thedrifter
08-02-07, 07:03 AM
How one bogus-Marine fooled an entire family
Last updated August 1, 2007 10:56 p.m. PT
By CAROL SMITH
P-I REPORTER
Reggie Buddle, the man who posed as a combat-decorated Marine and military chaplain, wasn't authorized to officiate at veterans' funerals, recruit new Marines, perform their marriages or baptize them before they went to Iraq, but for one family, he managed to do all four.
Buddle, who in reality is a retired Boeing Machinist and an Army veteran who never saw combat, encouraged Debbie Laukeman's son to join the Marines, in part by sharing his own made-up experiences. Her son, Christopher Bearce, was 19 at the time and turned to Buddle, who was engaging and a good storyteller, for advice.
"He seemed like a cool guy -- we would just go hang out with him," said Bearce, who first met Buddle through a friend of Buddle's daughter. Buddle told him he was a Marine, had served in Vietnam and was part of a Special Forces reconnaissance unit. Just out of high school, Bearce was knocking around the Tacoma area working odd jobs and was impressed with Buddle.
"He seemed to know a lot about God and the Bible, about Christianity," he said. "And he always had a story to tell. He said he knew all these people in high places. He would mention, 'I know the fire chief,' and could get me a job. He said, 'Let me know if you ever get in trouble,' because he knew the police chief."
Eventually, Buddle urged him to join the military.
"Joining the Marines was the furthest thing I thought he would do in his life," Laukeman said.
But Buddle accompanied him to the Tacoma Mall recruiting station and also helped recruit some of Bearce's friends.
"I signed the papers on my 20th birthday," said Bearce, now 25 and living in San Antonio, Texas, with his wife and newborn daughter.
Before he left for boot camp, Buddle baptized Bearce and two of his friends, who had also joined up.
"Like thousands of other mothers, when he went on his first tour of duty, I was scared to death," said Laukeman, of Lacey. "Thank God, he came home."
Bearce served two tours in Iraq as a radio operator. In between tours, he asked his sweetheart to marry him. Buddle performed the wedding ceremony, although he was not legally qualified to do so. (State laws protect the legality of the marriage under these circumstances.)
And when Bearce's grandmother, a U.S. Army veteran, died, Buddle donned his uniform and officiated at her service at Tahoma National Cemetery.
Now Buddle, who pleaded guilty in April to unlawful wearing of U.S. military medals and decorations, will be back at the military cemetery -- this time doing community service by tending graves.
Laukeman has mixed feelings about the sentence, which includes two years' probation and 500 hours of community service at the cemetery.
"I am not sure I want him anywhere around my mother's grave because I already feel he violated her and our family," Laukeman said.
Bearce, too, is struggling with mixed emotions. The Marines were good for him, he said. "It helped me to grow up." But he feels betrayed by a friend.
"He baptized me and my friends. He married me, and he gave a speech at my grandmother's funeral, all with no credentials," he said. "It feels like we were kind of taken advantage of. Those moments are something we're not going to be able to get back. We can't go back in time and have him not be there."
Bearce and his wife hope to have a new wedding ceremony, this time official, on their fifth wedding anniversary, he said.
Buddle, 59, who has lived in Lakewood most of his life and been married for 25 years, is struggling to come to terms with his shame and understand why he did what he did, said his public defender, Colin Fieman. Court records state that Buddle was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and related depression in 2003, and is taking medication for both.
Since Buddle was unmasked, he has received death threats and has been harassed to the point of moving households, Fieman said.
Buddle could not be reached for comment.
In a memorandum to the court, Fieman argued that Buddle, who did serve two years as an enlisted man in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War but never saw combat, acted out of a misguided sense of duty and his own religious convictions. He also said Buddle, who at one point had studied to become a lay minister but wasn't ordained, never sought any veterans benefits that he wasn't entitled to.
"Reggie wanted to go back to active service at the outbreak of the Iraq war, but was too old and had too many health problems for that to happen," Fieman wrote. "At one point he even went to a recruiter and offered to go to Iraq in any capacity, even if it meant washing dishes in a mess hall."
Instead, he wound up signing up others.
P-I reporter Carol Smith can be reached at 206-448-8070 or carolsmith@seattlepi.com.
Ellie
Last updated August 1, 2007 10:56 p.m. PT
By CAROL SMITH
P-I REPORTER
Reggie Buddle, the man who posed as a combat-decorated Marine and military chaplain, wasn't authorized to officiate at veterans' funerals, recruit new Marines, perform their marriages or baptize them before they went to Iraq, but for one family, he managed to do all four.
Buddle, who in reality is a retired Boeing Machinist and an Army veteran who never saw combat, encouraged Debbie Laukeman's son to join the Marines, in part by sharing his own made-up experiences. Her son, Christopher Bearce, was 19 at the time and turned to Buddle, who was engaging and a good storyteller, for advice.
"He seemed like a cool guy -- we would just go hang out with him," said Bearce, who first met Buddle through a friend of Buddle's daughter. Buddle told him he was a Marine, had served in Vietnam and was part of a Special Forces reconnaissance unit. Just out of high school, Bearce was knocking around the Tacoma area working odd jobs and was impressed with Buddle.
"He seemed to know a lot about God and the Bible, about Christianity," he said. "And he always had a story to tell. He said he knew all these people in high places. He would mention, 'I know the fire chief,' and could get me a job. He said, 'Let me know if you ever get in trouble,' because he knew the police chief."
Eventually, Buddle urged him to join the military.
"Joining the Marines was the furthest thing I thought he would do in his life," Laukeman said.
But Buddle accompanied him to the Tacoma Mall recruiting station and also helped recruit some of Bearce's friends.
"I signed the papers on my 20th birthday," said Bearce, now 25 and living in San Antonio, Texas, with his wife and newborn daughter.
Before he left for boot camp, Buddle baptized Bearce and two of his friends, who had also joined up.
"Like thousands of other mothers, when he went on his first tour of duty, I was scared to death," said Laukeman, of Lacey. "Thank God, he came home."
Bearce served two tours in Iraq as a radio operator. In between tours, he asked his sweetheart to marry him. Buddle performed the wedding ceremony, although he was not legally qualified to do so. (State laws protect the legality of the marriage under these circumstances.)
And when Bearce's grandmother, a U.S. Army veteran, died, Buddle donned his uniform and officiated at her service at Tahoma National Cemetery.
Now Buddle, who pleaded guilty in April to unlawful wearing of U.S. military medals and decorations, will be back at the military cemetery -- this time doing community service by tending graves.
Laukeman has mixed feelings about the sentence, which includes two years' probation and 500 hours of community service at the cemetery.
"I am not sure I want him anywhere around my mother's grave because I already feel he violated her and our family," Laukeman said.
Bearce, too, is struggling with mixed emotions. The Marines were good for him, he said. "It helped me to grow up." But he feels betrayed by a friend.
"He baptized me and my friends. He married me, and he gave a speech at my grandmother's funeral, all with no credentials," he said. "It feels like we were kind of taken advantage of. Those moments are something we're not going to be able to get back. We can't go back in time and have him not be there."
Bearce and his wife hope to have a new wedding ceremony, this time official, on their fifth wedding anniversary, he said.
Buddle, 59, who has lived in Lakewood most of his life and been married for 25 years, is struggling to come to terms with his shame and understand why he did what he did, said his public defender, Colin Fieman. Court records state that Buddle was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and related depression in 2003, and is taking medication for both.
Since Buddle was unmasked, he has received death threats and has been harassed to the point of moving households, Fieman said.
Buddle could not be reached for comment.
In a memorandum to the court, Fieman argued that Buddle, who did serve two years as an enlisted man in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War but never saw combat, acted out of a misguided sense of duty and his own religious convictions. He also said Buddle, who at one point had studied to become a lay minister but wasn't ordained, never sought any veterans benefits that he wasn't entitled to.
"Reggie wanted to go back to active service at the outbreak of the Iraq war, but was too old and had too many health problems for that to happen," Fieman wrote. "At one point he even went to a recruiter and offered to go to Iraq in any capacity, even if it meant washing dishes in a mess hall."
Instead, he wound up signing up others.
P-I reporter Carol Smith can be reached at 206-448-8070 or carolsmith@seattlepi.com.
Ellie