whole record for the breakdown of the numbers. I think I have finally unraveled the great Vietnam Veteran impostors statistics. His first stop was the U.S. Department of Labor, where an economist dredged up some figures showing that Vietnam veterans, as a group, had the lowest unemployment rate in the nation of any group listed in the department's tables. 'One observation made in a number of cases is that the individual who is posing as a vet, in fact, does have conflicts about Vietnam war, which are being expressed in this indirect and disguised fashion,' Blank said. REALITY: He was a Marine football player in Okinawa. Khe Sanh was one of the war's bloodiest battles -- hundreds of Marines were killed -- but the only killing Yandle was intimately familiar with was the June 1972 slaying of 65-year-old shopkeeper Joseph Reppucci in a Boston liquor store. The Dennehy did play football for a Corps team on Okinawa, Burkett reported. His story was detailed, yet he under played his role. It starts off simple enough. Like the nonexistent Census data of 10 million fakers, this seems to be all totally made up by Shipley to push his own agenda. Russell lists more than 400 fakes--mostly Vietnam War impersonators revealed in recent years. used seem to have been gleaned from this 1995 census and it seems that everyone 'It's some sort of marginal, internal footnote to the Vietnam experience,' said Dr. Arthur Blank, director of the VA's Vietnam Vet Center program, which operates 188 counseling clinics nationwide. Committee votes on major defense policy bill expected in May, Military families share workout with first lady Jill Biden, US conducts first evacuation of its citizens from Sudan war, Ukrainian drones strike Crimea oil depot, Russian official says, Army identifies 3 soldiers killed in Alaska helicopter crash, Understanding the role of artificial intelligence, Mark Kitz keynote speech at the C4ISRNET conference, The latest on software, data and artificial intelligence, Army grounds helicopter fleet for force-wide safety stand down. does not seem to be accurate and my review of the census doesnt bear this out. 569 again lists an ESTIMATED 8.744 million active duty military personnel during the Vietnam era, here defined as Aug. 4, 1964 to Jan. 27, 1973. I retired in the year 2001. There they can find independent confirmation of my service as a helicopter pilot and aircraft commander.The other thing is that if you ask the impostor for names of places, unit designations, or other information, they are often hard pressed to come up with any sort of intelligent answer. Now, extrapolate that across the nation, and imagine the millions of dollars that this runs into.. Some individuals who do this also wear privately obtained uniforms or medals which were never officially . Smith calls the phenomenon the 'Tail-Gunner Joe Syndrome,' named for Joe McCarthy, the former flag-waving senator from Wisconsin who tried to rid America of communists in the 1950s. https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/ag-schneiderman-announces-settlements-vietnam-veterans-charity-and-its-founderNY Atty General: This Organization Took Advantage Of The Good Will Of MILLIONS Yet Failed To Fulfill Nearly All Of Its Promises To Help Those Who Have Sacrificed For Our Nation.If Beaton and the VVF are the original source of the Census claim, they are hardly a good source. Take John M. Iannone, a Pittburgh- area oilman whom family members said had it all and was even more admired for his extensive community service. I got wounded many times by the same guy. According to the American War Library, as of February 28, 2019, it is estimated that approximately 610,000 Americans who served in land forces during the Vietnam War or in air missions over Vietnam between 1954 and 1975 are still alive to this day. 576 (p. 15) has the number of Vietnam era vets as of 1994, listed as 8.246 million. and Capt. The 2000 census site at www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/censusatlas/pdf/12_military-service.pdf shows the claims rose to 8.4 million Vietnam era Vets. . Records showed the actor had spent his 1959-63 stint as a peacetime Marine, playing football for the Corps on Okinawa. VVA's national office has distanced itself from a nationwide convoy by vets to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. This is all based on his say-so with nothing to back it up. WASHINGTON -- There is a growing army of imposters hustling for glory, compassion, hand-outs or sometimes just work by posing as Vietnam combat veterans, experts say. Its all done for personal gain, he said. He was a stateside Marine. All you need to do is look at the numbers he supplies and his agenda is sort of like mine it annoys me that the fakers are out there spouting their nonsense. I explained that given the way some of this was explained on the various sites was somewhat misleading and I was mislead, but you have nothing to prove that it is wrong other than your own beliefs. Are there people involved in the Roswell case who lied? VA experts says others fabricate stories to grab attention, or in an effort to get disability benefits for bogus combat injuries or fake post-war stress. confusing and contradictory, but I think they were referring first to the 1995 Burkett might be accused of hyperbole had he not spent the past 25 years uncovering military fakers, often working with authorities whove come to view him as the real authority. As for phony Vietnam veterans, I still meet them all the time. Moskos, now 65, comes from a 1950s generation of young men to whom military service was a given. He talks too much.'. 10/05/2017 by militaryphonies. Military fakery is hardly limited to the down-and-out, however. Accounts vary as to how Daubmanns lies unraveled, but five months after his glorious return, he admitted hed never served in the German army. David -You said, "Kevin, the only reason I waded into this whole 'Stolen Valor' thing to begin with was because you used this Stolen Valor 'statistics' as justification for dismissing most Roswell witnesses, who you said you previously believed. veterans of which according to other sources, about 2.7 actually served in I asked the spokesman if he had a unit roster of some sort. that. I dont even know if it is bogus or The Schantags discovered that 24 of those were false entries. "In every statistical category that we looked at," he says, "Vietnam veterans were superlative -- their desertion and court martial rates were much lower (than in prior wars) -- and when I started looking at individual cases, I'd find vets who were valedictorians or football stars. For further reading, William McMichael recommends: Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History, by B.G. Vietnam. Very few served in Vietnam. Dennehy later gave a public apology. It doesn't seem to exist. He had been a prisoner, but not in Vietnam. I said that this provided an insight into those who claimed inside knowledge of Roswell. An informal survey by United Press International of about a dozen VA facilities, veteran employment services and vet groups found that all had seen fake combat vets in the past year, most in rising numbers. I never saw it, but returning friends told me about it.All this to say, for me, its weird. Don Shipley at his SEALs website Nothing had changed, and I saw that the damned press and the public believes this bull--. The 1990 census shows 7,646,908 claim to be Vietnam era vets. "I lied about serving in Vietnam and I'm sorry," he told Globe magazine this year. connection to a census though the connection is not identified. They shouldn't bother. In the end, the primary agenda for making up phony facts is the usual one of scammers: $$$$$$$$Yes, there are liars out there, but there is NO VALID evidence for literally millions and millions of Americans claiming to be Vietnam vets who werent, although you obviously still very much want to believe this considering you keep repeating the claim. I myself have met over a hundred "Navy Seals". who couldnt care less and to avoid another long and drawn out but rather pointless We should be tripping over them in daily life.But just to cite my own anecdotal experience, I have never in my life run into anybody claiming to have been a Navy Seal and only one person bragging about their exploits in Vietnam in Special Forces who I strongly suspected of being a bullshitter. Very rare and usually done by people looking for high profile jobs. 04 Both South Vietnam and the United States of America committed nearly 5 million troops into war. I think you can find fakers very far back, said Bella DePaulo, a visiting professor of social psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who studies the communication of deception. And he describes the hostile reaction directed at veterans coming back from Vietnam, intimating that he was among them. In this, he resembles the fake Vietnam vets, whose stories more often concern harm suffered and witnessed than bravery proven. and reports. Yandle apologized publicly and was returned to prison. Vietnam veterans' personal income exceeds that of our non-veteran age group by more than 18 percent. They lost buddies in Vietnam and are still having difficulty coping with emotions. By this census, FOUR OUT OF FIVE WHO CLAIM TO BE Vietnam vets are not.So AGAIN there is the claim in black and white. but then remembered that if you set foot in a combat zone even for an hour or More than 3.4 million deployed to Southeast Asia (1) and approximately 2.7 million of those served in the Republic of Vietnam (2). Heres Other still claim to be combat vets as an explanation for emotional problems. In the spring of 1998, Burkett managed to convince Wallace and others that Yandle was a fake. By this census, FOUR REALITY: Duke's only military experience was a brief stint in the ROTC while attending Louisiana State University. Someone says, Hey, Joe, youre of the age for Vietnam. Kevin, the only reason I waded into this whole Stolen Valor thing to begin with was because you used this Stolen Valor statistics as justification for dismissing most Roswell witnesses, who you said you previously believed. But, the former Ranger said, call this other former Ranger down in Pennsylvania; he was in that unit. David Rudiak was right about In truth, though, he only was a tail gunner in training. In 2007 the project listed 49 Medal of Honor recipients on its Web site. This is Very few of those guys were real veterans, but it's automatic and it's photogenic. aircraft into Vietnam had a financial incentive.) Yandle said he was at the infamous 1968 siege at Khe Sanh, surrounded and attacked for 77 days. As for the issue of phony vets: 'Those people have a mental problem. You can reject, out of hand, the 13 million figure and the military web sites that use it, but I have traced it to its point of origin which was a survey conducted by The Vietnam Veterans Fund and by Captain Scott Beaton so that we have a good source on it.I reject out of hand because there is no evidence to support the statistic, certainly not in the source ALWAYS given (U.S. Census). He also claimed the Medal of Honor. The VA shows on their site https://www.va.gov/opa/publications/factsheets/fs_americas_wars.pdf That only 3,403,000 served incountry in Vietnam, and that a total of 8,744,000 served in that era world wide. some study that ran parallel to the census. They werent. ", "This was real people dying real deaths. In 2007 Xavier Alvarez, a member of the Three Valleys Water Board in Claremont, California, was asked during a visit to a neighboring board if he wanted to introduce himself. (He was drafted into the Army and did his hitch as a combat engineer in peacetime Germany.) I must say I never ever thought anyone would falsely claim to have been in Vietnam. It is totally made up, apparently to push the author's and other veterans political or emotional agenda.The same goes for Don Shipley and his alleged 10 million fake Navy Seals. The Times Herald reported that Williams was a Vietnam veteran; one of the paper's columnists wondered whether "Vietnam did that to him." On a whim, Burkett filed a Freedom of Information Act. Claims/Comments; Bill Williamson from Maitland, Florida arose the suspiciousness of a Red Cross Photographer who was assigned to Vietnam in 1967. two, then you didnt have to pay federal income tax for the month so, ferrying So it becomes Although Blumenthal made a handful of false and misleading statements about having . Their personal income exceeds that of our non-veteran age group by more than 18 percent. Originally published in the March 2010 issue of Military History. These are a Lest Burkett sound like some wild-eyed zealot, seeking phonies at every turn of a Memorial Day parade, he likes to point out that he fell into this avocation by accident and, now that his book is out, wonders how much longer he is going to be called upon as the nation's expert in tracking down military records. 02 Up to 2 million civilians died in the war. was conducted in 1995 which is not to say that the statistics about the fake Vietnam veterans is in that census either. bio to reflect his service in the Vietnam era and before anyone says much In 1983, as the Vietnam Veterans of America was gaining prominence, it was disclosed that one of its spokesman was a fake ex-POW. At about 11 p.m., I remembered that local enthusiasts were reenacting the Normandy invasion on the beach at Fort Story, an Army base nearby. There are literally millions of them.You can reject, out of hand, the 13 million figure and the military web sites that use it, but I have traced it to its point of origin which was a survey conducted by The Vietnam Veterans Fund and by Captain Scott Beaton so that we have a good source on it. Never in combat, a Marine Times photograph depicts McClanahan spangled with three Silver Stars, two Purples Hearts, and the Legion of Merit. authentic though I suspect the number is close to accurate. When I started noticing all the Vietnam Veteran hats I was perplexed. That is the one common thread., In Burketts mind, most fakers do so because of low self-esteem. I've run into a half dozen in the last few years, that were to quick to tell stories of their heroics & actions.Too me IF one says they were a Seal, or a Green Beret, I push a bit. He brought out a shadow box filled with decorations and a folded flag; his kids had made it for him, he said. The share of veterans ages 50 to 69 is expected to shrink from 36% to 33%, while the share of those 70 and older is predicted to . magazine so that I have nothing on their sources. So were 47 claiming to have earned service crosses. People are impressed. These are old friends from high school and a relative. A Department of Defense report suggested that the total number of service members serving during the war was 8,744,000 but this might have included Reserve and National Guard as well as active duty and it also includes the veterans who actually served in country.According to those same DoD figures, 3,403,000 were actually deployed into Southeast Asia, which includes some 700,000 who were not in Vietnam but stationed in Thailand, Guam and the deep water Navy. ALL STATISTICSHAVE NOT BEEN VERIFIEDOR FACT The numbers quoted by me were based on all these sources, though it had been suggested, and I followed suit, that some 13,000,000 had lied on the census form. what I do know. pictures to prove it. The point is the magazine has a political agenda. It takes the heart of a Warrior to find deception and take it down. The alleged 13.8 million fakers or four out of five who claim to be Vietnam vets is CLEARLY stated as being based on U.S. CENSUS DATA, not some independent survey. After one local vagrant killed a policeman, the next days headline read, VIETNAM VETERAN GOES BERSERK. 'I'm not going to get into that. But the Stolen Valor claim is itself a fraud perpetrated on the public.By some estimates, 4-5% of the population in general are sociopathic liars. Aren't those the guys who lost the war?' In 1983, as the Vietnam Veterans of America was gaining prominence, it was disclosed that one of its spokesman was a fake ex-POW. Seven years later, Chuck and Mary Schantag, whose P.O.W. During the war, more than 58,000 servicemen and women lost their lives. count, though I have not found any record of this in the census figures I claiming Vietnam service and have been exposed as frauds. Their overall agenda makes their warning suspicious and copies of the VFW magazine or the ROA magazine so that we can see if they DURING THIS CENSUS COUNT, the number of Americans falsely claiming to have served in-country is: 13,853,027. Further, if you bothered to read Beatons statistics, as at this webite below, said to be written by Beaton and Cpt. an ex-Marine who survived combat during two tours of Vietnam, a record he used as a motivational tool. The efforts of latter-day watch-dogs such as Sterner, Burkett, the Schantags, fake Navy SEALcatcher Steve Robinson and others have given military fakery the appearance of being a modern phenomenon, particularly during the Vietnam era. address this in a comment rather than a new post so not to annoy those of you For the past three years, Burkett has worked behind the scenes with the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of the Inspector General on Operation Stolen Valor, aimed at uncovering people in the Pacific Northwest whove fabricated military service in order to obtain VA benefits. 'I think this is part of the same phenomenon of human nature that we have seen since the times of the Romans and Greeks,' he said. Vietnam Veterans represent the largest cohort of American Veterans in . According to the inflated faker statistics, they would represent about 7% of all adult males, or 1 in 14 men we would run into. the wording is where everything slides off the rails. The United States Vietnam War Commemoration is hosting a "welcome home" event in Washington DC. 9,492,958, and During this Census count, the number of Americans falsely ". No, he said, but a former Ranger up in New York did. What did you do?, I was in the Army, the voice replied. (If you are interested in pursuing this, just type Stolen Valor into your search engine and see the numbers of those caught pretending to be what they are not.). organizations., I think Members of chapter 239 of the Vietnam Veterans of America rushed to his aid. In the military-rich Hampton Roads region, we struck gold: From the pilots who flew the paratroopers to the infantrymen who stormed the beaches, I was able to relate the entire D-Day narrative chronologically, all through veterans eyes. Some of the statistics being After killing a prison guard, he said, hed been transferred to a labor camp in French-governed Algeria, where, after years of torture, good behavior had earned him a job as a prison tailor. "It . According to an estimate by the New York Times, there were 8.4 million Vietnam veterans who were still alive in the year 2000.Of those, 1.1 million had passed away.It was also estimated that there will be a total of 138,000 Vietnam veterans who will pass away every year from this point forward.Editorial note from the administrator of the website:
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