MAX BLENKIN: Veterans enlist to weed out Walter Mitys

as posted here (link is a 404 error now)

October 9th, 2009

They are the people who pretend to be veterans, either embellishing a pedestrian service record or, as was the case with former Prisoner of War Association president Rex Crane, creating a wholly fictitious record of overseas service. SOME call them wannabes, others more politely describe them as Walter Mittys, a reference to the fictional character who imagined himself to be a dashing pilot or a life-saving surgeon.

Oxygen thieves, vermin and blowflies is how one particular group of veterans regard these imposters, running their own investigations of frauds and posting the results on their website.
The aim is to name, shame and humiliate.
``Why do we do what we do? To a man each of us lost good mates who paid with their lives in Vietnam,'' explains the group's spokesman who identifies himself only as Rodney Rambo.
``All of us have pulled a boot on in defence of Australia and get most irate when we discover a phoney who would steal the honour of our pals.''
The website is called Australian and New Zealand Military Imposters (ANZMI) and is hosted from the US.
``This affords some protection from death threats made by wannabes we have exposed _ for personal and family protection the names of all operatives are pseudonyms,'' Rodney said.
Some of the exposed are considered to be unbalanced and some homicidal.
The ANZMI team comprises Australian Regular Army Vietnam veterans who understandably concentrate on outing bogus Vietnam veterans, Rodney says.
But now they are receiving reports of dodgy veterans from recent conflicts including Somalia, Rwanda, Timor, Afghanistan, the Solomons and Iraq.
The website lists 116 cases, indicating the astonishing extent of this practice.
Most are men, although some women are exposed for purporting to be nurses in Vietnam.
Among the cases is that of a man who pretended to be a returned POW, although his WWII   service with the RAAF never took him outside Australia.
One man, with no military service at all, was exposed for claiming to have served with the US Marines and SEALs, Australian Special Air Service Regiment and Commandos as well as with ASIO.
Membership of special forces appears to be a relatively common claim of the wannabes. ANZMI notes that many on the site have honourable, if undistinguished, genuine military service.
``Instead of being proud of this service, they have heavily embellished it or created a whole new fraudulent history for themselves,'' the website says.
Why do they do it? In some cases, the result is fraudulent access to veteran benefits but many seem to fall into the ``sad loser'' category.
Rodney says most bogus Vietnam veterans surfaced after the 1987 Welcome Home parade.
``Those with little or no service saw the outpouring of emotions and the forgiveness ... of mainstream Australia towards the shunned and not often spoken of''.
``Here was an opportunity for an absolute nobody to attract sympathy and attention from a newly awakened country.''
Under ANZMI policy, former service personnel who have embellished their records will be removed from the website if they recant and apologise to the veteran community. But civilians with fabricated military careers are there in perpetuity.
Rodney said a continuing concern related to the punishment meted out to the wannabes.
``The most disappointing aspect is the poor penalties handed down by the courts _ if in fact the case ever reaches court,'' he said.
He suggests jail as the obvious punishment, noting that imposters in the US can expect jail time or perhaps community service in a veterans' mental institution bathing, feeding, writing letters and taking mentally-affected former servicemen to the toilet.
Rodney said the recent exposure of Crane had produced numerous reports of fresh suspects to the ANZMI site.
``As long as we have wars we will have wannabes,'' he said. ``I guess it's like trying to eradicate blowflies.''
(Website: http://www.anzmi.net/info.html)

as posted here (404)