Stolen Valor: The Military Perspective

2 Silver stars on a nam and an ND with a star being in for 2 years. Forget the sleeves. E5 after 2 years is not un heard of. There is an EM2 on my ship right now who did it. E-4 (push button) out of A school and they are immediately granted advancement opportunity on the next cycle. He blew the test out of the water and put on PO2 just under the 2 year mark.

I would like to see it charged as a Felony. When people claim things they have never earned it is not done for grins and giggles. They do it to get something, either money, recognition or benefits not earned. They need to be charged accordingly.

I will have to say it's not right at all for someone to impersonate a military person. Last year on Veteran's Day my husband and I went out. I'm the veteran, while he never served. The waiter was about to give both of us our meal free, but spoke up and said no. We told him that I'm the veteran. You know...it's just not right. We would have felt like we were stealing if we didn't pay for my husband's food. My mom had an issue recently where a man in the military over in Iraq impersonated a special forces guy, and tried to swindle her out of $2500. What do we do in that instance?

At the very least, the Manager should have made him pay for the food or have the cops pick him up and arrest him for whatever charges there are for eating and not paying, should be consider like if a person uses a stolen credit card. In the big picture, there should be serious consequences placed on these impersonators....perhaps they should be forced to enlist since they want to pretend to be military personnel.

That's pretty bad that these people have to make up lies about there dull lives, but that's no excuse to dis honor the uniform men and women have died for the right to wear it I hate it when I see contractors wearing half of a navy NWU with the rest of there outfit and get it completely ruined in the process makes my blood boil

While most people do not have a problem with impersonating a soldier, I want to point out it is against 18 U.S. Code 702-Uniform of armed forces and Public Health Service.

"Whoever, in any place within the jurisdiction of the United States or in the Canal Zone, without authority, wears the uniform or a distinctive part thereof or anything similar to a distinctive part of the uniform of any of the armed forces of the United States, Public Health Service or any auxiliary of such, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both."

So if you were curious if it is illegal, there you go. I hope this settles some arguments.

I once ran into a guy who was pretending to be in the Army at a bar in my home town. He was telling this girl stories about how he was in Afghanistan. I noticed he had a memorial band on... but it had weird things written on it, like his blood type... and he had dog tags on over his shirt (Classic sign). I asked him what his MOS was, he said "Infantry". After a couple well asked questions, I realized that this guy was just lying to talk to girls.

I spat in the palm of my hand and slapped him in the face.

I think it should be a punishable crime. Especially if they are using it to receive some sort of compensation or discount. In my opinion, that is fraud and should receive the same punishment you would get in other civilian situations. I you are caught impersonating a higher ranking serviceman while you are serving, the punishment is usually harsh.

Fair actions for the act committed. as far as the E-5 in 2 years though i made it in less than 2 lol.

I have no doubts about your story. I would have thrown the BS flag on his uniform with sewn on crow.

On the point of making rank quickly, there are a few rates (MOS) in the Navy that make rank quickly. This is because of the extremely high turn-over rate. Making E-5 within two years and E-6 within 6 years has become more common than my comfort level allows.

To share a story of stolen honor...on my first ship we had a sailor busted for being AWOL (not just UA), impersonating an officer, and impersonating a SEAL.