jolly1

In the Navy we called it "drawing Midnight Small Stores." If you simply had to have it, you could get it from the Seabees, one way or the other. Of course I am only talking about "for the good of the Service." And, in the event that there were no Seabees about, the Marines were the next best depot for drawing such necessarry supplies.

xseabee Loc: Northern California; Northern, Colorado

And YOU remind me, that although the U.S. played the lions share in Vietnam; All should remember that we were supported by France & Allies...Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Laos, and The Philippines. All had some real hero's in the fight.

RixPix Loc: Miami, Florida

I agree not the most ethical person but what if any law did he break?

MadMike Loc: SALT LAKE

Actually he broke the Stollen Valor Act, which allows for 6 months in jail, and up to a year for claiming the Metal of Honor.

xseabee Loc: Northern California; Northern, Colorado

The orignal post here does not give ALL of the details, so I speak somewhat out of context. He may have violated:
S. 1998 (109th): Stolen Valor Act of 2005. A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to enhance protections relating to the reputation and meaning of the Medal of Honor and other military decorations and awards, and for other purposes. Introduced: Nov 10, 2005Sponsor:Sen. Kent Conrad [D-ND]Status: Signed by the President.

Official Summary:

The following summary was written by the Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan arm of the Library of Congress, which serves Congress. GovTrack did not write and has no control over these summaries.

12/20/2006--Public Law. (This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

Stolen Valor Act of 2005 - Amends the federal criminal code to expand the prohibition against wearing, manufacturing, or selling military decorations or medals without legal authorization to prohibit purchasing, soliciting, mailing, shipping, importing, exporting, producing blank certificates of receipt for, advertising, trading, bartering, or exchanging such decorations or medals without authorization.

Prohibits falsely representing oneself as having been awarded any decoration or medal authorized by Congress for the Armed Forces or any of the service medals or badges.

Increases penalties for violations if the offense involves a distinguished service cross, an Air Force Cross, a Navy Cross, a silver star, or a Purple Heart.

UP-2-IT Loc: RED STICK, LA

Prosecute him.

dragonfist Loc: Stafford, N.Y.

These guys are usually easy to spot. Most real heroes aren't braggarts. I worked with a man who had been awarded th VC. I found out after he had retired. He was noted as having gotten it during WW2 in his retirement notice in the company paper. His wife who also worked there let the cat out of the bag when they interviewed her for the article. Otherwise none of us would have ever known.

Roger Hicks Loc: Aquitaine

Most? Arguably very close to "all".

My father recalls meeting someone at a cocktail party in New Zealand. When he'd moved on, someone else asked him what he thought about the fellow he'd just been talking to. My father said, "Seems an interesting chap. Sheep farmer..."

"Yes, he would be interesting. VC and bar..."

Cheers,

R.

BW326 Loc: Boynton Beach, Florida

My old unit (a Marine Rifle Co in Vietnam) loved meeting up with the SeaBees and Engineers at Khe Sanh where we would trade souvenoirs and they would give us things like small packets of C-4 explosives which we would use, a little chunk at a time, to heat up C-Rations or make coffee (a little chunk would heat up water for coffee in about 30 secs.).

Bartulius Loc: Bristol, Ct

I say prosecute him to the fullest extent. He should also be made to make a personal face to face apology to all he defrauded.
Of course all monetary gains made from Stolen Valor should be forfeited along with appropriate fines.

phcaan Loc: Willow Springs, MO

Hey I remember the seabees, they were the great guys that helped us rebuild our perimeter when I was in ChuLai in 1967. Boy did they help us out of a jam.
Thanks SEABEES

MadMike Loc: SALT LAKE

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=960&sid=20259792&title=va-officials-confirm-veterans-records-dont-match-with-pow-story#ooid=I2dWVtNDp0z3jAabSfB-SdsqHzPptNUv If this works, here is the story from the KSL TV in Salt Lake, You can decide for yourself. I actually have seen this man at the VA, and wonder if he is recieving Combat incentives on his Pension? Only time will tell.

Bmac Loc: Long Island, NY

Osama Bin Laden, a murderous thug, was relying on "accurate" news reporting to publicize his actions? I think he was hoping to find "sympathetic" news sources to downplay the war on terror and help propagandize his actions. Olbermann was perfect for this role, until his was fired. 8-)

ngc1514 Loc: Atlanta, Ga., Lancaster, Oh. and Stuart, Fl.

The FRENCH? The French were one of the main reasons why we were in Vietnam and definitely did not support the war effort in any material way once they got their butts kicked out of the country after the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.

We - the US - made two major blunders in Vietnam. The first was, after telling the Allies that we would not support recolonization efforts by the Allies, we ended up giving Indochina back to the French. France had 2 divisions ready to take over Vietnam and it was planned to send them to the surrendered Japan. For some reason, Truman allowed them back in Vietnam.

The second major blunder was allowing armed Japanese soldiers to act as temporary police forces in Vietnam. This is equivelent to allowing the armed SS to stand guard in DP camps after the European war ended. The Viet Minh was given weapons by the Imperial Japanese Army and some IJA troops joined the cause as well.

Even more amazing, some Japanese troops were rearmed by the French and British to fight against the Viet Minh in the southern part of the country in order to reestablish French control.

It soon cost us 58,000 American lives to pay for those blunders.

xseabee Loc: Northern California; Northern, Colorado

ngc1514,
You are absolutely correct. I failed to include any history of the French's war throughout the 50's and very early 60's.
My comment was not directed toward the politic's of the French, but to the individual. My comment, in keeping with the topic of this thread, was ment to to refer to the fact that in addition to the U.S., Other allies were there including the French and the ones I came in contact with were very honorable men. That comment was also in response to Roger Hicks post; who I believe is French. Thank you for adding that history.