What would motivate an Air Force OTS Candidate to lie about having a Purple Heart?

To be an Officer or an NCO or even a Soldier you must first "be above reproach", he shouldn't even be in the military.

Integrity First.

Deuces!!

If you will lie about an award then you will lie on other things. Integrity people! Kick him out of OTS and make him enlisted again with the LOR!

This is not officer material.

I knew people who were given the boot for being fought up in lesser lies. This definitely deserves him getting remove from the program with prejudice. I would send him back to finish his prior commitment with an A15

I would think he wanted the attention of being a Purple Heart recipient, but never thought about his records being checked. Bad move no matter how you look at it!

In my 3 1/2 years in I've heard tons of false stories about deployment pasts. People for get the service is small. Others will eventually figure out that you're full of it. I've heard individuals avoid telling the truth about combat experience and receiving a CAB/CIB. Never a Purple Heart though. Really immature thing to do. I'd have to know him to make the judgement call though. He may be a solid person that said something stupid.

He does not have the integrity for either commissioning OR enlisted in my branch of service..... I suspect that no other branch wants this type of person either.

Nowadays, more than half the population think highly of the military, so military service is revered. Possibly also because such a small percentage has served, there is a lot of deference given.

I went to a veteran's hiring fair a few months ago, and one of the presenters was a Vietnam vet who mentioned that for a long time he didn't tell anyone he was a veteran. Once you know how badly people were treated, you can understand why.

Conversely, it bothers me when people downplay Vietnam vets purple vets. Most of us were not there to see what did or didn't happen. I don't think most people go looking for these types of awards.