quote:

Originally posted by reloader-1:

quote:

Originally posted by David Lee:
So why would a moderately well dressed gent who must have been near 70 and his wife of similar age say and do such things? I believe he is ligit. I would like to know.

Why do people cheat? Lie? Steal?

If he was 14 at the beginning of Korea (HIGHLY doubtful), he’d be 80 this year.

He may well have been older than I posted.

I know a veteran that just received his Purple Heart from WW11 after 75 years. His records were lost.

If Navy, all seven Korean War recipients are deceased.

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
If Navy, all seven Korean War recipients are deceased.

He got better!



Not making light of the deceased (actual) MOH recipients, may they RIP.

I see a lot of guys wit da hats too,(viet vet, Korean ect), I says to meself I says ,,, anybody can buy a hat.

There are more fake SEALS than real ones, according to Don Shipley. The state of Georgia has the distinction of having more fake SEALS than any other state. Again, according to Don Shipley. Dean

Posted by JAllen;

quote:

If he was 70’ish, he would have been a toddler in Korea.

^^^^^ This in spades.
The Korean War stalemated in about July of 1952 and effectively ended 27 July of 1953. There was relatively little fighting after the stalemate because the "peace talks" were ongoing.
Working backward, even if you enlisted at 17 you would have been hard pressed to finish training and get on line much younger than 18. So your DOB is going to be 1935 or earlier if you were in any fighting. Mid 80's is most likely for most who fought there. There were 145 MOHs awarded, 107 posthumously.

My DOB is 1934 and I did not manage to make it to Korea 1953 until after the armistice.

If the man comes back to visit the market, I will see if I can get better information. I dont know all the military jargon or what branch recieves which medals. I also didnt keep straight everything the man said in my 2 minute encounter. Next time I will have my information straight before posting. As one who never served in our armed services, I have a tendacy to give the benefit of a doubt to those who have. And, I really have never met a person making a false claim. I suppose some have.

I met this man at OHare last Summer. He was wearing a VietNam vet hat and I went up to introduce myself and see if we ever crossed paths. As I got closer, I saw he had MOH recipient on the hat. If you read his story, it is very impressive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_E._Stumpf

I don't wear a vet hat or jacket. I am not ashamed of my service, but don't advertise it.

quote:

Originally posted by David Lee:
If the man comes back to visit the market, I will see if I can get better information. I dont know all the military jargon or what branch recieves which medals. I also didnt keep straight everything the man said in my 2 minute encounter. Next time I will have my information straight before posting. As one who never served in our armed services, I have a tendacy to give the benefit of a doubt to those who have. And, I really have never met a person making a false claim. I suppose some have.

I think many give the “veteran” the benefit of the doubt. Also, like you, they really aren't that familiar with the details of Services, medals, duty assignments, etc.

There was a guy who showed up at a Marine 3 star general in full regalia at a Marine Corp birthday dinner and got away with it until somebody started thinking how few of those there are and started checking. That was the end of that game!

There is nothing gained by making a public scene about it, in the situation you describe.

quote:

Originally posted by 225fan:
There are more fake SEALS than real ones, according to Don Shipley. The state of Georgia has the distinction of having more fake SEALS than any other state. Again, according to Don Shipley. Dean

That makes sense, I mean, you'd have a rough go of playing fake Ranger in GA. Even civilians would probably ask your class number and what's fur breakfast in Dahlonega.

Be like playing fake SEAL in Coronado.

quote:

Originally posted by David Lee:
So why would a moderately well dressed gent who must have been near 70 and his wife of similar age say and do such things?

Because they started the lie years ago and now they can't stop.

They used the line to pick up a girl, or impress their friends, or whatever.

I don't discount everyone with a Vet hat with a medal on it and as I said before, he could be legit. But 1 x MOH and 2 x DSC is rare as shit, if it has every happened.

Stolen valor is crazy common, unfortunately. Everyone's a SEAL, everyone has tons of medal, everyone is a hero.

When in reality every true hero I've met, some with very high level medals, would never mention it to a stranger in a 2 minute conversation.

Maybe you misheard him, maybe he mispoke. But lots of things in the story peg the B/S meter. Not 100% confirmed bullshit, but the days of everyone being truthful and taking those claims at face value are gone.

While you are at it, look for his photo here.


List of living Medal of Honor recipients

When I was at Walter Reed we had a Red Cross volunteer that said he was a retired sergeant major. As a volunteer he wore kakais and miniatures of CIB and airborne wings. Solid stories. He married one of my soldiers, then suddenly died.
His wife wanted a military funeral. Then we had problems. No retired ID, no DD214, his wife told me his 1st wife had burned his records. We even went to to personal command to dig through the records.
He'd never served. He was a civilian at Ft. Benning. Somewhere he started a story and it grew.
On a couple of occasions I dealt with active duty soldiers were caught wearing stolen valor. One gave me about an hours explaination of how he was "told to wear them."
My guess this veteran did serve but over time his stories have grown to when he now believes what he tells.

You should tell him that you are intrested in his MOH and want to read about it on the official MOH site. Then ask him for his name and the date of the award. His face will tell you everything, even if he gives you a name.

Have the 7 names of the 7 MOH recipients from the Korean war in your back pocket. He'll either give you the name of a dead guy, a false name, or make excuses why his name isn't listed (and not give you a name).

I’m not suggesting how we should or shouldn’t react to lies about military service and awards, but when we’re willing to tolerate it because of someone’s age, keep in mind that every false story people discover diminishes the credibility of the true stories. Even today there’s an understandable tendency to respect the elderly, especially when we know they could have been war veterans. Not everyone who served, though, was a hero or saint. That doesn’t mean we should create a scene, but don’t accept everything we’re told.

As for the opposite, “He never talked about it,” there are many possible reasons.

One of the most common reasons for reticence is that there wasn’t much to tell. The guy who spent the war at Camp Polk or in a Channel port unloading cargo ships is unlikely to have any thrilling tales no matter how vital their contributions were to the effort. Others may genuinely have found it too painful to recall certain details. My father was in three amphibious landings as a combat engineer and had the Purple Heart Medals to demonstrate it, but after he mentioned that his best friend had been killed in a foxhole next to him, I never felt comfortable asking much more. He didn’t have any medals for valor because although it was difficult, dirty, highly dangerous work, it was what all of his fellow engineers were doing as well.

Another common reason is the understanding that most people simply don’t have any interest in hearing about the past, no matter what it was. If anything, most oldsters who insist in telling their tales are ridiculed behind their backs—if not to their faces. And of course veterans’ experiences in wars long ago and far away were so foreign to what the vast majority of Americans know today that they might have occurred on a planet in another galaxy. Some like to try to explain such things, but many don’t.

quote:

Originally posted by David Lee:

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
No SEALS in the Eisenhower Administration.

JALLEN, I believe those UDT teams are the beginning of Navy SEALS.

The first UDT teams we’re Frogmen in WWII. They were some of the first Black Ops of their day along with the OSS.

quote:

Originally posted by Karpteach:

quote:

Originally posted by David Lee:

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
No SEALS in the Eisenhower Administration.

JALLEN, I believe those UDT teams are the beginning of Navy SEALS.

The first UDT teams we’re Frogmen in WWII. They were some of the first Black Ops of their day along with the OSS.

Point being, UDT members wouldn't identify as a "SEALs", unless they were one of the small group that transitioned from UDT and stood up the SEALs.

Should be easy for the OP to find the old man by the photos in the list of living MOH recipients.

Maybe he is one of those guys, maybe not.

And if he isn't and the OP finds out his name, I'm sure Don Shipley would be interested to check him out. http://www.extremesealexperien...vy-Seal-Verification