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thedrifter
05-22-09, 08:02 AM
Real Punishment For Phony Veterans

May 22, 2009: After years of pressure from veterans, the U.S. government is finally cracking down on phony veterans, particularly those who claim to have been POWs (Prisoners Of War) . Many of these fakes go even farther, and claim to be POWS when they claim disability payments from the Veterans Administration. There is a financial incentive to make the claim, but for years, this has resulted in an obvious pattern of fraud.

There are only 661 officially recognized U.S. POWs from the Vietnam period. About 550 of those are alive, but the VA says they are paying disability payments to 966 "Vietnam POWs." It got worse after the 1991 Gulf War. There were 21 officially recognized POWs during that conflict, but the VA is paying disability to 286 Gulf War POWs. For years, the VA claimed that they checked out the records before recognizing all these phony POW vets. Once recognized as a POW by the VA, you have several financial benefits (like not having to make copayments for medical services). Thus the fake POWs are also guilty of stealing money from the government. Veterans groups believe the VA resisted dealing with this obvious fraud because of unwillingness to deal with the resulting bad publicity.

Veteran groups have, increasingly, been going after these phonies independently, and have unmasked over 2,000 POW poseurs. These groups have also exposed many more non-veterans who claimed service, including medals not earned. Some of these imposters even used fake documents to claim veterans benefits. But most just did it to impress friends and acquaintances.

Some of the most outrageous fakers pretended to be veterans of elite units (Special Forces, Delta Force, Rangers and SEALS). The boldest fakes pretend to have been U.S. Navy SEALs. The real SEALs are elite amphibious commandoes, and there aren’t many of them (fewer than a thousand on active duty at any one time.) There are only a few thousand real SEAL veterans out there. Yet in the last decade, over 25,000 people have been exposed as pretending to be former SEALs. There are two volunteer (AuthentiSEAL.org and VeriSeal.org) organizations out there that expose these phonies. Only one in 200 people examined by these organizations turn out of have been SEALs. Some of the phonies have threatened lawsuits, but none has ever followed through.

The number of phonies goes up whenever SEALs are in the news, either because of combat activity, or because of a movie or TV show about them. Many civilians accuse the authenticating organizations guilty of being vigilantes, as many people find nothing wrong in a little make believe. But SEALs, or any combat troops, operate in a very dangerous environment, and have to train hard to acquire the skills that civilians are so keen on pretending they have. The phonies are seen, by the troops, as dishonoring the effort and sacrifices of the real SEALs. Moreover, the phonies are often embarrassing specimens of humanity, who make the real SEALs look bad simply by association. So it’s not just a little harmless make-believe, it’s bad for the morale of people who risk their lives for all of us.

Ellie

Wyoming
05-22-09, 09:19 AM
.

Thanks Ms Ellie, but you know, this piece really pizzes me off -
There are only 661 officially recognized U.S. POWs from the Vietnam period. About 550 of those are alive, but the VA says they are paying disability payments to 966 "Vietnam POWs." It got worse after the 1991 Gulf War. There were 21 officially recognized POWs during that conflict, but the VA is paying disability to 286 Gulf War POWs. For years, the VA claimed that they checked out the records before recognizing all these phony POW vets. Once recognized as a POW by the VA, you have several financial benefits (like not having to make copayments for medical services). Thus the fake POWs are also guilty of stealing money from the government. Veterans groups believe the VA resisted dealing with this obvious fraud because of unwillingness to deal with the resulting bad publicity.

Jeez, WTF is going on here!!

Yes, I am sure it is Bush's fault, but when will it end, when will heads roll?

Deduke
05-22-09, 10:03 AM
Each VA hospital receives funding based on the number of "veterans" it serves. In other words, they get paid by the head. It is to their financial advantage to get as many people through the door and onto the roll as possible. To complicate it even further, the percentage of VA employees who are veterans is fairly small - somewhere around 30%. Most civilian employees don't have BS meters issued to them, and so have no way, or desire, to weed out the phony phucks.

SSgt Ramsey
05-22-09, 10:06 AM
What really ****es me off about this, is the VA will gladly pay these scammers benefits they did not earn nor rate to receive, but deny those of us with real issues and request assistance indefinitely.

I say indict all these morons to include the VA employee who granted them benefits....then send them to Leavenworth as a Federal Felon.

SgtLisdog58
05-22-09, 12:35 PM
.

Thanks Ms Ellie, but you know, this piece really pizzes me off -

Jeez, WTF is going on here!!

Yes, I am sure it is Bush's fault, but when will it end, when will heads roll?

So you are sure it is Bush's fault? How? Should we ignore the 20+ years that were between the end of Vietnam and Bush's reign as president? What about the7+ years from the end of the Persian Gulf war too? Don't let your personal feelings get into public matters such as this. Those claims happened because the system had a flaw in it and people exploited it. I'm not happy about the fakes either but you don't see me blaming random people for it. Since we're blaming people for things, should I blame Henry Ford for the POS 1962 truck that I had to drive in the 1990's?

sscjoe
05-22-09, 01:12 PM
This really upsets me. I am a Catagory 8 Vet and was turned down by the VA when I was unemployed with no health insurance. Big Al, I will blame Bush for this because it was under his reign that Cat 8 Vets were deemed ineligible

Wyoming
05-22-09, 01:18 PM
So you are sure it is Bush's fault? How? Should we ignore the 20+ years that were between the end of Vietnam and Bush's reign as president? What about the7+ years from the end of the Persian Gulf war too? Don't let your personal feelings get into public matters such as this. Those claims happened because the system had a flaw in it and people exploited it. I'm not happy about the fakes either but you don't see me blaming random people for it. Since we're blaming people for things, should I blame Henry Ford for the POS 1962 truck that I had to drive in the 1990's?

Get over the comment.

It goes way back, and has become a joke of sorts.

I see you have newly joined.

Jump into the political forum, you'll see the comment many, many times.

https://webmail2.centurytel.net/hwebmail/mail/dlAttach.php?contenttype=image%2Fjpeg&attachment=2&index=12530&mailbox=INBOX&d=3&id=image001.jpg@01C9DAB9.CF6B4B10

So I said to him, "Barack, I know Abe Lincoln, and you ain't Abe Lincoln."

jetdawgg
05-23-09, 07:03 PM
Get over the comment.

It goes way back, and has become a joke of sorts.

I see you have newly joined.

Jump into the political forum, you'll see the comment many, many times.

https://webmail2.centurytel.net/hwebmail/mail/dlAttach.php?contenttype=image%2Fjpeg&attachment=2&index=12530&mailbox=INBOX&d=3&id=image001.jpg@01C9DAB9.CF6B4B10

So I said to him, "Barack, I know Abe Lincoln, and you ain't Abe Lincoln."


.....especially written by BigAL:D

Marine84
05-23-09, 07:20 PM
Since we're blaming people for things, should I blame Henry Ford for the POS 1962 truck that I had to drive in the 1990's?

And I'm gonna blame Budweiser for all the ugly men I ever went home with (I very seldom ever spent the night :angel:) ;)

That's messed up...........there are those that lay awake at night trying to think of ways to find a loophole some where. Somebody that really needs it loses out. Doesn't really matter who's fault it is...............it happens.