Media Coverage MAY 2009

Chicago Crime

Ex-Marine given 6 years in prison for altering checks collected for bogus veterans' fund-raiser

May 28, 2009

A former Marine on probation for a running a bogus raffle he claimed aided military families was sentenced Thursday to six years in prison for altering checks he collected while posing as a veterans' fund-raiser.The "despicable" door-to-door fund-raising scam run last month by 44-year-old Donald McCarver again took advantage of people who thought they were donating money to help veterans and military families, DuPage County State's Attorney Joseph Birkett said......



Ex-Marine gets probation for running charity scam  12/31/06

By Art Barnum
Tribune staff reporter


A Villa Park Marine Corps veteran was sentenced Friday to 4 years of probation and ordered to undergo inpatient drug treatment for running a scam that collected more than $4,000 for a non-existent charity to aid military families.....


McCarver was honorably discharged from the Marines, according to a DuPage County probation report....

Probation for vet who lied

St. Augustine Record - St. Augustine,FL,USA
White's public military records -- obtained by POW Network, a Missouri-based watchdog organization that tracks "phony" military medal recipients and POWs ...
Stolen Valor Act
Marine Corps News, news from Iraq - Marine Corps Times
Marine Corps Times (subscription) - USA
... which arrested and charged him May 8 with one misdemeanor count of violating the Stolen Valor Act and one felony count of lying to agents investigating ...

Possible WWII Navy Cross poserUSMC AR15COM

This thread is relevant to me My grandfather was awarded the Navy Cross in WW2 If this guy is a claiming an award he never received I dont care how old he ...

Possible WWII Navy Cross poserUSMC AR15COM

Possible WWII Navy Cross poser (USMC) - AR15.COM. ... obviously in their 80's The gentleman was wearing a 1st Mar Div ball cap with a Navy Cross pin and a ...

Colorado Public Radio did a half-hour program today on Stolen Valor and the Rick Duncan case, including interviews with both myself and Congressman John Salazar. Here are links to the online edition of the broadcast:

 

Part 1: Rick Duncan and Stolen Valor:
The Case of A Fraudulent Veteran   

Richard Strandlof tricked veterans, politicians, and the media into believing he was Marine Captain Rick Duncan. The FBI is investigating. KCFR's Kristina Tabor reports. 

http://www.kcfr.org/cgi-bin/comatters/comatters_play.asx?play=4907&type=comatters.asx

 

Part 2: Interview with Doug Sterner about Database legislation:

 A Watchdog for Decorated Veterans...and Impostors   

 Pueblo's Doug Sterner maintains HomeofHeroes.com, a database of decorated veterans, and reports impostors to the FBI. He speaks with Ryan Warner. 

http://www.kcfr.org/cgi-bin/comatters/comatters_play.asx?play=4908&type=comatters.asx

 

Part 3: Interview with Congressman John Salazar

Creating A Federal Database of Military Honors   

 The publicly searchable database would be called The Military Valor Roll of Honor. Congressman John Salazar (D-CO) speaks with Ryan Warner about the proposal. 

http://www.kcfr.org/cgi-bin/comatters/comatters_play.asx?play=4909&type=comatters.asx

 

If you have problems with the above links, you can access all three stories from the CPR Home Page at:

http://www.cpr.org/

http://www.csindy.com/colorado/camouflage-in-style/Content?oid=1361583

Camouflage: in style 

Richard Strandlof's local military yarn weaves into a national narrative

Callers to the Colorado Veterans Resource Coalition asking about Richard Strandlof are greeted with weary indifference.

"He has nothing to do with us," explains Vicky Pettis, program director for the Colorado Springs nonprofit that provides housing and support for homeless and disabled veterans. "The only thing I know about him is what I read in the papers."

But Pettis' employer has the misfortune of sharing much of its name with the Colorado Veterans Alliance, an advocacy group that Strandlof built around his fake identity as Rick Duncan. Strandlof claimed to have been a Marine captain wounded during fighting in Iraq.....

lane@csindy.com

Real Punishment For Phony Veterans

May 22, 2009: After years of pressure from veterans, the U.S. government is finally cracking down on phony veterans, particularly those who claim to have been POWs (Prisoners Of War) . Many of these fakes go even farther, and claim to be POWS when they claim disability payments from the Veterans Administration. There is a financial incentive to make the claim, but for years, this has resulted in an obvious pattern of fraud.
There are only 661 officially recognized U.S. POWs from the Vietnam period. About 550 of those are alive, but the VA says they are paying disability payments to 966 "Vietnam POWs." It got worse after the 1991 Gulf War. There were 21 officially recognized POWs during that conflict, but the VA is paying disability to 286 Gulf War POWs. For years, the VA claimed that they checked out the records before recognizing all these phony POW vets. Once recognized as a POW by the VA, you have several financial benefits (like not having to make copayments for medical services). Thus the fake POWs are also guilty of stealing money from the government. Veterans groups believe the VA resisted dealing with this obvious fraud because of unwillingness to deal with the resulting bad publicity. ....

Colorado Congressman trying to flush out fake POW's
KOAA - ‎2 hours ago‎
Mike Coffman of Colorado and Jim Marshall of Georgia have asked the Department of Veterans Affairs to investigate whether some veterans are falsely claiming ...

Investigation Sought Into POW Discrepancies
cbs4denver.com - ‎2 hours ago‎
Mike Coffman of Colorado and Jim Marshall of Georgia have asked the Department of Veterans Affairs to investigate whether some veterans are falsely claiming ...

Investigation sought into POW discrepancies
KKTV 11 News - ‎3 hours ago‎
Mike Coffman of Colorado and Jim Marshall of Georgia have asked the Department of Veterans Affairs to investigate whether some veterans are falsely claiming ...

Investigation sought into POW discrepancies
9NEWS.com - ‎4 hours ago‎
Mike Coffman of Colorado and Jim Marshall of Georgia have asked the Department of Veterans Affairs to investigate whether some veterans are falsely claiming ...

Investigation sought into POW discrepancies
KJCT8.com - ‎4 hours ago‎
Mike Coffman of Colorado and Jim Marshall of Georgia have asked the Department of Veterans Affairs to investigate whether some veterans are falsely claiming ...

Large Number of False CO Claims of POW Status
KRDO - ‎5 hours ago‎
Mike Coffman of Colorado and Jim Marshall of Georgia have asked the Department of Veterans Affairs to investigate whether some veterans are falsely claiming ...

Investigation sought into POW discrepancies
Denver Post - ‎6 hours ago‎
Mike Coffman of Colorado and Jim Marshall of Georgia have asked the Department of Veterans Affairs to investigate whether some veterans are falsely claiming ...

Congressmen seek investigation into discrepancies in number of ...
Fox 31 KDVR.com - ‎6 hours ago‎
Mike Coffman of Colorado and Jim Marshall of Georgia have asked the Department of Veterans Affairs to investigate whether some veterans are falsely claiming ...

Investigation sought into POW discrepancies
cbs4denver.com - ‎6 hours ago‎
Mike Coffman of Colorado and Jim Marshall of Georgia have asked the Department of Veterans Affairs to investigate whether some veterans are falsely claiming ...

Investigation sought into POW discrepancies
KRDO - ‎6 hours ago‎
Mike Coffman of Colorado and Jim Marshall of Georgia have asked the Department of Veterans Affairs to investigate whether some veterans are falsely claiming ...

Real heroism refreshing for military historian

http://www.gazette.com/articles/sterner-53895-real-veterans.html

THE GAZETTE

Doug Sterner is excited that a Fort Carson Green Beret is getting the Distinguished Service Cross today in a ceremony at the post.

Real heroism is refreshing for Sterner, a military historian in Pueblo who finds himself spending as much as 100 hours a week investigating phony veterans who claim high honors to boost their egos or line their pockets.

"The guys who really were there and really get awards, you could live next to them and never know it," Sterner said. "That's the difference between the real heroes and the phonies."....

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/05/airforce_fake_airman_050109/

Police say Air Force poser stole $500,000

By Sam LaGrone - Staff writer
Posted : Monday May 4, 2009 5:23:18 EDT

On April 3, police say, Isaac E. McCrumby strolled into a Target in El Paso, Texas.

He browsed the electronics section and picked up two iPods and a DVD player; when it came time to pay, police said, he reached into his uniform pocket, pulled out his Air Force ID and wrote two checks.

The name on the ID was Kenneth Stewart; the money belonged to a woman from New York....

May 13, 2009 - 2:03PM

The leader of a statewide veterans group who fought for homeless veterans in Colorado Springs is in jail in Denver today, unmasked as a former mental patient who posed as a wounded Marine officer and 9/11 survivor.

The man who called himself Rick Duncan - purportedly a former Marine captain and 1997 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy - is in fact 31-year-old Richard Glen Strandlof, a former mental patient who never served in the military and falsely claimed that he was in the Pentagon during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to David Walsh of the Colorado Veterans Alliance (CVA), which Duncan founded....



Pam Zubeck of The Gazette contributed to this story.

tampabay.com

Defamation suit brings skeletons to light

By William R. Levesque, Times Staff Writer

Published Monday, May 4, 2009

Charley D. Price says his is a sterling reputation hard earned.

He was Gov. Jeb Bush's choice to be external affairs director of the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs from 2002 to 2006. He is a decorated Vietnam veteran and a certified family mediator.

But as Price pursues a defamation lawsuit against four men he accuses of smearing his reputation with trash talk about his law degree, an uncomfortable fact has emerged from Price's past: .....

The rest of the story:  http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/article998076.ece

May 3, 2009

The Editorial Board for the Northwest Arkansas News did a GREAT editorial today on the problem of Stolen Valor and the need for the national DB called for in HR 666:

http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/Editorial/73097/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/5264565/Award-of-Afghan-medals-could-be-reviewed-after-allegations-that-citations-were-incorrect.html

Award of Afghan medals could be reviewed after allegations that citations were incorrect

Dozens of gallantry medals awarded to British troops who fought the Taliban in Helmand could be reviewed after allegations that citations were incorrect.

By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent
Last Updated: 12:18PM BST 03 May 2009

Major Robert Armstrong (right) with former EastEnders actor Ross Kemp

The disclosure follows the arrest of an Army major who won the Military Cross “for consistent bravery and inspirational leadership” after he allegedly exaggerated accounts of his bravery.

It is understood to be the first time such an investigation has been conducted by the British Army and could have far-reaching implications for the way honours and awards are “written up” by senior officers......

Related Articles

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090503/NEWS/905030329
Lies and fall of a tribe leader

He once told a couple of buddies that he had driven racing legend Carroll Shelby's brand new high-performance Mustang.

While in Vietnam, he said, he spent two weeks away from his Marine unit living with the H'mong people and learning their cultural ways.

And in 2000, he told a researcher that Vernon Pocknett, the respected and deceased spiritual leader of the Mashpee Wampanoag, hand-picked him as his successor for tribal chief.

Glenn Marshall could tell a fantastic story, those who know him say. But sometimes the stories were just that: fantasy.......

=======

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090508/NEWS/905080331
Ex-tribe leader Marshall sentenced to 3˝ years

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/05/08/former_wampanoag_leader_sentenced/

Former Wampanoag leader sentenced

Marshall faces jail for embezzlement, illegal payments

phony pows, allen breed, fake veterans, pow investigation, frauds in the military, bogus POWS, fake military, too many pows, wannabees