Have you known anyone who falsely claimed to be a combat veteran?

[BikeWriter]

Poll question: Have you known anyone who falsely claimed to be a combat veteran?

Interesting Census Stats Regarding Vietnam Veterans and "Been There" Wanabees:
1,713,823 of those who served in Vietnam were still alive as of August, 1995 (census figures).
During that same Census count, the number of Americans falsely claiming to have served in-country was: 9,492,958.
As of the current Census taken during August, 2000, the surviving U.S. Vietnam Veteran popluation estimate is: 1,002,511. This is hard to believe, losing nearly 711,000 between '95 and '00. That's 390 per day. During this Census count, the number of Americans falsely claiming to have served in-country is: 13,853,027. By this census, FOUR OUT OF FIVE WHO CLAIM TO BE Vietnam vets are not.
http://thundering-third.org/4members/NamStats.html

[BikeWriter]

1. This topic cropped up recently in real life,...

because one Friend has been wanting to take another to the VA and get him qualified for benefits. His ex knows that not only is he not a Marine, he's not a Viet-Vet either. He was in the Army and did one tour during the VietNam era, but in peacetime Korea. If this other buddy knew it would probably kill one of them.
This is why I recently relocated a copy of my DD-214. I carry it with me everywhere.

[DS1]

3. Why do you feel it's necessary to relocate your DD214?

It's on file, it's yours, it can be looked up.

I'm curious.

[BikeWriter]

5. I had copies in my files, but I had misplaced them.

My files aren't very orderly. ;)

[DS1]

9. Well, the reason I ask is all about the supposed Marine you talked about

If he's bullshitting you about someone as simple as what branch he served in, then he qualifies for VA bennies, if he didn't serve at all then naturally he doesn't qualify. I'm kinda curious as to why this person would lie about the branch he served under. I mean, you were all out there in the jungle, what difference does the branch of service make now that he's back?

I'm glad you're all back, but the sudden leap of military branches confuses me.

[BikeWriter]

13. He was Army, but he only served in Korea during peace time there...

...He claims he was in VietNam, as a Marine. He does not have the same entitlements.

[DS1]

16. Agreed

Turn him in, those that served earned their bennies, this guy didn't.

[BikeWriter]

21. He won't apply, or at least not around the buddy he's been talking...

this trash to, because he'd be busted on lying. He does qualify for some bennies, but not like a combat vet would.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

33. Strange.

If he needs care, he should apply. He will be covered
for most things. I was drafted, went to Germany, and
have had plenty done at the VA, some major stuff.
When I applied, I handed the guy my paper, he made a
copy of it, handed mine back and that was that. Whether
he's lied to somebody or not, he's still entitled to
whatever he's entitled to.

[BikeWriter]

41. Yes, he is, but he's evidently afraid of his buddy finding out the truth..

...My older Brother was in the Navy and in Cambodia and Laos on courier duty before the war heated up, so he was not classified as a combat vet. He still gets $1,000 a month for his hearing loss because he served on a Cruiser with the big guns. I'm going to apply soon and see if they will at least help with my heart meds and depression.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

43. Please go apply tomorrow.

I got to see my main provider guy the day I applied but
it was at least a number of weeks before I got the appointment
with somebody to treat my specific problem (a bad shoulder,
non-service related). Seriously, man, go apply. I put it off
until I had pain I couldnt bear, and then I was in the system
when even more serious stuff happened. You earned it, go get it.
Please, huh?

[BikeWriter]

46. Thank you, Pard. I aim to. My Brother and Brother in Law have both...

...been telling me to. I've told them I would. I've just got to quit being a hermit long enough to do it.

[Zuni]

47. My father served in Germany too

He got drafted in the Army a few years before 'Nam really heated up in 1965-1966.
He was lucky his number got called early

[BikeWriter]

52. I respect all VietNam era vets, and indeed all my fellow servicemen...

and women. They've all taken a chance of having to go to war.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

17. You mean he's making these false claims to the VA???

[BikeWriter]

22. No, they'd bust him quick!

[DS1]

2. I can't say I've ever known someone to be lying about being in combat

But then, I can read liars pretty well, so my vote would have to go to "Never had a liar lie to me about it, and believed it"

[BikeWriter]

6. Way cool! :-)

[webjamn]

89. My brother served

in Vietnam and he told me there have been a few times at parties where he would hear some guy talking about serving in Nam and after questioning the guy it was clear these guys had never served in the military period. My brother is a very peaceful man but nothing enrages him more than people lying about serving.

[BikeWriter]

96. Your Brother's right. Nothing pisses a vet off worse...

...Please thank him for his service for me.

[tuvor]

4. Yes, not directly, but Bill O'Lielly...

claimed to have been in combat. Someone posted an mp3 of the jerk bragging about how he'd been in combat, and the caller called him on it. O'Lielly had to admit that it was as a "journalist". And of course, that he'd done more than any pansy-assed liberal, or some such garbage.

Here's the link to the original thread.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3102356

[BikeWriter]

7. I love it! Thank you, I hate that bastid!

[Floogeldy]

8. I heard it used to be a great way to get laid

National Lampoon even printed a long, detailed script for a guy to memorize and repeat to the object of his desire.

But any person who would do that is scary, methinks.

[BikeWriter]

11. Scary, yes, and it tends to piss off those of us who have been there.

[Floogeldy]

15. Just think how quickly you could expose them

Just by asking three or four questions.

Bastards.

[BikeWriter]

25. Most of them you can, if they claim to have been somewhere you know.

I've heard more people claim to be Navy Seals than there actually were Seals.

[thecai]

80. Agent Orange

My first husband was in the army, stationed in Germany. He was never in combat, although he suffered from PTSD, before anyone knew what it was, ("from war games", he said). Years later, his family told me he died of complications from agent orange. I don't know if they had agent orange in Germany(?).
on edit: PSTD was called "shell-shock" back in the day...

[BikeWriter]

82. We never used agent orange in Germany. He may have been...

...involved in the decontamination of equipment or something, but I have my doubts.

[thecai]

83. I Have My Doubts, Too

He lied an awful lot...

[BikeWriter]

94. ROFL! Sorry about that! ;-(

[Seabiscuit]

10. Yes. Howard Stern in "Body Parts".

[BikeWriter]

12. Hmm, I haven't heard that!

[Seabiscuit]

14. You didn't see his movie?

[BikeWriter]

27. No, I haven't.

[Seabiscuit]

36. You should. It's the one good thing Howard Stern has done in his life.

[BikeWriter]

42. LOL! Cool, I'll watch for it, thank you. :-)

[Seabiscuit]

63. BTW, it was Paul Giamatti's first really good role as an actor.

He played an NBC exec Stern referred to as "Pig Vomit".

[BikeWriter]

73. LOL! Sounds interesting!

[Seabiscuit]

77. OK! Rent it today!

[BikeWriter]

78. I may have to, thank you. :-)

[jmowreader]

90. Howard Stern was in "Private Parts"

IMDB lists two movies called Body Parts.

The first one (released in 1991) sounds more fun--a man lost an arm in an auto accident and the doctors replaced it with one from a death row inmate...who escaped and came looking for it.

The other (released in 1994) is about a guy who likes to dismember strippers.

[yellowdog]

18. Used to have a guy

that would come into the store where I worked and blow off about all the stuff he did in Nam. I had been around enough to know it was BS, but then a friend of his came in and said that the guy never left Fort Polk, LA. I could never figure why guys would pull that shit. I was in the Navy during the mid and late '60s, never made Nam, and really don't regret the fact.

[BikeWriter]

26. I'm glad you didn't have to. It was a real pisser.

[yellowdog]

32. BikeWriter, thanks for your service.

I lost too many friends over there. There are too many guys I grew up with that I never got too drink a legal beer with. In the 40 years that have past I read every thing I could get my hands on about that war and I don't understand it any better than I did in 1967 or 1968. I would really like to understand why Jimmy Hembree, Mick Smith, and Jeff Lynch are no longer living and put an explanation I can accept to their deaths but I just can't. Now we are losing kids every day in Iraq. You know, a lot of the times the world sucks.

[BikeWriter]

44. Thank you, Pard. I still tear up everytime I think of all the Friends...

...I lost over there. Seeing the losses of my Brother and Sister vets in Iraq and Afghanistan has made the chronic depression I already suffered from even worse.

[Kat45]

19. I know a man who claimed to be a 'Nam vet, but was never even

in the military! He also claimed health problems--he was on the verge of dying for years--due to Agent Orange. I think he even had elaborate stories about Vietnam. When he died a few years ago, his wife went down to the VA to apply for benefits--and they had no record of him! This man's wife and family had believed his story, and it wasn't until after his death that they found out the truth! How fucked is that!

[BikeWriter]

29. Oh, shit! I'll bet it made his wife and kids feel like hell. :-(

[Kat45]

81. Yes. His wife is also quite embarrassed; imagine finding out

that you really didn't know your husband at all, that everything he told you, everything about him, was a lie! She's probably feeling stupid, trying to figure out how she could be deceived like that. She doesn't want anybody to know about this, and I can't say that I blame her.

[vpigrad]

20. No, but...

I know several guys who were in combat and lie and say they haven't been. They're ashamed of their violent past. I honor them for recognizing that they did something horribly wrong, but it's also wrong to lie about it. Two wrongs don't make a right.

[BikeWriter]

30. Dayum, I know several who won't discuss it, but I've never seen one...

...deny it altogether.

[uts2641]

23. comment

I joined, so I might as well comment at some point. This is my first post.
I did ask my dad about his service during that time. He classifies himself as a veteran of the Vietnam era, not the Vietnam war. He served on a ship, looking for downed pilots in the area. He separates himself from those actually involved in ground combat, out of respect them and their experiences.

[BikeWriter]

31. Your Dad is to be respected for that, and he also took the same chances...

...we did of being ordered there.

[mdmc]

24. w. during his first congressional campaign

[BikeWriter]

34. Yes, * claimed to be Regular Air Force, too. He never was!

[Spider Jerusalem]

28. Not personally, although I HAVE heard of it at second or third hand.

And none of the combat veterans I HAVE met ever really talked about the fact. Not my grandfather, not my uncle...they'd go as far as "Yes, I was with Bradley's army in Europe" or "Yes, I was in Khe Sanh in '68", but as to specifics...not a peep.

[BikeWriter]

35. Many of us don't, but it is better for most to talk about it than to...

hold it in. I wouldn't even read about it until about ten years ago.

[Spider Jerusalem]

37. Yeah...

my granfather. for instance, wouldn't talk about some of what happened to him even with my grandmother. Heavy drinker all of his adult life, too. Same with my uncle, and PTSD on top of that...

[BikeWriter]

48. That really sucks! So many of us never readjusted to civilian life...

...I was able to keep a job, raise kids and retire, but there's been few days in years I haven't drank.

[Allenberg]

38. Yeah, some old crazy guy who used to live by my parents.

[BikeWriter]

49. Aww shit. I'm a crazy old guy, too. :-(

[Allenberg]

51. This guy swore up and down that he served in Germany. in WWII.

His son said that he never left England.

[BikeWriter]

53. Oh, crap. He may have just dreamed it.

[MrScorpio]

39. I never saw a day of combat in 22 years

But, if I meet and fuckers who lied about it, I would not be very happy.

[BikeWriter]

50. I know what you mean, Scorpio. The wannabes piss me off no end...

...Especially the bastids who claim medals they didn't earn! :(

[TahitiNut]

40. Yes. It's been a very strange experience for me.

I'm surprised and a bit relieved to see those numbers. It's bothered me for some time that I might have had a perception that was way out of whack for some reason. (This is a long-time-coming "sanity check" for me.)

So ... I'm one in a million. Isn't that just speshul? :eyes:

I've run into maybe a dozen or so over the years, in mostly casual circumstances, who I was pretty damned sure never saw anything close to 'Nam. I don't specifically recall any in the 70s, but from about 1980 and on, I'd occasionally run into someone I felt uncomfortable about. It really took me a while to even believe that someone would make such a pretense. After all, I didn't personally know any Vietnam Vets who'd even talk about it around anyone who hadn't done their time. Hell, even when the VVAW's Winter Soldier meeting was in town less than a mile from where I worked, I did my best to avoid anything about it - except recover and stop having bad dreams. I was doing my damnedest to get my head straight.

When I came back in November 1969, the last thing on my mind was wearing my experience on my sleeve. It was a miniature kind of hell to adjust my head so it wasn't obvious. The first weeks, of course, were hopeless. I was about 165 lbs on my 6'2" frame and had that skin tone that made it obvious. I was also dealing with a marriage that destructed. (She was sleeping at her lover's place the night I returned.) I'd avoid discussions of my (better than most) experience because the way people looked at me made me feel like an alien creature of some kind. It was really weird. Hell, my family didn't even ask. Not once. The topic made them uneasy.

So, it was really hard to imagine anyone pretending they were in Vietnam when I was doing my best to pretend I wasn't.

But somewhere in the 80's I couldn't deny it. It wasn't any specific experience, but just a general feeling that there were just "too many" Vietnam Vets around - and way, way too many people who'd refer to a friend or relative who was one. And, for the last 10 years, the Internet is full of 'em. I've even seen some soon-tombstoned guys flow through DU that I'd swear were outright frauds - or still insane.

Bizarre. :shrug:


On edit: I should probably add that I've often met other Vietnam Vets and instantly bonded. We may not have had nearly anything else in common, but there's been that 'sharing the same bunker' feeling that was clear. When I first went to Club Med 15 years ago, one of the dive instructors was a Vet. Mike. He was also a Chicago cop 9 months of the year. Homicide. "Special" investigations. (The messy kind.) He'd put in so much OT that he'd pile up to which he'd add to vacation time (he had lots of time on the force) and he'd then take 3 months to be a GO Dive Instructor. He was the one I immediately trusted with my life. He was one of those edgy guys who ignores all the rules except one. He knew how to be worth trusting. It wasn't like we got all palsy-walsy. But it was like we could be quiet together and not waste a bunch of words. I'm sure it's not something I need to describe to Bikewriter, DemoTex, saigon68, or other vvets -- and not something I probably even could describe to anyone else. It's superficially easy to say "bro" ... but it's really something else. I'd NEVER get that feeling with a fake. It couldn't happen.

[BikeWriter]

54. Welcome home, Brother, and thank you for your service...

Yes, it took years before I could talk about it, or even read anything about other's experiences. I don't know if it's the same for you, but I get more depressed over our fellow vets who're there now than when it was happening to us.

[TahitiNut]

59. I have a hard time even comparing the experiences we/I had ...

... in the Army of 1968-69 (in Vietnam) to the Army of today (in Iraq). I have to take the worst of the lifer kiss-ass and toe-the-line brainless gung-ho-ism and multiply it tenfold to even comprehend abu Ghraib, firing on unarmed women and children, night break-in-and-shake-downs, and all the other dehumanizing crap.

I steadfastly maintain that people who surrender the bulk of their civil liberties and entrust their lives to the will of We The People are our responsibility. How 'we' use them and what 'we' cause them to do cannot be blamed on them. I don't think it's reasonable to scapegoat individual troops for behaving insanely when they're deliberately deployed in an insane way. The military command structure of today appears more akin to the late 1930's Wehrmacht than what I experienced or saw first-had in 'Nam ... even though that was, for me, almost total insanity as well.

I guess I don't think one can really understand what people do when driven to (indoctrinated) organized and authoritarian insanity unless they've been there ... and recovered. (The Swift Boat Liars obviously never recovered.)


On edit: I haven't put myself (or allowed myself to get) in that 'remembering' frame of mind for many years ... not until the last four years. But there's no way I could gain any insight to events in Iraq without putting it in that frame. A 'never-been-there' perspective just can't do it. Sometimes it worries me a bit. I'm a bit leery of having the dreams come back. All the same, there's a "There, but for the grace of God, go I" deja vu about it. It's sure not fun to see the predatory and exploitative militarist insanity let loose again.

[BikeWriter]

60. Yes, I agree this war has probably been worse in some perspectives....

...we were briefed we were there to help the people. The iraqi vets have heard rumsfeld talk about taking off the gloves, and * dead or alive crap.
I feel sorry for one Bro I run into sometimes who was 82nd Airborne. He got his legs shot up in his first tour and lost most of his squad, then he went back as a door gunner for another tour to give them paybacks.
I have seen him cry while telling me the same sort of stories Kerry was asked to tell Congress by the winter soldiers. I told him to call or come by my house any time night or day that he needed to talk. That troop has some ghosts haunting him!

[serryjw]

45. Don't you remember when Bushit claimed to be in Vietnam?

I was the audio clip of it somewhere!

[BikeWriter]

56. I know, I have it in my files somewhere. Something about if there were...

...one lesson he learned IN Vietnam... Just a minute... This one sounds like he was implying he was there. I have a clip somewhere of him saying it.

"We learned some very important lessons in Vietnam. Perhaps the most important lesson that I learned is that you cannot fight a guerrilla war with conventional forces. That's why I've explained to the American people that we're engaged in a different type of war; one obviously that will use conventional forces, but one in which we've got to fight on all fronts."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/10/20011011-7.html

[BikeWriter]

58. See if this is the same one you heard, Pard.

http://www.americanassembler.com/audio/BushInVietnam.mp3

[serryjw]

79. That's the one!

I learned in Vietnam?? WTF? While he was in the National Guard in TX?

Maybe that's what happens when you do to many hallucinogenic drugs? Maybe he REALLY believes he was there with Kerry in the Mekong delta?

[BikeWriter]

88. No shit. * always was a lying bastard. Download that and show it...

...to everyone you know! :)

[Liberal In Texas]

55. Sure. Every one a Repug. Go figure. n/t

[BikeWriter]

57. I wouldn't doubt that at all, Pard. :-(

[Blue-Jay]

61. Only on the internet.

Hell, look at half of FR.

[BikeWriter]

66. Think so? :-(

[Behind the Aegis]

62. What a sick question!

What is even worse? The fact that you can ask it and people have met people who lied!! The trauma that someone faces in combat is no joking matter and the fact someone would lie about it is pathological! It disgraces the memories of those who did serve and, through the grace of G-d or whomever, survived! I cannot think of a word to describe what it does to the memories of those who lost their lives!

To all those who served, I thank you! You fought/fight our enemies, real or imagined, and you should not have to be fighting your own government for your benefits or worried this administration will cut your benefits! You served your country, now it is time for your country to serve YOU!

[BikeWriter]

68. Sick question? I feel it pertinent. I've known several who've claimed...

...to be combat vets who were not.

[Behind the Aegis]

84. Yes, it is pertinent.

I think you misunderstood my post. After I reread it, I was afraid it would misunderstood. The reason I said "what a sick question" is because of the fact that it has to be asked! The logic behind claiming you are a combat vet, when you are not, is reprehensible! So, in essence, my subject line was more a comment on our times and not the question itself. Like you said, it is pertinent, and that is a shame. I have a brother and father who both saw combat and if I met someone who claimed they had, but hadn't, I think I would blow a gasket! I apologize for the confusing subject line, as it was not meant to be disrespectful.

[BikeWriter]

87. Not a problem, Pard, and yes. The entire topic is twisted. I believe...

...The wannabe Vets are emotional vampires and parasites getting their vicarious thrills from other's misfortunes and hardships. ;(

[bleedingheart]

64. I know of a guy who does it for money....

he is a salesman and some of his biggest clients are guys in the Armed forces...so he basically plays up his "veteran" status so that he can clinch sales deals....I don't know that anyone ever figured out that he was not a veteran....

He is old and close to retirement...and he made a lot on commission over the years and will retire a very wealthy man....

Personally I think it is pathetic.

[BikeWriter]

69. It's worse than pathetic. He's living off the blood and suffering...

...of real vets...

[Nikia]

65. My friend's father-in-law lied about being in combat

He volunteered for Vietnam and trained for combat. He wanted to be a hero. Somewhere along the way, they relized that he had lied about his age and that he enlisted before he was 18. For some reason, they didn't kick him out of the military, but didn't allow him to go into combat either.
His job ended up being delivering the bad news to parents and spouses of the dead and participating in those funerals. Many of the dead that he was involved with were the guys that he trained with. During this time, he began to drink to dull his emotional pain.
He tells almost everyone that he fought in Vietnam. He volunteered because he wanted to be a hero. He ended up an alcoholic and an abusive father.

[BikeWriter]

70. Crap, that really sucks. I'm sorry for your Friend.

[B Calm]

67. At work I got into an argument with two other workers

at the start of this stupid oil war. They asked me if I was a veteran, and to their surprise I told them I had served 6 years active duty during the height of the Vietnam War. I then asked the Bush supporters if they had served. Both said that they served too. Funny because two months later our employer took a group photo of their veterans after a meeting. Neither one of these two jerks came up front to pose for the picture.

[BikeWriter]

72. Being active duty during the war era you took the same chances...

...as those of us who went. Thank you for your service. :)

[amazona]

71. oh probably

I've had so many wild things happen in my life I tend to believe any wild story if I have no reason not to. I've certainly heard a lot of Vietnam era tales that sound pretty tall. The interesting thing is, one of my friends, I was certain he was confabulating, but another friend checked up on him and found out that he actually did serve in combat. So you never know. Truth is stranger than fiction.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[BikeWriter]

74. LOL! I've heard some good ones myself! Some of them true. :-)

[proud2BlibKansan]

75. There was a local politician here

who had medals for bravery and a picture in his office of him in uniform. Turned out he bought the medals at a garage sale and had never been in the military. He was prosecuted.

[BikeWriter]

76. Good! I love seeing the emotional vampires getting their due! :-)

[UTUSN]

85. Known 1 1/2, Plus Heard of a Politician and a Hollywood Star

1) The one I knew, deceased in the past year, was old beyond his years because of heavy drinking. I had my non-heroic ribbons printed on a calling card and in trying to strike up conversation asked whether he knew that they meant. He said, "You been there." Only afterwards did some of the other old vets tell me that he had claimed to be a Korean vet in order to get into the VFW and even ran for Commander, upon which he was supposedly found out. He became an object of pitiful ridicule in the bars and VFW post. A couple of times, when people continued to talk about him (him not present), I told them they should give it a rest and let him find his peace.

2) A local politician was found out to be claiming phoney medals.

3) the "Half": He hung around the VFW all the time. When the meetings were going on monthly in the big room, he struck a lonely figure with his back turned, facing the t.v. in the bar. He was actually a real paratrooper, but not outside the States, so he wasn't eligible for VFW membership (big deal). He was tough enough for combat, just didn't have it.

4) Then there's Brian DENNEHY. First I just Googled his name and it seemed like there were still plenty of sites calling him a Vietnam Vet. Btw, the "BURKETT" of "Stolen Valor" is not the CBS/RATHER "BURKETT".
*******QUOTE*******

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/08/18/ED85350.DTL

.... Burkett has unmasked some 1,500 frauds and has written a book about his research entitled ``Stolen Valor.''

Burkett exposed false claims of wartime heroism by former Oregon Rep. Wes Cooley, actor Brian Dennehy and former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke, to name but a few. ....

http://www.truenorth.tv/conduct_072102.jsp

When Brian Dennehy played in "Rambo," his role was enhanced by the actor's official biography - Vietnam vet, wounded in action. Never happened. Years later, Dennehy apologized.

B.G. Burkett: "Dennehy was a struggling young actor and he started telling stories about being there, being wounded there, being a heroic Marine - and he wasn't. He worked in a gym in Okinawa handing out footballs and basketballs."

********UNQUOTE*******

[BikeWriter]

86. Damn, and I liked Brian Dennehy, too. ;-(

[Blue Diadem]

91. The only vets I know, I have personal knowledge of them being

over there.

I am shocked that we have lost so many. My brother was one of those lost in '00. He was 53 and was still dealing with PTSD along with the effects of Agent Orange.

[BikeWriter]

95. I'm profoundly sorry for the loss of your Brother.

I know what that feels like. :(

[ScreamingMeemie]

92. Nope. My father was drafted, wanted badly to go...and ,when the last pea

was hitting the dish and he was just about to board the bus, they found out he had a kid. He's upset about it to this day ( I am thankful, because I doubt there would be a MrsGrumpy) and still carries his draft card. They had thrown the going away party, he had given up his job at the newspaper...the whole bit. :hi:

[Lisa]

93. my mom used to tell me about an eccentric neighbour of theirs ...

... who claimed to have seen heavy action during the Spanish American war. This was in a small town in the British Columbia interior, during the 1930s. The war itself happened 40 years earlier, and it sounds like the guy was in the right age group -- and it wouldn't have been too unusual for Americans to attempt homesteading in that part of northern Canada. Some people in town believed him, but mom's family never did. My grandpa noted that the guy was opportunistic (not to say dishonest, but he'd certainly seize every advantage and was quite the smooth talker) -- plus he was so lazy that he would chop down his own fenceposts during the winter, because he'd never bothered to lay in a proper store of firewood, and the forest was too far away! (This was in an area which, at least until the 1960s, was covered in trees ...)

Plus a couple of the brighter residents had asked him questions about the war, and his answers were either so vague or contradictory that they figured that, even if he had been in the military, he hadn't done half those things.

p.s. one of my dad's friends from work was a German immigrant. He never said a word about the war, and gave everyone the impression that he had been a farmer all his life. We found out after he died that he had been in some brutal battles on the Eastern Front. I suppose that he may have been afraid that people would think he was a Nazi if he talked about being a soldier back then (even though he opposed the regime and had been conscripted) -- on top of being from the generation where guys often didn't talk about what they'd been through. It must have hurt a bit, when Nov 11 came and all the Allied vets wore their ribbons in the parade, and he had to sit at home and remember all his friends who died for -- well, for worse than nothing.