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Posted on 10/05/2007 5:47:16 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
A pair of congressmen want to establish the first database for military awards to help law enforcement officials catch and prosecute military frauds.
The measure, to be introduced in the House this week, would collect the names of all current and former servicemembers who have earned military medals including the Medal of Honor, Silver Star and Purple Heart. Certain Coast Guard and Merchant Marine medals also would be included.
That database would be made available to law enforcement and certain researchers to help them determine rightful heroes from clever frauds.
Last year, Congress approved the Stolen Valor Act, making false possession and display of certain high-level military medals punishable by up to six months in jail.
But sponsor Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., said many of the cases proved difficult to prosecute because investigators had no way to prove or disprove whether a suspect actually earned any medals.
"These honors are reserved for those who willingly risked their lives for our country," he said in a statement. "It is our job to protect the honor and integrity of our veterans, to make sure the memory of their heroism is not tarnished."
Defense Department officials had no comment on the pending legislation. Many of the service's old records are spread out through various subagencies and are not yet digitized, which likely would make creating the database a cumbersome task.
Doug Sterner, a Vietnam veteran whose research has exposed dozens of military frauds, agrees that compiling the data will take time, but insists it is not an impossible task.
In his research, he has tracked down numerous missing or forgotten citations, and said putting together a clearinghouse of medal recipients will prevent those records from being lost again.
"I think that's the real value of this bill," he said. "Having a database to help expose frauds is good. But having a database to preserve history and our heroes is even more important."
Salazar and co-sponsor Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., said recent reports of new scam artists claiming to be Iraq veterans further underscore the need for the legislation.
Last month, researchers also discovered that the Veterans History Project, a multimillion-dollar collection of more than 50,000 oral and written war stories from Americans sponsored by the Library of Congress, included many stories of men claiming medals they never earned.
How do you feel about this issue?
I remember seeing a website devoted to running down and exposing fake SEALS.
I heard just yesterday that the scum who raped that 4 year old claimed to be a Navy Seal. That has now been refuted.
I support this act - without melodramatizing things, I suffered for my PH and the thought of some undeserving SOB claiming one doesn’t sit well with me.
Hey, hey, Ho, ho, make 'em sign a one-eight-oh. Duck and cover, Kerry, the key clause is "actually earned." channeling Tonk :)
Hahaha! That reminds me of a story. I was a Veterans employment counselor at the unemployment office some years ago, when a “client” came in claiming to be a retired SEAL Lieutenant Commander who had been taken prisoner during Vietnam and shipped to the Soviet Union for safekeeping and interrogation. Something didn’t smell right, so I called SEAL headquarters after he left. After I told them the story, they were rolling around on the floor laughing for what seemed like 10 minutes. No SEAL, they told me, has EVER been captured in wartime. These phonies are all over.
Kerry is certainly one of the “phony soldiers” Rush was talking about.
It’s pretty easy to spot a phony Iraq “veteran”—just look for the “Move On” t-shirt.
This is good. Then I might be able to find out what medal I received when I retired from the Army out of Germany (”It’s still sitting on the General’s desk.”) and also find out if they added the Kuwait medal to my awards listed on my DD214. I’ve inquired with EVERYBODY but every time I do, they just send me another laundry bag full of the stuff I’ve already got. LOL!
If the ‘RATS turn me into a DemocRAT “voter” after I die and want to use me to protest some war, they’re going to need a dump truck to haul this stuff up to the White House fence and a crane to throw it over the fence. LOL!
I think this database is a very good idea. It will take some time to find and enter the data, but it will be valuable to many people, including law enforcement and historians and the families of veterans.
They can add Stuart Jakku to the database....he died on Oct 7th (tomorrow) 1944, as a bombadier who got hit while flying missions over Germany. (Just a timely post - he was my husband’s Uncle, whom he never knew.)
Wait a minute.
There’s already a “central medal database”.
Maybe they’ve never heard of it? It’s the personnel records depository at St. Louis. Currently, while it isn’t exactly (necessarily) quick, utilizing FOIA certain military service information including awards and decorations can be obtained for virtually anyone. They even have a website and in recent years relatives finding out about their loved ones service record have found it a lot less troublesome. From that standpoint the article doesn’t make sense. Why should any additional legislation be required to utilize what tax dollars should already be providing, much less improve anything?
It is also true that a lot of servicemembers earned awards that were never awarded, but that’s quite apart from “wannabes” who are wearing dozens of ribbons and things that they are not authorized to wear. I don’t see why it is thought necessary to conflate these issues.
He's obviously met Senator Kerry....
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Was his name Gary?
How did you know? [cue spooky music]
I wonder if congress will pass this bill considering a few of that body could find themselves in jeopardy.
I wonder if Reid and Murtha will be all up in arms over this?
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