January 24, 2006

Retired Marine corporal pleads guilty to impersonating colonel

By Joe Mandak
Associated Press

PITTSBURGH — A retired Marine Corps lance corporal pleaded guilty Tuesday to impersonating a U.S. military officer for a Memorial Day speech.

Albert T. McKelvey, 69, of Richland Township, told investigators that his lie snowballed and it became difficult to admit the truth because of his standing in the community and in his church, where he is a deacon, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen R. Kaufman said.

Military records show McKelvey served in the Marines from June 1955 to April 1959 and that he was honorably discharged at the rank of lance corporal, Kaufman said.

Starting in 1998, certain individuals — including some people from veterans’ organizations in the greater Pittsburgh area — started complaining about McKelvey wearing the colonel’s uniform at various functions, Kaufman said.

Because some of his friends came to believe he was a colonel, McKelvey “said he was caught between a rock and a hard spot … and only did it twice in the past two years,” Kaufman said.

Tuesday’s guilty plea stemmed from one of those times — when McKelvey gave a speech May 30 at a small airport about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh.

McKelvey didn’t immediately return a call for comment Tuesday, but his defense attorney said prosecutors should have resolved the case short of leaving McKelvey with a criminal record. The government has a program that puts nonviolent, first-time offenders on probation and expunges their record if they complete it without incident.

“He wasn’t wearing the uniform trying to get into secured facilities or anything like that. He was wearing the uniform to go to dinners and ceremonies,” attorney Sumner Parker said.

Parker didn’t know where McKelvey got the uniform, but said they’re easy to order from military supply companies.

“I think, not unlike many Marines, he was proud of being a Marine,” Parker said.

McKelvey faces up to six months in federal prison and up to a $5,000 fine when he returns April 28 to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Thomas Hardiman.

Robert Munhall, who coordinates 20 American Legion posts in Pittsburgh’s North Hills suburbs, said he had confronted McKelvey for wearing the colonel’s uniform at a Memorial Day observance three years ago because McKelvey’s rank has been disputed for a decade.

Munhall, a longtime friend of McKelvey’s, said McKelvey claimed he really was a colonel, but because he had done some classified work in the military, the paperwork to prove that was lost or otherwise unavailable.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/wtae/20060428/lo_wtae/3432186

A federal judge in Pittsburgh on Friday ordered a retired Marine lance corporal to pay a more than $2,000 fine for passing himself off as a retired colonel during a Memorial Day speech last year.

Albert McKelvey, 69, pleaded guilty in January to impersonating an officer after allegedly pretending for years that he had been a Marine Corps colonel.

McKelvey said he kept up the charade because admitting the truth would have hurt his standing in the community and at the church where he is a deacon, prosecutors said.

He had faced up to six months in federal prison and a $5,000 fine.

Military records show McKelvey served in the Marines from 1955 to 1959 and was honorably discharged as a lance corporal.

The guilty plea stemmed from a speech at an airport about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh where McKelvey wore the colonel's uniform.

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Fake Marine officer fined for ruse

Saturday, April 29, 2006
By Paula Reed Ward, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When Albert T. McKelvey donned the uniform of a United States Marine Corps colonel, he believed that with it came authority.

Though he had never rightfully earned the eagles he wore on his shoulders, he tried to use the rank to take over a civilian Marine veterans group -- more than 40 years after being honorably discharged as a corporal.

That was the testimony yesterday of an 82-year-old former Marine Corps sergeant, who is outraged at what the impostor did.

In January, Mr. McKelvey, 69, of Richland , pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of impersonating a military officer. Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Hardiman, who both chastised and commended the defendant, sentenced him to pay a $2,500 fine.

"He holds delusions of grandeur, a need to hold a title, a need to be something more than he is, which I find sad," the judge said.

Mr. McKelvey's behavior besmirched the uniform, as well as everyone who ever earned the rank of colonel, Judge Hardiman said.

But Mr. McKelvey told the judge that he never intended to mislead anyone and that a lie simply snowballed out of control.

"Your honor, I didn't go out there parading around like a colonel," he said. "I never intended to embarrass anybody.

"I tried to correct it."

Mr. McKelvey also told the judge that his crime had already cost him more than he thought possible. A deacon in his church for decades, he was removed from the post after he was charged.

"It's really wiped out any good I can do," he said.

The judge said that's not the case.

"Doing good doesn't require a title," Judge Hardiman said. "I think you've lived an exemplary life."

Eugene McLaughlin, who enlisted in the Marine Corps just five days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor , was less complimentary.

He helped bring Mr. McKelvey's crime to the government's attention, he said.

Throughout the defendant's statement, Mr. McLaughlin, of North Versailles , sat in the back of the courtroom listening.

Wearing his red and gold satin Marine jacket, he got visibly angry and then asked if he could speak to the judge.

"He caused so many embarrassing moments for the Marines," Mr. McLaughlin said. "He's just not a truthful person."

He described to Judge Hardiman his first meeting with Mr. McKelvey. He was in a meeting of his Marine Corps veterans association when Mr. McKelvey walked in, wearing a colonel's uniform. He told the members he'd been "ordered by generals in Washington , D.C. , to take over this outfit."

It took Mr. McLaughlin three months to figure out Mr. McKelvey's lie and eight years to see him prosecuted.

"There's going to be a lot of disappointed former Marines," he said of the sentence. "He's done so much damage."

But the judge said anything more harsh than a fine was inappropriate.

"Mr. McKelvey has had to suffer the public humiliation of this," he said. "As far as I'm concerned Mr. McKelvey has paid for his crime."

Before he adjourned, Judge Hardiman tried to heal the rift between the two former soldiers, asking if Mr. McLaughlin could forgive him. Mr. McKelvey offered to apologize, but the other man refused.

"Never happen," Mr. McLaughlin said. "I'm not going to accept anything out of him."

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 (Paula Reed Ward can be reached at pward@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2620. )

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From: "McKelvey" <pawest@fyi.net>
To: <info@pownetwork.org>
Subject: Phony - or Hero - or both?
Date: Sun, 7 May 2006 16:04:20 -0400