Heroes or Villains?

INTRODUCTION

CLAIMING VIETNAM PRISONER OF WAR:

V V A - Claims by members of  Vietnam Veterans of America

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Reported Claims of:
Medal of Honor, Other than Vietnam POWs, Son Tay Raiders, DSC, DFC, Purple Heart, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Navy Cross, SEALS, Rangers, Pilots, Special Forces, Green Berets, Combat, Vietnam Helicopter Pilots, Flying Tigers, DOUBT EVERYTHING, Don't Encourage and more.

APOLOGIES AND CLARIFICATIONS

Individuals reported as of 02/2012
CLAIMS AS NOTED 
#  =  on list over 15 years

Note: The names listed in the next pages have made VARIOUS or multiple claims
that cannot be substantiated or have been proven FALSE. 
These individuals are IN ADDITION TO those investigated and named in the book STOLEN VALOR.

Those with a "LINK" have records, news articles, pictures or tales posted.
All names are first checked here  http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/ if POW claims are made. 

Comments in GREEN are from information contained in military records (or lack of military records) obtained
through FOIA when requested THROUGH the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.

THOSE CLAIMING MEDAL OF HONOR
NOTE: In 1996 HLI Lordship Industries (at the time, the OFFICIAL USG contractor for the Medal of Honor) admitted selling THREE HUNDRED unauthorized medals for $75.00 each from 1991-1994. They were fined $80,000. NOT ALL of those medals have been recovered. Offenders in possession of an unauthorized medal can be arrested, fined ( The maximum fine for a criminal offense is $250,000, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 3571(b)(3) ) and jailed (up to a year). It is the only military medal that CANNOT be bought, sold, bartered, traded, collected, auctioned, exchanged.... EVERY Medal of Honor is awarded by act of Congress. Less than 84 REAL Medal of Honor recipients are alive today. 

G [2]

Location

EXPOSED

10/2008

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08 OCTOBER, 2008

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The 1999 letter

2009 file from NPRC

CLAIMING COMBAT STATUS

03/2009

Vet Admits Making Up Horrific Vietnam Stories for Benefits
NBC Connecticut
Golino also made false claims that he served in combat operations in Vietnam as a Navy SEAL and was awarded a Purple Heart for injuries he sustained in ...

Man Sentenced To 10 Months For Falsifying War Record To Collect Benefits
Hartford Courant
Golino claimed falsely on a veteran's benefit application that, while serving in Vietnam with a special forces unit of US Navy SEALs, he went through ...

09/2011

02/2012

Island County, WA. 

Dear POW Network,

Please pass this information along in response to the inquiry regarding Deputy FRANK GOMEZ, Island County Sheriff’s Department, Island County, Washington.

I greatly appreciate your interest in upholding the honor of the US Navy SEAL Teams, and your search for the TRUTH. Before answering your questions I must make clear that I am a private individual, not affiliated with the US Dept. of Defense or any other government organization. My efforts to expose SEAL imposters are performed as a service to the public, and in honor of my SEAL Teammates who gave their lives in service to our nation… men who truly earned the right to the title “US NAVY SEAL” but who are no longer able to stand forward in defense of their honor, their reputations, and their TEAMs.

If the name you provided is spelled correctly, I do NOT find a listing in the SEAL Database (end of WWII to the Present Day) for anyone named FRANK GOMEZ. I have also examined possible alternate spellings, and names with similar pronunciations without finding any that appear to be applicable. In point of fact there are a grand total of six (6) men with the last name GOMEZ listed in the entirety of the SEAL Database. None of those six men has either the first or middle name FRANK, FRANKLIN, or any variant thereof.

Unless he has undertaken the unlikely action of a legal name change (an action for which there would be evidence in the form of court documentation) since his claimed attendance at BUD/S training, and based upon the information you have provided, I can state conclusively that FRANK GOMEZ has NEVER COMPLETED SEAL training, and he is not now, nor was he ever a Navy SEAL or a Navy UDT “Frogman”.

When members of the Naval Special Warfare community meet others who claim similar service, but whom they do not recognize, there is a conversational exchange of information that establishes the bona fides of each to the other. There is no set formula for this exchange, nor for the information that is exchanged, but it ALWAYS takes place, and the REAL Naval Special Warfare members can ALWAYS spot a phony as a result of this exchange. If Deputy GOMEZ persists in insisting that his SEAL claims are legitimate, I might suggest that you ask him these questions:

(1) Since there is no listing in the SEAL Database for the name you are currently using, WHAT NAME DID YOU USE during SEAL training?

(2) What was his BUD/S Class Number? (NB: No SEAL ever forgets the class number he shouted all day long, every day, for 6 months)?

(3) Where did his training take place? (NB: Training has been conducted at several locations over the years; different portions in different places)?

(4) When did he graduate from Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training? (i.e. a specific graduation DATE)?

(5) When did he enter the US Navy (a specific month and year)?

(6) When did he leave the US Navy (a specific month and year)?

(7) What was his Naval Enlisted Classification code –NEC– or Naval Officer Billet Code – NOBC?

There are many other questions which could be asked to further establish the level of veracity or untruth regarding his claims, such as asking for the names of other members of his graduating class, but those basic questions are absolutes. The answers to those questions are totally UNCLASSIFIED, and every real SEAL will gladly provide that substantiating information upon request.

I might suggest that you also ask Deputy GOMEZ to specifically identify WHICH SEAL Team(s) he served on, and when. I am in direct contact with several hundred of my SEAL Teammates whose collective experience covers virtually all time periods from the Korean War to the present; I can quickly contact those individuals to verify any specific names, events, or other claims offered by Deputy GOMEZ. If he feels that his name has somehow been mistakenly omitted from the SEAL records, I’d be pleased to speak with him and hear details of his service which would serve to validate his claims. The Director of the Naval Special Warfare Archives – a close personal friend and SEAL Teammate – is only a phone call away and standing by to amend the records if this is ever found to be true. However, I estimate that I’ve made the same offer to more than 5,000 SEAL imposters in the last eight years, and none of them ever turned out to be a valid SEAL.

Before any classified operations may be undertaken as a SEAL Operator, a man must first successfully complete the totally unclassified BUD/S Training program and the follow-on secondary training program; the names of all those who successfully graduate from that training program are compiled in the SEAL database. Later participation in classified operations has no impact on whether or not a person is listed as a graduate of the training program. There are records of every man who has qualified for the title of “SEAL”; there have been and will continue to be secret missions, but there are NO secret SEALs… we know them all.

Respectfully,

Steve Robinson RM2(SEAL)
USN 1970-1978SEAL Team ONE
Inshore Undersea Warfare Group ONE
Defense Analyst – Soviet Threat specialization1981-1993
UDT-SEAL Association - MemberPOW Network
Board of Directors
Naval Special Warfare Archives - SOF
Analyst/Contributing Journalist
Disabled American Veterans - Life Member
FORMER Special Investigator - SEAL
Authentication Team
CyberSEALs.org - Webmaster
Author - "NO GUTS, NO GLORY - Unmasking Navy SEAL Imposters"

MORE OF THE STORY

Person 1
     
UPDATE - http://floridaconcealedcarry.com/Forum/showthread.php?12779-SUV-with-weapons-tries-to-enter-MacDill-AFB&p=159608
......Christopher P. Kilburn, 26, was assigned to Fort Riley on April 30, 2009. He was reported AWOL on April 6 and dropped from the personnel rolls of the unit May 6, according to a news release from Fort Riley.......

Person 2 = Micah Goodier

He has promoted himself as a highly qualified doctor who learned leadership and stability under fire while serving in such high-risk, notable battles. He has made a reputation for himself as a doctor who saw firsthand the horror of war while holding dying Marines and Green Berets in Vietnam. 

Claims to have thrown away the four purple hearts, silver star, Navy Cross, and other medals he received in Vietnam. Many people know him as a bitter Vietnam Vet who has seen so much horror that he regularly lectures people on it.

He  continues to tell them to people he meets how he had been a backup support team to Bob Kerry in the free-fire incident that was so damaging and that the truth of the matter was Kerry and his team had slaughtered an entire village - not just a few Vietnamese.

Furthermore, claims he was once an Olympic alternate, a former bodyguard to Menachem Begin and one of the wounded bodyguards who threw himself in front of Anwar Sadat. His license plates "Force Recon".

Classic Homes
5800 N. W Street
Pensacola FL.

08/2011

Claims and Obit - yes - obit...... HE IS NOT DEAD

Claims to be a Navy Seal and involved in many secret missions behind enemy lines during the Gulf War. 

QUESTION EVERYTHING !!!

2001

2003

01/2009

STILL CLAIMING POW - March 2003 - Quoted in Springfield, MO, NEWS LEADER March 25, 2003 as "former POW." Graham was confronted in 2001 by his peers re his lies.

Woman says fake obituary intended to keep creditors at bay

A North Charleston woman who claimed to be the mother of a female Air Force officer killed in Iraq conceded Tuesday the officer doesn't exist.....

Reach Nita Birmingham at 937-5433 or nbirmingham@postandcourier.com.

Copyright © 1997 - 2007 the Evening Post Publishing Co.    

Claims to have been an army ranger but knows nothing about the school.  He has some fantastic stories about the 3 years he was in the Army.

Grasso: ‘This Case Is About Honor'

In an interview today, former NYSE chair Dick Grasso told Bloomberg ..... I wish to have the following noted for the record. That I served my country faithfully and honorably in World War II and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for actions in defense of my country. That I have never been arrested or indicted for any crime whatsoever... [what about those DUIs back in the summer of ’71? Do those not count?] that no proof linking me to any criminal conspiracy, whether it is called Mafia or Cosa Nostra or whatever other name you wish to give [“Mafia” is fine], has ever been made public. Only one man has made charges against me, and that man is known to be a murderer, arsonist and rapist. [Really, we think Spitzer might have a problem with this part] ...
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The blog above was posted at http://www.dealbreaker.com/2007/01/grasso_this_case_is_about_hono.php and contains a link to your story. My concern, what apparently is a quote from Mr. Grasso regarding his World War II military service. (The quote is NOT in your article, so I can not yet independently verify if this is actually a quote from Mr. Grasso.) If this is a quote from Mr. Grasso (“That I served my country faithfully and honorably in World War II and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for actions in defense of my country.”) I believe we have a major problem here. While my database on World War II DSC recipients does have a few “holes” in it, I believe it is 99% complete and accurate and does NOT reflect anyone with the surname GRASSO receiving the Distinguished Service Cross in WWII or any other war.

 A GOOGLE search on my name, or on the subject “Stolen Valor Act” will quickly verify my own credentials in terms of military awards, and those who claim unearned military honors. You may want to:

1) Verify from the record if Mr. Grasso has claimed to have earned the DSC, and if that is correct:

2) Endeavor to verify that award through military records.

My believe is you will not find any record of him receiving the DSC, which would make any such fraudulent claim to such since President Bush signed the Stolen Valor Act on December 20, 2006, a Federal Offense and would certainly add a SERIOUS complication to the matters facing the former head of the NYSE.

Feel free to contact me at any time if you have questions or need more information.

—Gulf War veteran Felton Lamar Gray told a VA psychologist he was spattered with "blood and chunks of head" when his "best friend" was shot in the face in Iraq. But only after the VA rated Gray 100 percent disabled did anyone check into his stories—and discover the comrade he spoke of is very much alive and said he barely knew Gray. .......

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In a 2 MAY article carried in the 15 MAY Bulletin, the Associated Press reported ..... The newly available records show that Gray's case was reviewed in 1999 by a VA rating board, which recommended that his benefits be stopped because his testimony about events during his military service had "been discredited."  The rating board's findings were submitted to the VA's Compensation and Pension Service, which conducted an administrative review. In 2000, the Compensation and Pension Service overruled the rating board, deciding that even though Gray's original application may not have been accurate, "The evidence in file does not establish clear error in the grant of service connection for PTSD."
[Source: AP article 17 May 2010 ++]
 

Hanoi Jane Fonda