You're welcome, it was my pleasure.


SEMPER FI

I read the ruling as well, and was suprised by it.

One of my collateral jobs is investigating military awards for foreign soldiers.

I will say this, the United States handles military awards much differently than a lot of other nations.

In Australia you could have serious legal problems for claiming you had an award you didn't. They even have a part of their government that does nothing but awards, and military awards are passed down to generations and talked about all the time.

My take on military awards is this:

The things you should get an award for you don't, the things that are small and meaningless often rate an award. Excepting blood spilled or extreme acts of Valor and Heroism, most awards are given for stupid reasons, such as completion of an assignment or passing an inspection.

I was surprised by this as well.


MOA
You mean like the medal for 10 years of undetected crime !!! LOL

I wouldn't say crime, most folks aren't criminals. But yes!

My medal would have to be 10,000 hours of sustained military aircraft flight, without collecting flight pay or accumulating hours. Maintainers don't get either.

I have decided my "shadow box" will be the left shoulder and sleeve of every uniform I have worn for 20 years. No medals, just wings, branch and rank. I am thinking about gathering all the unit coins or patches and putting them in there.

No medals or ribbons. I won't retire with a legion of merit or antything crazy like that anyway. I'd be happy if someone else bought the beer next year.

To me campaign medals are the only thing that matter. Achievement, Commendation and BSM, Silver Star, Legion of Merit and so are are just political candy. Campaign medals will get me in the VFW, thats all that matters.

MOA

Sorry, I thought you were from Aussie.

We used to get a medal for 10 years service or something like that and it was commonly referred to in my unit as "10 years undetected crime", more of a joke over anything else.

.

US military gives them away every 3 years, and you get a forearm stripe every 4 years of the same in the Navy.

I think the law is being rewritten as we type to comply with the ruling. The court said it was written too broadly, not that were not circumstances that could be criminal.

For instance, using false military honors for personal gain can be a cime if the law were written tighter but jailing some blowhard for falsely telling his neighbors he was a SEAL can't be. I think its despicable to claim credit for others' sacrifices but not so much that I want every liar put in prison.

quote:

Originally posted by tiggertate:
I think the law is being rewritten as we type to comply with the ruling. The court said it was written too broadly, not that were not circumstances that could be criminal.

For instance, using false military honors for personal gain can be a cime if the law were written tighter but jailing some blowhard for falsely telling his neighbors he was a SEAL can't be. I think its despicable to claim credit for others' sacrifices but not so much that I want every liar put in prison.

Exactly, I have seen where folks in the military were sent to the brig for claiming to be a SEAL to someone they didn't know was a military officer while on a commercial flight.

Bullshit artist should be punched in the nuts, not sent to jail.

Claim you were a Medal of Honor winner for private gain, and it should cost you financially.

Time in jail, in our already crowded jails and prison system isn't the answer.

Yes the financial deducting would possibly work as God knows that our Government is up to the task of taking people's money.The more applicable due for stealing the rites of Valor is public castration.But then our 'leaders'would not permit this.Things would be different if I were King.

interesting reading, the logic they used. You have to wonder about the person(s) that filed the challenges motives.

I was at my Army Ranger Companys' reunion two weeks ago. We have never had any false claimants to the unit. I guess it is because 1st Sgt Smith kept a personal copy of every piece of paper relating to Company G (Chu Lai) and Company 2/Company G (Danang).

Rich
"long ago, in a galaxy far, far away..."
Sgt, US Army Ranger

This kind of stuff happens more often than you think. Checout the Military Corruption website. There are four examples of service members 2 E-9s and 2 O-5s that enhanced/ altered their personnel files. In AR we have a guy running for congress that claims to have been SF qualified. This claim has been proven false not once but twice by the Army. Today you can download any award certificate you want. Most of these clowns get caught when they attemt to forgr the orders and or rosters for the awards.

The Stolen Valor Act isn't necessary. If some brain dead miscreant wants to lie about his past then he will do it anyway and it won't get him anything but a little sympathy from those who don't know better. Do we really need a law to rein in the lies spoken by the homeless, the mentally ill, or by social outcasts?

Alternatively, if someone makes false claims on an important job application or when running for public office they will eventually loose out. They will either be fired for lying on their application or loose the vote when people discover their dishonesty. Polygraphs, background checks, and interviews will keep them out of any meaningful employment.

Never stopped Obama or Kerry. Two of the biggest frauds in US history!