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''Sorry. For some of us, "It's classified" is the only answer we are allowed to give.
But -- one of these patches is mine -- and they all were worn by me or my family while we were in the service of our country...
Posted on 04/01/2015 9:46:53 AM PDT by Impala64ssa
A newly released video shows a military veteran chasing down a Florida panhandler who thought he could get away with pretending to be a veteran.
According to Tampa Bay ABC affiliate WFTS:
“Garrett Goodwin, a military veteran, said he was driving to MacDill Air force Base on Sunday when he saw the panhandler and decided to confront him.”
In the video, Goodwin follows the panhandler, who is trying to walk away from him when he demands to see the panhandler’s military ID card. When the man admits he doesn’t have one, Goodwin tells him:
“You take my uniform off!”
While following the fraudulent veteran, Garrett Goodwin sums up the issue near the end of the video:
“That’s my uniform. My brothers died for that uniform.”
IJReview spoke with U.S. Congressman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), who’s a Lt. Colonel in the Army Reserve, served in Iraq 2005-2006 as a combat surgeon, and is a member of the House Veterans’ Affairs and Armed Services Committee and Chairman of VA’s Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity.
Speaking of the Massachusetts “Stolen Valor” bill, which would go further than federal law, Wenstrup said:
“That we even have to take such actions is sad. I co-sponsored a similar bill in 2013, but it had to be something criminal and fraudulent. I think the [Mass. Bill] would hold up. Obviously, there needs to be harm to someone [for a stolen valor bill to hold up in court]. If they’re lying for financial gain.
We’re a country that tries to help those in need, but to misrepresent is something else entirely. Lying is always ugly, but there’s a free speech component. However, profiteering may be subject to criminal prosecution.”
It’s unfortunate that homeless persons are reduced to panhandling for money, but that doesn’t give someone an excuse for disrespecting the brave men and women in uniform who sacrificed for this country.
Here in MI, you show your discharge card at the Secretary of State when you re up your driver’s license and they give you a veteran’s ID right on your driver’s license.
Many stores will give you a 10% discount when you show it.
Paid off really well when we refitted out kitchen.
Lowes is one that honors.
You just have to ask and may be pleasantly surprised.
I was Air Force so I didn't have a MOS, I had an AFSC, which was 326X0B, Sgt. Robertson (pronounced RO-ber-Son) and Sgt. Greene, I was a SSgt (E5) when I separated.
I've never used VA benefits, so I suppose that's why I don't have a "Veteran's ID card", but anybody claiming to be a wounded veteran most likely should have one.
Senior Drill Sergeant Eddie J. Allen, SFC, training company E-3-1, Ft. Polk, LA, 1966. KIA, Vietnam, 1967.
You never forget your drill sergeant. Ever.
I had so many TI’s while I was in basic I had to think really hard to remember my main instructor. SSgt Allen. No ID either, but that doesn’t matter because I don’t need drug money and I don’t drink. I’m pretty sure that it’s just about impossible to starve to death in America if you aren’t trying to do it on purpose, so I don’t think I’ll be panhandling anytime soon.
“What was your MOS?”
That’s what I ask when someone tells me they served in the Army or Marines. A blank stare in response is enough to reveal to me the fraudulent nature of the claim.
I can answer all of those as well. But the biggest thing is, is their uniform correct? That is what gives most fake Vets away.
They like to mix Army and Navy medals together, or they are in the wrong order.
Doesn’t the VA issue VA medical cards to veterans? Don’t know. . .
I used to work on a couple of CEV’s and I still remember the bumper numbers, serial numbers, and the model numbers of the mother and transmissions. 😃😃
The idea that someone tries to “profit” from faking military service is disgusting, but I’m more outraged by someone who claims to have been awarded medals, or who puts military service on a resume’. Someone who is wearing a uniform, particularly an authentically homeless man is less of an offense. I live in a military city and the thrift sotres, Army/Navy and Goodwill are full of uniforms.
But, some @$$hole who thinks he can walk up to anybody and demand to see some sort of ID, is a freak.
**I live in a military city and the thrift sotres, Army/Navy and Goodwill are full of uniforms.**
I have a huge pile of uniforms. I just decided last week to keep some of the pants for lawn duty. The rest will be disposed of so no one else can get them.
Ditto
DI Thornton and Dietz. 1975 Fort Six.
Whoa. What's a discharge card?
I left as a veteran in 1991, and the only thing I remember eventually getting was my DD214.
Funny how some things are more important than others...I’ve literally left part of me on many of the aircraft I worked on in my career...
Can’t wear rank or medals, though.
Diabilities or not ... being a senior citizen or not ... I’d’ve ‘taken his name and number’!
The man wants to wear the uniform of my brothers of the cloth, then visit upon him the sin of wearing such cloth, to a manner where he will inhabit, forever, the land of fear and self-loathing, for his actions.
There is no excuse, in thought or deed, that can be afforded this man, period.
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''Sorry. For some of us, "It's classified" is the only answer we are allowed to give.
But -- one of these patches is mine -- and they all were worn by me or my family while we were in the service of our country...
When you see some loud bragger at a party, in cami trousers and who is telling too many war stories where they are the hero, it’s definitely a red flag.
Really? Grilling the (probably) mentally ill over a couple of lousy bucks? Just keep moving.
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