Stolen Valor - One Soldier's Opinion

I feel as though my opinion may be unpopular among my fellow service men and women, but I wanted to share it anyway.

I believe that as service men and women, we have many varied reasons for joining the military. Few of us would claim it was for the fame, glory, or recognition. It seems to me that our interests and reputations would be better served if we just took pride and comfort in knowing what we have truly been through and what we have done and will continue to do, and let people who want to play dress up do their own thing.

These posts highlighting "offenders" are getting a little bit tiresome, and with few exceptions seem more and more to be posted to make the filmers and posters feel better about themselves and less and less for any noble reason.

Come on. people. Can we let this go? The Stolen Valor Act - "Whoever, with intent to
obtain money, property, or other tangible benefit, fraudulently holds
oneself out to be a recipient of a decoration or medal described in
subsection (c)(2) or (d) shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not
more than one year, or both.''."

To sum up, from the Wikipedia article on the act, "...amends the federal criminal code to make it a crime for a person to fraudulently claim having received any of a series of particular military decorations with the intention of obtaining money, property, or other tangible benefit from convincing someone that he or she rightfully did receive that award."

I am not a lawyer, but what I get from this is that it means specifically that the individual must be representing they have received one of the below awards/decorations AND be trying to use those fake credentials to claim a benefit to be breaking a law...

a Medal of Honor
a Distinguished Service Cross
a Navy Cross
an Air Force Cross
a Silver Star
a Purple Heart
a Combat Infantryman's Badge
a Combat Action Badge
a Combat Medical Badge
a Combat Action Ribbon
a Combat Action Medal

While I would agree that as an adult the wearing of something which represents an achievement or sacrifice that one did not earn is in poor taste, it is not a violation of the Stolen Valor act if the individual is not using the claim of service for tangible benefit, and I believe it does and should fall within their free speech rights to dress however they'd like. When I was in my early teens I used to wear the top of one of my father's Air Force uniforms, with rank and name and branch all sewn on. Should I have been reprimanded? How is it fundamentally different than acting in a movie or dressing up for Halloween?

While I don't think the Stolen Valor Act addresses this concern, my one reason that maybe this should be illegal (it isn't currently) is if someone is dressed as a person with some level of authority in the situation where they are dressed up. For example, a Soldier going about his or her daily personal activities in uniform within their community (grocery shopping after work, for example) does not have or exercise any authority. A police officer, fireman, or paramedic being in their own uniform indicates to the general public around them that they are available to make an arrest, assist with putting out a fire, or help save a life. To the extent that confusion may be caused in these types of scenarios, and only for those reasons, should this apply to dressing as a member of the military/Armed Forces.

Thoughts?