Kenneth L. Godwin; that phony obit
Last month, Old Trooper sent us an obit on Kenneth L. Godwin who pretended to be a Lieutenant Colonel and in his photo accompanying the obit, he was wearing a Combat Action Badge. We doubted his claims, just based on the picture he took before he died. His estranged daughter came by and told us that our suspicions were not baseless, despite the folks who came by to defend Godwin.
Well, Hondo got his records last night and we were right. His service ended decades ago as a Staff Sergeant. There’s no Silver Star, no Bronze Star, not even an assignment to he 101st that I can see, let alone verification of his time with Rangers and Special Forces.
So,, yes, we know that obits are notoriously inaccurate, but the picture that accompanies the obit is a lie, too. And it looks like he was alive when the picture was taken and so he was complicit in the lie to a point. So you phonies out there, come clean to your family while you’re still alive or the fact that you were a liar will be their last memory of you when your obit is featured on TAH.
Category: Phony soldiers
That last line is the truest and most important point. You will be found out by your family and it will only hurt them. My experience is the fam knows for The most part But just don’t know what to do about it.
So he did 20 years, served as a radio guy of some kind in Vietnam and what looks like a medical specialist and he still felt the need to lie?
Spade: apparently so.
Honorable service isn’t good enough for some – they have to be the second coming of Audie Murphy. For an additional example, see “Wittgenfeld, Dallas”.
Yeah, Spade, instances like this drive us all nuts. It’s not enough to be in the 1%. Some feel they just have to be in the .00001%
I served 6 years, 10 months active duty and a year in the reserves and I feel guilty when I round up and say I served 8 years. My career was spectacularly mediocre. I got a couple of commendation medals and Outstanding Unit awards, but those were mostly the “I did my tour without screwing up too badly”.
I am most proud of my marksmanship ribbon from training. I’ve always been a pretty good shot, but I got the ribbon despite the gal next to me in the range managing to pull her M9, putting one round into the partition in front of her, the next round into the partition separating us, and having her brass launch itself down my collar and giving me a nice burn all while I nailed the last two rounds into the bullseye.
That was also the closest I came to combat. I was, technically shot at, but out of stupidity not hostility and I couldn’t claim the brass burn for a Purple Heart because she wasn’t an enemy combatant. Yep, she never was an enemy, but I was downright unfriendly toward her any time I saw her.