VA facilities and vet groups check perspective patients and members to determine if they are who they claim to be. I said that was funny because I didn't remember seeing him there.Anyway, there are statistics that suggest several million and really comes down to the sources you wish to cite. Don Shipley at his SEALs website "They give me a blank look.". According to a January 1893 article about veterans pensions in Harpers New Monthly Magazine, during a three-year period ending in 1879, out of 4,397 affidavits filed for wartime pensions, 3,084 were false at a cost to the government of more than a half million dollars. A total of 9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the Vietnam era, with over 2,709,000 Americans serving in Vietnam, about 9.7% of the generation.Vietnam Veterans by State 2022. "I think Jug Burkett is doing something truly from the heart and something that is truly important," says Vietnam veteran James Webb, author of the Vietnam War novel "Fields of Fire" and a former secretary of the Navy. In some cases, too, these bogus ex-warriors are motivated by guilt - a gnawing feeling that they should have fought in America's longest war, psychologists and veteran counselors say. We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us. I think I have finally unraveled the great Vietnam Veteran impostors statistics. to 14 million had claimed to be Vietnam Veterans and subtracted the true number "The ones who always hit me up on the streets, I ask them, 'What was your MOS?' He also claimed the Medal of Honor. The that. 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. A Commentary on UFOs, Paranormal events, and related topics. Burkett was able to prove that Yandle had never been in combat. Joining is simple and . Burkett predicted that half would be frauds. Burkett, Chronicle News Services, Associated Press photos, Unmasking Phony `Vietnam Vets' / Fakes big factor in negative image, Texas author finds, Dubs fans picking apart video of possible Poole-Draymond incident, Bay Area preschool teacher suspected of dumping body along road, Bay Area mom influencer found guilty of lying about kidnapping, More rain, 'unseasonably chilly' temperatures coming to Bay Area, 'Horrible': Oakland rapper dumps on Chase Center Warriors fans, Destructive landslide closes historic California institution, 49ers out in full force at Warriors-Kings Game 7, Sold-out Berkeley crowd gets rowdy at country star's concert, Shock, fear as 2 killings in 3 days rock quiet Davis. And he describes the hostile reaction directed at veterans coming back from Vietnam, intimating that he was among them. 5. Yandle apologized publicly and was returned to prison. of those who served in Vietnam were still alive as of August, 1995 (census I called my alleged Ranger back, said I wanted to clear up the unit name and asked him twice to repeat it. What you see in these big lies and to some extent, in some little lies as well is a yearning, DePaulo said. Thailand, Guam and in the deep water Navy, and some statistics on those Torres came back Monday with a U.S. birth certificate it was fake, but for a good cause, he thought. 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. I would expect that number to apply to everything, including number of claimed Vietnam vets or Roswell witnesses. REALITY: He was a Marine football player in Okinawa. "Man, I was scared to death. The Intercept is an independent nonprofit news outlet. A casual mention of military service. Well-known actor Brian Dennehy often shared stories of his service with the Marines in Vietnam. 1,713,823 of those who served in Vietnam were still alive as of August, 1995 (CENSUS FIGURES). However, veterans groups estimate that today approximately 9 to 12 million Americans fraudulently claim they served in Vietnam. McCarthy claimed to have been a combat tail gunner in World War II. Vietnam War veterans, and their families, are being invited to this event to be held at the National Mall on May 11, 12, and 13. The Schantags discovered that 24 of those were false entries. They lost buddies in Vietnam and are still having difficulty coping with emotions. "I've got other things I want to do in life, and chasing down phony Vietnam vets is not the way I want to spend it. When his unit came home and started gearing up. 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. Other careers, in a variety of fields, have been damaged by similar disclosures. and reports. Im not sure why this has become such an issue here but I These are old friends from high school and a relative. 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. In 2007 the effort snagged eight people who were receiving VA compensation for combat injuries, although none had served in combat and two had never served in the military. Instead the standard Census question on the long form is whether somebody has ever been active duty military and lists multiple war and peace eras, including the Vietnam era from 1964-1975. Like the nonexistent Census data of 10 million fakers, this seems to be all totally made up by Shipley to push his own agenda. however, that the information is not drawn from the 1990 census and might be related to one that U.S. veterans [ edit] According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 ( VEVRAA) states, "A Vietnam era veteran" is a person who: served on active duty anywhere in the world for a period of 180+ days, any part of which occurred between August 5, 1964, and May 7, 1975, and was discharged or . sources of data include the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, One of the best-known examples was Walter Williams, who claimed to have served in the Confederate army under Gen. John Bell Hood. 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: 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. support it. Where are all these millions of fakers anyway? claiming Vietnam service who were not there and that there are many claiming As for phony Vietnam veterans, I still meet them all the time. 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. In short order, photographer Ken Lyons and I were sitting in the fellows sun-splashed back yard. ElbertAlfie 8 mo. 'My pretense took on a life of its own and almost became real. have been able to find reliable statistics on the number of men and women who DURING THAT SAME CENSUS COUNT, the number of Americans falsely claiming to have served in-country was: 9,492,958. Many weren't even the military. for the last few years I have started asking those wearing the hats where they served in Vietnam. Lucky me, Id exposed the lie before the story went to press. A Different Perspective with Kevin Randle Interview - CURT COLLINS - Saucers That Time Forgot. I've come across some folks that tell stories that are hard to believe.I was amazed to find a guy, walking in a wash at Arches NP that had a MWSG-17 unit cap, which floored me! The Blue Jays fired him in March. Retired We don't have ads, so we depend on our members 35,000 and counting to help us hold the powerful to account. David, David, David I tried to end this diplomatically but you just cant let it go. ". He apparently fabricated documents claiming hed been awarded the Medal of Honor during his Vietnam War service. But, some of them are so good that they have done the research though once one of them told me he had been a door gunner with the Hornets at the time I was a pilot in the unit. address this in a comment rather than a new post so not to annoy those of you The work led to 48. designed to serve as a convenient volume for statistical reference, and as a He hadn't been trained in intelligence and he hadn't been a master sergeant. 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. 19 Million Viewers Watched His Story Start To Finish (David Hoffman) How many soldiers died on their first day in Vietnam? . But the I called, telling this former Ranger that my guy had claimed to be the assistant platoon leader. Between March 1, 2008, and Feb. 25, 2009, the VA investigated 96 cases of stolen valor fraud, according to James ONeill, assistant inspector general for investigations. I must say I never ever thought anyone would falsely claim to have been in Vietnam. Their lies collectively cost the VA $1.4 million. There are many sites devoted to Stolen Valor which had exposed thousands REALITY: Johnson -- whose public mea culpa last November was too recent to be included in Burkett's book -- never served in Vietnam and never saw combat. Census is not something that I was able to do. It was endless," he says. Thus the Census provides the total numbers of ALL people claiming to have been active duty veterans during Vietnam, but not the number claiming service in-country. Yandle said he was at the infamous 1968 siege at Khe Sanh, surrounded and attacked for 77 days. (Video) A Vietnam Vet. Nor was his name actually Daubmann; it was Karl Hummel, and hed taken his new name from a passport retrieved from an old uniform hed bought. After the war ended, reports began to circulate of veterans so depraved from their war experiences that they turned to crime, with estimates of the number of incarcerated Vietnam veterans as high as . much of this other than there were 2.7 million service members who were He deployed to Iraq, near Fallujah, in 2009. Stolen Valor. Claims/Comments; Bill Williamson from Maitland, Florida arose the suspiciousness of a Red Cross Photographer who was assigned to Vietnam in 1967. facts being unverified. I personally believe there are as many American males claiming military service falsely as there are living veterans in America, said B.G. in the census documents is a number for those falsely claiming Vietnam service. Now I see one every six weeks,' said Larry Slessler, head counselor at the Southern Oregon Veterans Outreach Center in Medford, Ore. On this Memorial Day 2021, VA honors their service and recommits itself to . this seems to be correct, I cant find anything in the census figures to Burkett, but flights of fancy can also be shot down. I had something I wanted to say, but I can't continue being the enforcer of this thing around the nation. Some records burned; those that survived give no hint that he ever left the United States. That same web site published an article, Who Are the Real Viet All this relentless research burbles up in Burkett's 692-page book, "Stolen Valor," which he wound up having to publish himself (Verity Press, at its Web site of www.stolenvalor.com) because, he says, all the mainstream publishers he approached were terrified of being sued. 76% of the men sent to Vietnam were from lower middle/working class backgrounds. People younger than Whitley have, for the most part, only the faintest of clues when it comes to understanding the military, and they don't really care about it anyway. what I think happened. 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. I dont think its particularly modern., I cant prove that there were phonies among King Arthurs Knights of the Round Table, Burkett said. Or maybe you dont even mean it consciously as a trial balloon, but you put something out there, and it works and maybe gets a good reaction. All societies in history have revered the warrior, he said. . shows that much of what they print is politically driven. Point prevalence of PTSD for Vietnam veterans was 9% in the 1980s and for OIF/OEF veterans was 8% (Richardson, Acierno, Frueh, 2010). 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. wording about the four out of five who claim to be Vietnam vets but are not is Marshal Hanson, USNR (Ret.) How many times do these real FACTS have to be repeated?BTW Kevin, you should do a Google search on The Vietnam Veterans Fund which was closed down only a few months ago by New York for charity fraud, raising $9 million a year, mostly from veterans, but distributing only 2% for charity purposes. Dennehy did play football for a Corps team on Okinawa, Burkett reported. Back at the office, I started typing up my notes, shaking my head at times. 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 am an in-country Vietnam vet. The census figures do confirm the 8.5 million number. An Oregon newspaper learned that Cooley hadnt finished training until nearly a month after the signing of the 1953 armistice. Bureau of Economic Analysis, and many other Federal agencies and private Regardless of what they thought of you before, theres suddenly more substance to you., The lie often starts modestly, Burkett said. In Sterners experience, its all about the financial advantages fakers can obtain. Projections also indicate that the veteran population will become slightly younger, with 33% of veterans being younger than 50 in 2046 compared with 27% in 2021, even as the overall U.S. population continues to age. The Secrets and Lies of the Vietnam War, Exposed in One Epic Document. I'm busy with the 'Convoy to the Wall' that will hopefully help vets put the war in the past,' said Castagna, member of VVA chapter 179. Very rare and usually done by people looking for high profile jobs. ", "This was real people dying real deaths. guide to other statistical publications and sources both in print and on the Fakery was reportedly widespread during the Civil War and its long aftermath. The news must have been slow that day, because the reenactment was the lead story. Whitley, 43, is of a generation that, as she said, learned about the war largely through their TV sets. By fits and starts, Burkett learned how to investigate. On the US Census web site www.census.gov/prod/cen1990/cp2/cp-2-1.pdf on page 45 there is a chart that lists veterans and which era they served in. But the real truth is that nearly everyone was exposed to indirect fire, ground attacks at base camps, and other elements of combat based on the nature of the war. That is the one common thread., In Burketts mind, most fakers do so because of low self-esteem. Oddly, his charitable endeavors included involvement with local Vietnam veterans groups, which ended in 1994 when he disappeared, only to resurface years later as a con man. As for the issue of phony vets: 'Those people have a mental problem. Kristofer Goldsmith, the former chief investigator for the Vietnam Veterans of America, spent years researching how disinformation - including Pro-Trump propaganda - has targeted veterans. Burkett, who served as an Army lieutenant in Vietnam during the war -- he stresses he was no hero and simply did his job as an ordnance officer -- has investigated more than 2,000 cases and found. Here are some notable tales, along with the less glamorous versions found by Burkett: REALITY: He spent the war behind a desk as an intelligence officer, was "wounded" when he got drunk at a party, fell down a ladder and broke his leg. During the war, more than 58,000 servicemen and women lost their lives. That guy, the real Ranger told me, got killed on D-Day. but then remembered that if you set foot in a combat zone even for an hour or I wondered if some of this didnt come from the Department of The same vet websites Kevin links to also give a ~9.1 million figure for "military personnel served on active duty during the Vietnam Era." $174k/yr for a new Daytona in a month. the giveaway as to their agenda because, as a Vietnam Vet I know that most of 'There are a lot of people out there doing this and we'd like to expose every last one of them,' said Ray Ashe, secretary of the VVA chapter. (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.). Burkett, who at the time was verifying records for the Texas State Archives, discovered he could get military records by request. not SEALs. If that was closer to the true figure, then the 200,000 fakers evaporate.Having found maybe a few thousand fakers is a VERY, VERY LONG way (by a factor of at least one thousand) from the 10+ million claimed in the "Stolen Valor" book, allegedly based on Census data, and endlessly repeated in multiple vet publications, including the websites you linked to. This office is the working headquarters of a guy who invests other people's millions in the stock market -- and it's his commissions that help bankroll his singular crusade.