From: "Doug Sterner" <Doug@HomeOfHeroes.com>
Subject: What
With the Media fascination with Strandlof???
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2009 20:47:52 -0600
In
June of this year, Colorado Veterans learned that Rick Glen Strandlof (AKA:
Rick Duncan, a high profile and politically active former Marine Captain and
Iraq War Veteran was a phony who had never served in the military and it
became national news. (Following an interview by Anderson Cooper on CNN, in
fact, I had the opportunity to speak with Cooper about Strandlof’s fraud. On
October 1, the U.S. Attorney for Colorado filed charges against Strandlof for
falsely claiming to have received the Silver Star and Purple Heart and it was
once again national news. On October 9, Strandlof was arrested in San Diego,
and once again it is quickly becoming BIG and National News.
I
shake my head in disbelief and have to ask, “What is the fascination with
Strandlof?” Compared to the multiple such cases I and others like me (for
instance the POW Network) get every week, Strandlof is minor.
Two
weeks before Strandlof was charged, the U.S. Attorney for Eastern California
filed Stolen Valor charges against Kenneth Jerome Nelson for falsely claiming
to have earned the Silver Star and THREE Purple Hearts. Ironically, other than
a story in “Marine Corps Times” (http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/10/Marine_fakercharges_nelson_100109w/
) not a word has been written about Nelson. Doubly Ironic because the two
cases are quite similar, with Nelson’s being WORSE in my opinion:
|
Glen
Strandlof |
|
|
Claimed
to have earned the Silver Star and Purple Heart in the War on
Terrorism |
Claimed
to have earned the Silver Star and THREE Purple Hearts in Vietnam. In
some accounts he may have also claimed to have earned the Navy Cross
and…WORSE than Strandlof, we have a photo of Nelson WEARING the
unearned awards. |
|
Was
widely known and respected in Colorado as a hard-working Veterans
Advocate who did “a lot of good things.” |
Was
widely known and respected in California as the “Unofficial keeper
of the CA State Vietnam War Memorial,” doing much good to honor
veterans for more than a decade. |
|
Was
repeatedly covered as a Veterans Activist in print and broadcast
media. |
Was
repeatedly covered in glowing print and broadcast stories, including
this story in the “Sacramento Bee” on January 13, 2008, which put
him on our radar: |
|
Duped
numerous politicians with whom he campaigned and did campaign ads for
in the last election cycle. |
Duped
the entire California State Senate according to the “Sacramento
Bee” which noted: “Such
vigilance hasn't gone unnoticed. Or unrecognized. Veteran groups have
applauded him. The state
Senate issued a glowing resolution.” |
|
In
fact, Glen Strandlof had never graduated from the Naval Academy, never
served in Iraq…never been a Marine or served in any branch of serice. |
Kenneth
Nelson did serve in the Marines…for about two months…never
completing boot camp before being discharged. He never step foot in
Vietnam. |
|
DIFFERENCES:
|
|
|
Glen
Strandlof was the FIRST person in Colorado charged under the Stolen
Valor Act. |
Kenneth
Nelson was the FOURTH Californian charged under the Stolen Valor Act,
and the third case in the Sacramento Area. |
|
When
confronted by the FBI, Glen Strandlof confessed. |
When
confronted by the FBI, Kenneth Nelson LIED: “during
an investigation by the FBI, (Nelson) falsely claimed to have earned
three Purple Hearts in Vietnam. According to the indictment, NELSON
falsely stated that he had earned his third Purple Heart after he
stepped on a spike and received an ankle wound while carrying an
injured fellow soldier on his back for 26 miles.” |
|
Do
a Google Search on “Glen Strandlof” & “Stolen Valor” and
you will find 494 pages…a NEWS search on Strandlof reveals dozens of
pages. |
Do
a Google Search on “Kenneth Nelson” & “Stolen Valor” and
you will find only 7 pages, half of which are not about this Kenneth
Nelson. A NEWS Search reveals only the “Marine Corps Times” story. |
|
Strandlof
could have been quickly exposed as a fraud through a quick check of
the Naval Academy Alumni website… |
Someone
trying to check out Kenneth Nelson would have believed him to be
totally legitimate. The “Veterans History Project” which is
administered by The
Library of Congress has a page at: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/bib/19726
showing that Nelson was a Marine E-7 Gunnery Sergeant who served in
Vietnam with the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, Mortar Regiment, 3rd
Marine Division, and who suffered “Service Related Injury”. |
Now
I’m all for what is happening to Strandlof…he brought it on himself and
deserves everything he gets and, based upon what we’ve seen in Stolen Valor
Sentencing in past cases, probably will get far LESS than he deserves. But
between the two, Strandlof and Nelson, which is more eggregious?
Here
is a page on Nelson (claiming Navy Cross): http://www.americasveterans.org/fvet/0802.html
From that same site you can go to: http://www.americasveterans.org/fvet/0702.html
and see the page for Robert Hooks who falsely claims “Hung in tree for 30
days w/o clothes w/o weapon. Tortured and used as a decoy to lure his fellow
Marines into the jungle where they were ambushed and killed. He was shot 3
times. Paralyzed.”
See
also the story the local TV station did on Nelson last fall at: http://cbs13.com/local/Vietnam.Sacramento.Veteran.2.482795.html
And
here is a picture of Nelson in all of his STOLEN glory…Silver Star and
Purple Heart with three Gold Stars. For even MORE detail on Nelson, see the
page posted to expose his shame at the POW Network at: http://www.pownetwork.org/phonies/phonies377.htm
So
what is the fascination with Strandlof? I sure wish someone would enlighten
me.
Sincerely,
Doug
“Congress
is complicit in the Stolen Valor cases we see in the news every week by its
lack of even taking the time to learn how big the problem is or how simple
the solution can be. Representative Susan Davis (San Diego, CA) seems to be
our biggest obstacle; as Chairwoman of the Sub-Committee to which the
"Military Valor Roll of Honor Act" is assigned, she refuses even
to give one hour to a hearing on this issue, despite the fact that one-third
of the members of her sub-committee are co-sponsors of the bill to fix this.
One would think preserving the history of our TRUE heroes, while quickly
exposing the myriad of phonies out there, deserves at least a hearing.”
Doug
Sterner
C.
Douglas Sterner
3111
Thatcher Ave.
Pueblo,
CO 81005
(719)
564-1755