Ugh, really? Some jerk claims to be a marine and Medal of Honor recipient, and when a Colorado Federal court gets the case, voila! They strike down the law stating: “it’s not illegal to lie”. WTF!?!?! Ok, yes, I’m a girly girl looking thing, and I’d say about 5% of the single men I come across will lie about military service to “impress” a chick. Should they go to jail? Probably not.
But this isn’t about a bozo claiming military service when he didn’t serve. This is about the clowns out there that capitalize on the fact that we, the American public, love and esteem valor in the face of the enemy. We view it as not just an act of valor where they defended their position and their peers, but we also view it as the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom, our Constitution, our way of life. These men and women that are honored with the Medal of Honor, the Navy Cross, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Air Force Cross, the Purple Heart, et cetera. I can’t list them all. These people make sacrifices that their peers, their commanders, and their branch of service recognizes them as exceeding expectations.
Medal of Honor recipients are often the most humble of all military members—they often speak of themselves as only “doing what anyone else would’ve done”. Most do not advertise it. I’ve had the honor to meet one Medal of Honor recipient from WW2. I knew him for years before it ever came up and he was not the one to bring it up. Did he or any of them only do what anyone else would do? As far as military members go, yes. I will not diminish those of us that have served by insinuating any of us that are not honored with these special honors would not have done the same. In those moments where we are faced with the worst moment of our lives, the military trains for the sailors, soldiers, marines and airmen to be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for the greater good. And, we who have served, realize what a sacrifice that anyone being awarded a Medal of Honor had to make. In that split second decision, those awarded these medals distinguished themselves as willing to put all others over themselves. We know that could’ve been our lives they made that sacrifice for, and we hold that very dear to our hearts. So, yes, we are mortified, angered and vicious about a liar claiming an honor and the fruits of that honor without having a f*cking clue what sacrifice that honor is for.
The Stolen Valor Act of 2005 doesn’t keep someone from claiming to have served if they didn’t. The act doesn’t allow them to claim they are Medal of Honor, Navy Cross, or any other ribbon that might diminish the value of the medal. A Medal of Honor recipient is the highest honor of all military honors. The award is often posthumously. In fact, ALL Medals of Honor awarded to Desert Storm or Gulf service members have been posthumously—awarded to their families—mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, children. Let me repeat that just for impact: All Medals of Honor awarded since Desert Shield/Storm have been posthumously. The ultimate sacrifice was their lives for their comrades, for their unit, for the mission, for their country--OUR country.
So a federal judge in Colorado has decided to strike down the Stolen Valor Act of 2005—allowing a jerk who claimed to be a marine and Medal of Honor recipient to have no ramifications to his actions. It is “not illegal to lie”. This is not just a lie, sir. No, this is an insult to the Honor that we bestow on real heroes, and it does diminish the Medal and the Honor if any jerk can claim it. During wartime (we are still at war, aren’t we?), it’s illegal to wear a uniform if you’ve never served. Persons doing so can be arrested for treason. Perhaps, he’s not wearing the uniform, but I find this more disturbing. He wasn’t just claiming to have served in the United States Marine Corps—it was the Medal of Honor. In the military we have enlisted and officer. Officers do not salute enlisted, and the President of the United States—aka. the Commander-in-Chief, the highest officer in the military—doesn’t initiate a salute to anyone. But they all, ALL—enlisted, officer, and even the President—must initiate a salute to a Medal of Honor recipient. ALL. This is our highest honor that our country can bestow on a military member—for sacrifices above and beyond the expected and required valor of all military members. But not just slightly above or exceedingly above—we have the Crosses for those acts. These recipients, these Medals of Honor sailors, soldiers, marines and airmen, have risked more than anyone else—often sacrificing their lives for the better of others in acts of valor that Hollywood makes movies about. They are the people that define our way of life for the world by showing the sacrifices that Americans will make for our own, for others we are sworn to protect, and for our comrades. We all salute them, not just because we have to, but because they have earned that salute, that respect.
This man, who claimed to be a Medal of Honor recipient, received gifts, special accommodations, speaking opportunities, attention, financial benefits, for his fraud. Yes, FRAUD. The men and women that have this award don’t typically capitalize on the award. In fact, there are no Gulf service members that can—not because there were no Gulf service members awarded the Medal of Honor—but because they are dead. They made the ultimate sacrifice, and the only consolation that their families—parents, husbands, wives, children— received is that those sacrifices were honored by our country with our highest military honor—the Medal of Honor.
A judge says that law is illegal; this idiot can claim the Medal of Honor. Any idiot out there can for the time being. I hope this goes to the Supreme Court and they say that judge is a moron—since federal judges are appointed for life we can’t even hope for his career to be over. I hope that the families of real Medal of Honor recipients file a lawsuit for defamation of character, because this man’s actions reduced the real sacrifices made by real recipients. I hope that a creative prosecutor can figure out how much all those gifts, benefits, speaking engagements were worth and can put together a case for fraud. In the meantime, I hope a grunt runs into this guy in a bar, beats the beegeebees out of him, and claims PTSD as a defense and gets the charges dropped. What goes around, comes around—well, I hope so in this bozo’s case anyway.
LINK TO THE ACT: http://www.homeofheroes.com/herobill/hr3352.html
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