Free Republic

A 29-year-old former soldier, currently living in Fort Worth, has pleaded guilty in federal court to making false statements and claims about receiving nominations for the nation's highest military award, the Medal of Honor, according to prosecutors.Richard David McClanahan, 29, used his bogus status as a war hero in Amarillo to secure speaking engagements and scholarships, said U.S. Attorney Richard Roper of the Northern District of Texas. McClanahan, who claimed to have special operations training and spectacular combat experience, appeared in federal court Thursday in Amarillo to plead guilty to one count of making false statements and one count of...

Just got a call from FReeper ExSoldier. He had severe chest pains last night and is now in a coronary unit of a VA Hospital. Said he was doing better and hopes to be released today or tomorrow, but he's currently hooked up to a bunch of IVs and is undergoing tests. Doctors told him it wasn't a heart attack but it was something. That's all the info I have at this time. Will post updates as they arrive.

72-year-old ex-soldier chased alleged bomber By Sally Peck and Matthew Moore Last Updated: 7:36pm GMT 23/01/2007 A 72-year-old former soldier, who trained in ammunitions testing, defied his age to chase one of the alleged July 21 bombers as he fled from the London Underground, a court heard today. CCTV footage showing Ramzi Mohammed being chased by passengers after they got off the Underground train at Oval Arthur Burton-Garbett, from Morden, chased the man from the Northern Line tube train down the platform and halfway up an escalator before stopping because he had "run out of steam", he told the court....

Ex-soldier fights to make Japan remember its past By Colin Joyce in Tokyo (Filed: 07/06/2006) Japan's amnesia over its militarist past is being challenged by a compelling documentary film which suggests that the Japanese army breached the terms of surrender in 1945 by leaving soldiers to fight on in China. The Ants, to be released next month, records the struggle of the Japanese veteran Waichi Okumura to put atrocities on record and to tell the story of the forgotten soldiers left behind in China. Now 81, Mr Okumura revisited Shanxi province where he fought, including a pilgrimage to the place...