'I feel ashamed as a Marine'

[thedrifter]

'I feel ashamed as a Marine'
By Karl Stampfl
staff writer

At a ceremony on Memorial Day in Plainfield, Marine Corps veteran Scott Pattermann stood saluting the flag during the Pledge of Allegiance. Pinned on his chest was the Navy Cross, the Marines' second most prestigious award, ranking behind only the Medal of Honor. It was a beautiful scene, full of honor and glory.

But it would turn out to be an instance of stolen valor.

Records show that the Plainfield resident never earned the Navy Cross. Neither did he earn the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart or Vietnam Campaign Medal, all of which he wore on Memorial Day.

His playacting was a federal offense that could have landed him in prison for up to six months. Perhaps more devastating, it upset other veterans who really did earn those awards.

"This guy is a phony," said Mike Barbour, commander of Naperville's Veterans of Foreign Wars post. "This stuff demeans people who were really there."

Two DD-214s

In June, sitting in a wheelchair in his living room, Pattermann, 52, adamantly maintained that he earned the awards. When confronted with evidence against the claims, he was unflinching.

As proof, Pattermann carried in his back pocket a wrinkled copy of one of his two DD-214 forms. DD-214s detail a service member's military history.

"I carry it with me because there are so many fakes out there," said Pattermann, who said he injured his leg while on the job as a stone mason.

DD-214 forms are given to service members each time they leave the military. It is possible to have more than one DD-214, as Pattermann claimed he did.

The one he carried in his back pocket listed his service from 1969 to 1974. It would turn out to be a fake. It said he had won the Navy Cross as well as the other medals.

Phony veterans often buy the DD-214s on the Internet or on the black market, then fill them out with fictional adventures, said FBI agent Tom Cottone, who has investigated dozens of phony veterans and who passed Pattermann's case onto the bureau's Chicago office.

The 1969 to 1974 form was riddled with mistakes and discrepancies.

Mary Shantag, an archivist and fraud investigator of the Missouri-based POW Network, said the form has dozens of errors. Many of them are spelling or grammatical, but others are more major. The most striking of the mistakes is a box on the form that reads "Indochina or Korea service since August 5, 1964." The box is checked 'no,' indicating that he did not serve in the region, which encompasses Vietnam.

The form was signed by Pattermann.

"He signed it saying it's correct," Cottone said. "If they said no, I would say 'Excuse me, I spent a lot of time there.'"

The first DD-214 also lists Pattermann's birthday as Aug. 12, 1948. This is not true. Records show that Pattermann was not born until Aug. 12, 1954, which would have made him 15 at the time of his enlistment, two years younger than the minimum age.

His other DD-214 details his service from 1974 to 1976. It is legitimate, military records confirm.

It shows that Pattermann earned the Rifle Sharpshooter Badge and National Service Defense Medal. Records also show he participated in Operation Eagle Pull, the emergency evacuation in the spring of 1975 of U.S. citizens from Cambodia, which was in danger of falling to Communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas.

Pattermann served his country nobly as a Marine. But for him, it was not enough.

Pattermann's explanation

Pattermann said in June that the records detailing his service from 1969 to 1974 were lost in a July 12, 1973, fire at the military's National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.

"My back record was totally lost," Pattermann said.

The fire charred the center's top floor, leaving it in ruins. The floor contained about 22 million personnel folders. Affected were U.S. Army soldiers discharged between 1912 and 1959, as well as Air Force personnel between 1947 and 1963.

The fire did not affect Marine Corps records, so Pattermann's would not have been touched, Sterner said.

"I hear that excuse all the time," Sterner said. "There are two things phony veterans usually say: Their records burned in a fire, or it was a secret mission."

Sterner said both excuses are often used, but rarely legitimate.

The orphanage

When asked in July how he earned the Navy Cross, Pattermann hesitated before saying: "Right outside of Saigon, in an orphanage, we were under heavy fire, the building was on fire. There were 12 of us, 12 Marines. We were carrying burning babies out. Only three of us survived." Then he paused before changing the detail of how many Marines were present. "Fourteen went in, only three went out."

In a later interview, he would change the location to Kontum in the Central Highlands – not near Saigon.

Pattermann says he has been in and out of mental health facilities for stays he attributes to post traumatic stress syndrome.

"Yeah, I'm screwed up," he said. "I'll admit it."

What he wouldn't admit for a long time is the truth about his military record – at least not until earlier this week.

FBI investigation

On Wednesday, Pattermann's lies finally caught up to him. Justice arrived at his Plainfield doorstep in the form of two agents from the Chicago bureau of the FBI.

They knocked on his door at about 6:30 a.m. The agents handed Pattermann a letter. It was from the office of the U.S. Attorney and it explained that although they had decided not to prosecute him, they would if he kept up his fraud.

For the first time, Pattermann was apologetic and remorseful. He admitted to fabricating his first DD-214 and lying about the awards. He handed over his uniform with the medals still on it, saying that he did not want to have anything to do with them anymore, not even the medals he did earn, like the National Defense Service Medal and the Rifle Sharpshooter Badge.

On Thursday, he said he had done it to honor other veterans who had died in combat.

"I didn't wear them for myself," Pattermann said. "I wore it for all the Vietnam vets I knew who died there and no one cared about them."

Military phonies can only be charged if they are caught in the act of wearing the medals. Because he was captured by a Plainfield Sun photograph that appeared June 2 of the Memorial Day celebration in the act of wearing the medals, he could have faced a fine of $5,000 and six months in prison.

When the FBI left, Pattermann was left with a difficult conversation: He had to tell his son, Cyrus Pattermann, a Marine Corps 2nd lieutenant at flight school in Florida, that he had been lying.

Disrespect to other veterans

Cyrus Pattermann said on Thursday that his father had admitted his lies to him the day before, but he had already begun to expect it before then.

"I did a lot of research beforehand and a lot of things disappointed me in some respects," he said.

Cyrus Pattermann said that he's disappointed in his father, but that, after all, he had served his country.

"My father was a good Marine," he said. "He did serve honorably. He will always be a Marine."

The photograph in The Plainfield Sun angered Naperville VFW members.

"If he would have walked into the post on Friday (after the photograph appeared), some people would have swung at him," post commander Barbour said.

Pattermann was kicked out of the post in 1996 when members discovered his claims were false.

Barbour said Pattermann roused suspicion by bragging about his medals at the VFW bar – something legitimate medal winners rarely do, he said.

"If you find somebody who blows off about their exploits, be wary," Barbour said. "Anyone I know who was in combat doesn't talk about it. Their kids don't even know this stuff."

Schantag said military frauds are even more disrespectful in a time of war. More than 2,500 servicemen have died in Iraq.

"His kid's out there putting his life on the line and this guy's got to invent a life," Schantag said. "It's really sad."

A parade of phonies

Pattermann's is not the only case of stolen valor. Cottone has been smoking out phonies for than a decade, and the parade of frauds stretches long beyond that.

They outfit themselves with medals, certificates and blank DD-214 forms acquired over the Internet or at flea markets. Then armed with a story – no matter how riddled with plot holes – they populate the bars and diners of America, telling tales of adventures they never had.

And each year, there are more and more.

According to the Medal of Honor Society, there are more people falsely claiming to have won the Medal of Honor than the 124 living recipients.

The Navy Cross has become a popular medal among fakers, Cottone said, because unlike the Medal of Honor, the military does not maintain a centralized list of winners.

After years of telling their lies, some phony veterans begin to believe them.

"There are nonmilitary cases of individuals who have fabricated elaborate trauma histories, and at least some of them genuinely seem to have convinced themselves of the veracity of the fabricated experiences," said Richard McNally, a professor of psychology at Harvard University.

Not all the phonies have made up their entire record – some, such as Pattermann, only embellish it.

"Sadly, many of these men did serve honorably, and yet for obscure reasons they feel compelled to augment their records," McNally said.

Motivations for the fraud vary. Some do it for glory, others do it because of mental problems and others do it to gain political office or to receive veteran's benefits such as healthcare.

"One can only speculate about the motives of those who do this," McNally said.

When faced with undeniable proof that their fantasies are untrue, the phonies often grow remorseful, confessing to living in a fictional world.

"I feel ashamed as a Marine for what I did," Pattermann said. "All I can say is I apologize."


- Contact Karl Stampfl at kstampfl@scn1.com or 630-416-5212.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

What I can never understand is why anyone wants to boast about their career .

My thoughts are when you Earned the Title of being a Marine, that is a accomplishment all on it own..

Ellie

[Marine84]

That is so sad...................he should have just been content with knowing that he really did do it just not when he was saying he was doing it and the medal thing................well, that was just wrong. He must have really needed some attention in his life to do that. Too bad he has to live with it for the rest of his life. I would be ashamed to be a Marine if I did something like that too.

[yellowwing]

Man, and now his son is in aviation training. That blows finding out that your Dad - Hero is full of ****.

[jryanjack]

I agree Ellie - having earned the title is the most important thing that you can earn.

[BOOGIEMAN44]

My thoughts are when you Earned the Title of being a Marine, that is a accomplishment all on it own..

MINE AS WELL, ONCE YOU EARN THAT TITLE, YOU ARE A MEMBER FOR LIFE, THE REST IS JUST X-TRA, MAYBE I HAVE BEEN LOCKED UP IN A CLOSET, BUT I ALWAYS HERE MARINES TELL HOW THEY MADE THAT LAST HEAD SHOT AT THE 500M LINE TO GET THERE EXPERT BADGE, BUT NEVER "BOAST" ON WAR BADGES OR MEDALS.

[jerryk]

why brag about medals you can take them all to macdonalds and it will still cost you a buck for a cup of coffee

[inchon]

MINE AS WELL, ONCE YOU EARN THAT TITLE, YOU ARE A MEMBER FOR LIFE, THE REST IS JUST X-TRA, MAYBE I HAVE BEEN LOCKED UP IN A CLOSET, BUT I ALWAYS HERE MARINES TELL HOW THEY MADE THAT LAST HEAD SHOT AT THE 500M LINE TO GET THERE EXPERT BADGE, BUT NEVER "BOAST" ON WAR BADGES OR MEDALS.

You know why? Marines are riflemen first. I was a 6th award expert when I went back to civilian life. Four of those were low 220's. By the skin of a pastie!!!

Way more embarressing to wear a pizza box for a year than have only a Good Conduct medal for life.

Just my opinion.

[BOOGIEMAN44]

You know why?

OH, I KNOW WHY, I WAS JUST PUTTING IN MY 3 CENTS...

[quakerboy74]

This is a crock. I would have to agree with all of you on your thoughts. The proudest moment of each and every day is waking up, and knowing that I am what I say I am. A Marine. There is nothing better. The second greatest feeling of each and every day.....Is when someone asks me if I was. Of course my reply is, "Not was, I still am." No bs, no imaganitive dream. We all earned that title. And we earned the right to bear that title. And I'll be d*m^ed if anybody around me ever disgraces the HONOR of being a MARINE.

'Nuff said

Semper Fi!

[david43844]

That is so very very sad.Me thinks he needs help moreso than critisism.

Its better to be a once was, than a never will be

[Rowdy1948]

I will never forget that feeling the day we were in formation in front of the theater at MCRD San Diago the day of Graduation all you guys know what I mean. what a feeling Semper Fi.

[chafas2531]

I will never forget that feeling the day we were in formation in front of the theater at MCRD San Diago the day of Graduation all you guys know what I mean. what a feeling Semper Fi.

....and then making a mad dash for our seabags so we could go home for a few days! SEMPER FIDELIS!
A Heart O' Texas Marine.
ben

[iamcloudlander]

I am posting this as a question regarding wearing the uniform and medals when they weren't earned.
A few years ago I allowed my son to wear my uniform for a costume party. He asked me for permission to wear it but he took the Marine emblems off the barracks cover and the blouse. He was not pertending to be a Marine but used it only as a Halloween costume. He told everyone he was not a Marine (14 years old at the time).
Was I wrong to do this??
Also I went into the Marines never having touched a weapon in my life. At Edson Range the PMO's taught me how to shoot and I earned a Marksman Badge. I shot a 208 and to this day I have never done anything that gave me more pride. In eight subsquent re-qual at the range I never shot any higher. I still wear the Marksman Badge with great pride. As a SSGT I qualified with the pistol as a Sharpshooter.

[MillRatUSMC]

WHY?
Just the other day, I read in a post something that went like this;
Earning the title is the easy part, living what that title means will be the hard part.
One can either live with honor, even if your dirt poor.
Or live a life with dishonor.
Well, this Marine has chosen to live a life of dishonor.
He states that he did it to "HONOR" other Marines.
Why is that becoming the norm with all these wantabee?
I been kicking around an idea for an Ezine story...
It will be about all the other Marines that served in Vietnam to today.
Who were not infantry or any elite unit,
We that being the infantry aka "Grunts" would call them names,
But to their credit they did the assignment given them.
Bear with me, I'm trying to tie all this in.
Most of the times, they would never be in a sitution that might result in the awarding of medals such as the Navy Cross, Bronze Star or the Silver Star.
Yet they served and are still serving.
None of these wantabee ever pad their resumes as one of these Marines.
He should have been proud that he took part in Operation Eagle Pull, the emergency evacuation in the spring of 1975 of U.S. citizens from Cambodia, which was in danger of falling to Communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas.
How will he ever face hisMarine son after living all these lies?
That what makes this all hard to swallow being a veteran of that war.