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Unfortunately, they're out there. It's sad the the accomplishments of our men & women that have and are serving are being used by unscrupulous people for their own selfish interests... I crack up at some of the "C.B. radio Vets"... I'm sure many of them served but "embellished" their accomplishments somewhat... Met one of my company's other drivers who claimed he flew F-4s and F-15s. He looked a little on the young side and when I asked him a technical question about the F-4 that anyone who flew or maintained the aircraft would know, he quickly shut up and left...
BTW, the FBI does investigate people who falsely wear military decorations or otherwise claim military service for illegal purposes!
It got so bad with people claiming to be Navy Seals that a group of ex-Seals started an organization to confront them about it. I'm a former Marine, Nam vet (just your regular infantry grunt) and I have run into a handful of fake vets over the years. It always amuses me when supposedly hard core combat types don't have a clue about the weapons used in the VN period.
Told a young guy at work that if a vet is telling you a great and exciting story about something he did while at war then he's either lying or greatly exagerating. He asked if I was at war and I told him Desert Storm and Bosnia. When asked what it was like I told him most of the time we floated in squares and only had a few exciting moments while the rest of the time was drills, drills, drills. We have a retired Navy co-worker who tells great stories and they all involve him being the hardnose tough guy who doesn't take s*** from anyone and always makes himself look good.
My brother-in-law was Army National Guard helicopter mechanic and he managed to catch a fake vet. Claimed to fly Apache helicopters. Brother-in-law asked a few questions and the "vet" shut up and walked away.
I am on several forums/web sites called togetherweserved and warboats.org and one of the things on them is verification. A lot of people claim to be in or with a unit and when the time frame comes up, other people will correct them on awards that applied during that time. There were a couple of people outed, and were banned from the site.
I have worked with SEALs, Recon and any number of other special forces. I was proud to work with them, but never felt the need to become one even by claim. I never wanted to even attempt BUDS, as I saw at least 10 classes go through at Coronado. I would have quit on the first day. Patrol boats were hard enough.
Guy I worked with tried to go through BUDS but returned to us early. His wife had a miscarriage. They told him about the miscarriage and said if he was on a mission he wouldn't be able to return home until the mission is complete so if he choose to go to his wife he could not return. He choose to go to his wife and leave the SEALs behind.
I work with a guy who says he was in the Army a long time ago but never gives a time frame. He also says he worked with "highly top secret material" and will never be able to talk about it.
Some of the ladies at work asked me once if I thought if he was really in the Army.
My response was, if he was in the Army and he did work with classified material and he will never be allowed to talk about, why bring it up.
Just say you served and leave it at that. Or say you were in the motor pool.
Some need that mystery about them I suppose.
As to the age thing... when Gpa was 12 or 13 (depending on who is retelling the story these days), his stepdad helped him get a job as a trucker (Chicago, nuff said). So when Gpa served, he was under 18. He was drafted, actually - though he was never deployed overseas. He said that back then, few folks drove and a professional driver was a sought after thing. Plus, he LOOKED 15 and always said he suspected the command knew. It didn't help that he had a big growth spurt during his time in San Diego... 4" in his first 5 months - shipped out at 5'6, shipped home at 6' - total growth, 6".
He had his birth certificate officially corrected in the late 80s/early 90s when he retired.
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Met one of my company's other drivers who claimed he flew F-4s and F-15s. He looked a little on the young side and when I asked him a technical question about the F-4 that anyone who flew or maintained the aircraft would know, he quickly shut up and left...
