him enter a reserve unit as a noncommissioned officer earlier this year, putting an untrained soldier in a leadership position in a time of war…
We don’t know exactly how Jesse Bernard Johnston III managed to deceive the army or what documentation he used, so we don’t know how great their negligence may have been in failing to properly check him out. But it is very troubling indeed. One would think that, in this day of heavy computerization of records, this sort of thing would be impossible. Apparently not.
I’m not familiar with the case, but he might have been a wayward genius like Frederick Waldo Demara, the Great Impostor of the forties and fifties, who could actually perform the job successfully once he got it. But I agree, it is disturbing.
I can top this story. There’s this unbelievable tale of how hundreds of millions of voters put a guy with no discernable executive experience in charge of hundreds of thousands in a massive bureaucracy, with no evident leadership experience in charge of a country of hundreds of millions, and with clearly no military experience in charge of the most powerful military the world has ever seen.
I know, this story is too absurd to credit.
As a veteran myself, I am furious at what these wunnabees and phonies get away with, at the bad examples they set, and their frequent perpetuation of the stereotype of the wounded and unstable, “psycho” Vietnam vet and his “war crimes,” and at the way their actions cheapen, tarnish, and devalue the service and sacrifices of those who really did serve honorably in our military.
I did a fair amount of research, preparatory to writing a report on this subject, and from what I found just rummaging around the Internet a few years ago, I got the impression that there are thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of these fakers and wunnabes roaming around and often prominent in their communities and public life, not only in the U.S. but in England and elsewhere in Europe. Often they have not served a day in the military, or, if they did, had low-level, undistinguished, rear echelon jobs as enlisted men, as personnel or supply clerks, cooks, or other jobs, usually here in the U.S., and if overseas, not in any war zone or in combat, or they received the basic awards for just staying out of the brig and they added to them, they “embellished,” often promoting themselves to officer status after buying uniforms and some assorted medals at war surplus stores, and in extreme cases, they also went so far as to alter their DD214 discharge papers, and always when cornered, their excuse was that their missions were so secret and “classified” that the government would never admit to them, and that there was no paperwork.
They were featured in newspaper articles, feted at local VFWs and patriotic events, in one case at least, gained admission to a supposedly secure Naval base, lectured grade school and high school students about their experiences–usually horrific and often involving massacring innocent civilians in Vietnam–as highly decorated POWs, SEALS, members of Delta Force, the Green Berets, Special Ops, UDT, LERPS, or other elite units, some received veterans benefits, including tens of thousands of dollars in compensation for the “disabilities” they suffered, and they generally used their status to advance to the head of the line for free food, drinks, and entertainment, preferential auto and home loans, and all sorts of honors and benefits as befitted their military service and “hero” status, and they sometimes ran for public office, citing their honors and distinguished military careers. Of course, too, all this macho crap and their “hero” and “warrior” status attracted a lot of female companionship.
I even met one of these jokers on a cruise as few years ago, an older, stubby little guy with coke bottle glasses, who very conspicuously wore a paratrooper medallion in his lapel, and claimed that he was a Paratrooper and a member of the very elite “Pathfinder” corps in the later years of WWII and in Korea, and that he had participated in hundreds of jumps during his career. However, when I told him that I did research in military subjects for the Federal government, he sidled away rather quickly, and never did tell me the specific unit he served with.
From my investigations after the fact there is no way that his story could be true. For one thing, according to the researchers and real paratroopers at the Army’s Airborne and Special Operations museum, there were something like seven major paratroop drops we staged during all of WWII, and in the entire career of a paratrooper–counting all of his training and actual combat drops —a paratrooper could never have racked up the hundreds of drops that my “Pathfinder” claimed, and, then, there were the obvious age, and height, and vision issues.
I agree Frank, that story is too far-fetched to be believable.
Next you’ll telling us this person, who never run so much as a lemonade stand, would be making major decisions pertaining to finance.
A few more pieces of information:
The number of people claiming to have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor is many times more than the current number of actual living recipients–91.
In the mid 1990s, it was reported that HLI Lordship Industries of Hauppauge, N.Y., a company that had been the largest manufacturer of military medals for the U.S. government, and the only company authorized to make the Congressional Medal of Honor, had manufactured at least 300 hundred additional Medals of Honor “off the books,” that were sold to a “friend” of the President of the company for $75.00 each, and that this friend re-sold them at various venues around the country, where they commanded a price of $500.00 or higher.
The company eventually paid a fine and was barred from future government contracts, but some of the medals are still out there, and there is now a penalty of up to $100,000 dollars and imprisonment for one year for unauthorized manufacturer or wear of the Medal of Honor. However, less prestigious medals can be picked up virtually anywhere, and the recently passed Stolen Valor Act of 2005–when enforced (there have been few prosecutions and such enforcement is often a low priority)–gives a mere slap on the wrist to phony veterans and heroes.
One would think that, in this day of heavy computerization of records, this sort of thing would be impossible. Apparently not.
How about the Harvard scam artist who made the news this week?
http://wbztv.com/local/school.fraud.charges.2.1700523.html
(Yeah, I know, the obvious question is “which Harvard scam artist”?)
Well it is refreshing at least that this poseur was volunteering to go TOWARD the sound of the guns. I suppose he isn’t too bright and just didn’t really understand the concept…
I had a high school teacher who passed himself off as a Green Beret in Vietnam. I always thought he was a sketchy little dude and never had much to do with him.
I had friends who just worshipped him as God of War, Mars, incarnate. They were totally roped in.
I provided the information to finally get him ‘outed’ as a fraud on POWnet. The internet clearinghouse for exposing fakers.
I feel good about that….
Here is a great site to look up the imposters:
http://www.pownetwork.org/phonies/phonies.htm
They are tireless.
It should be very difficult indeed to claim prior military service if in fact you have none while attempting to enlist. Maybe down at the local bar you can pull it off, but in front of a recruiter and his computer? Not so much. As anyone who ever served can tell you, the military, any branch, loves its paperwork, and all servicemembers build extensive paper trails. Even those in spooky units have them, just not as many people are authorized to look at the documents. Plus, recruiters are experienced NCOs who ought to be pretty good at spotting phonies. I’ll be interested in seeing any follow-up to this case.
p.s.–My impression is that since I did the research a few years ago, the number of web sites listing military imposters has dwindled, and the depth of the material the remaining websites present is not as comprehensive and specific as it was almost a decade ago. It appears as if the prospect having to spend the money and time to fend off threatened or actual lawsuits from those outed may be discouraging those private individuals who are trying to find and publicize all of the many phonies out there.
I too am disgusted by people claiming military honors they didn’t earn. But let me point out a faint silver lining. People wouldn’t be trying to fake these things if they were not considered desirable.
In short: in some bizarre fashion, being a retired combat vet has become cool again. Vietnam veterans, it’s been a long time coming, but it looks as though we’ve come full circle.
Now: when will Hollywood wake up to this? We have tens of thousands of genuine American military heroes, with thrilling stories to tell, which Americans would pay good money to see and hear about. I dunno, maybe they’re just not that interested in making money.
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
I just have to say you cannot always believe the media. you people dont know who he really is and maybe the story is true but maybe not. It happens all the time. the media blows things out of proportion. you must wait and see what really happens before you decide to judge. it is horrible for someone to claim such a thing but as i said you have to wait. you do not know him. It is hard to falsify such a thing and i believe that maybe some things were lied about but also not. i do not believe that all of that can possibly be true. im in the military myself and was almost turned down because of a surgery i had at 13. its not that easy. i think something would have been noticed. i know this man personally and i just dont believe it.