Posted on 12/27/2007 7:44:51 AM PST by SmithL
The new director of the Three Valleys Municipal Water District in Claremont introduced himself with tales so harrowing, so seemingly courageous, that people took notice.
Fellow board member Dan Horan said Xavier Alvarez told him he saved a U.S. ambassador – and the American flag – while wounded by gunfire during a daring rooftop helicopter rescue in Lebanon.
Horan said he was puzzled when Alvarez, a board member elected in 2006, later changed his story to say it happened in Iran. And he was skeptical when his colleague also bragged of rescuing Marines pinned down by Viet Cong gunfire in Vietnam.
On Sept. 26, authorities charged Alvarez, 49, with violating a 2005 federal "Stolen Valor Act" by standing up at a gathering of water officials in July and announcing he was a wounded veteran, 25-year Marine and a recipient of the fabled Congressional Medal of Honor. Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian, who is prosecuting the case, said Alvarez never served in the military.
To state Assemblyman Paul Cook, R-Yucca Valley, the case represents just one of many – far too many – episodes of people impersonating veterans, embellishing service records or claiming medals they never earned.
Cook, a Marine Corps veteran and a Purple Heart recipient in the Vietnam War, this year pushed through a California version of the Stolen Valor Act.
The law, which takes effect Tuesday, adds another tier of enforcement to the federal act by allowing state and local law enforcement to cite anyone who falsely dons or claims a military medal or decoration the person didn't earn.
Expanding upon an existing state statute allowing misdemeanor citations against people who falsely claim to be active service members or veterans, the law makes it an infraction to lie about military awards...
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
“If you claim to have been a Ranger, there should still be records that you went to that training.”
Many Rangers like Duncan Hunter never attended the school, and they were not awarded the tab.
I had a friend that was awarded the Special Forces tab in Vietnam although he never attended the course, that was verified by Sgt Gordon Rottman, who my friend and I served under in an Airborne Ranger LRRP later LRS National Guard unit.
Seems like a freedom of speech issue to me. People should be able to SAY whatever the frig they want.
11B
I'm very proud of my service, and I'll tell you submarine stories all day long. However, I knew people that went to Vietnam, and I knew some that never came back. They all have my deepest respect and appreciation, and I can't imagine degrading their honor by trying to steal it.
No awards aren’t classified. Just mission details, and sometimes places you’ve gone, things like that. And, you know I’m out of the service now... but I appreciate you saying that to me. :) But know something - and this is coming from someone who didn’t “do anything important” in my life, it was my job, I chose to do it.
Most military personnel join the military for one of a couple of reasons... either they joined it because they really are patriotic, or they joined it because there was a good ad campaign (and perhaps believed, like me, that there were no other real options for college in those days).
I joined because I was patriotic, and because my father was in the Marines and served in Korea. I didn’t join “for college”, though I’ve now taken advantage of that and have gone to college for 30 years now :) (Thank you US Air Force!)
Again though - most military personnel join to do a job, and to them no matter what they do, it was “just a job”.
So, please save the “Thanks” for the kids that are in Iraq and other real world situations now, please.
Nope. I’m also a “Vietnam ERA” Vet. :)
And the man who is subject of this particular thread very well could have been a “Vietnam ERA” Vet as well, but doesn’t make him a veteran of that war.
I know many of those guys, and my hat is off to them for their service. I’ve seen combat, but nothing like some of them. I don’t think I did anything “noteworthy”.
My son came back from Iraq last April. He’s a hero to me, but he doesn’t think so :)
Paging John Kerry
“I make it a habit to never contradict Mrs. SmithL in public (life seems smoother that way). “
Shouldn’t you have said: “ life is safer that way”?
A grand father of mine, Daniel Agee served in the 4th. Regiment Light Dargoons under Colonel Moyland 1777 (Corder Service National Archives). His tombstone in Union Methodist Church Cemetery near Trenton, Tennessee has his birth date as December 29, 1764, that would make him 12 years old when he served in the Revolutionary War.
Dragoons, not Dargoons.
“Here is a link I’ve found to be helpful when checking on some Wannabe’s “exploits”.
I know a guy here in town who goes about telling of his exploits at Khe Sahn. He was in the Marines, but it always struck me that his story was from a book. Any way of checking out things of this sort? He never makes claims of medals or displays such.
I went through an accelerated course at Recondo School in November of 1967 with my platoon from F/51 and one from E/20. We did it all except for the patrol at the end, skipping the patrols so that the companies could be fully operational sooner. We are not entitled to the Recondo patch even though we completed all requirements except for that training patrol and our job was running Recondo missions.
In 1969, I was Team Leader of TM 17, with O/75, with the 3rd Bde of the 82nd. We were a Ranger company, but I never saw Ranger School and am not entitled to the Ranger tab. I believe Duncan Hunter is a Ranger in the same way.
That’s not like some clown claiming to have been Rambo when he wasn’t even Gomer Pyle. It’s a strange sickness, this wannabe thing.
Michael Frazier
As in.....there should be no law against making verbal false claims of military service/valor...when not testifying under oath or applying for a civil service job, etc...
As in....”Congress shall make no law....” no matter how feel good it is.
I believe it. I was curious so I Googled “youngest WWII soldier” and came up with this book about a 13 year old soldier (James Clark):
http://www.amazon.com/American-Soldier-13-Years-Old/dp/1412059380
I never got my certificate for completion of the “Ranger Correspondence Course.” All those weekends doing pushups under a cold shower while spraying myself in the face with CS wasted!
Kudos to you!
That was wholey a differant time back then, though. I’ve been reading about the Lima Company, 101st LRRPs, and the writer makes it sound like a lot of training was done without a standard school or anything like that.
But it’s very true in my time now that any training leaves a trace.
LOL
Michael Frazier
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