Nate Fornwalt: phony steals lemonade stand money from 13-year-old

This one came from Don Shipley and it begins when 13-year-old Matthew Ott, whose mother passed away from a mysterious illness when he was only 11 months old, set up a lemonade stand to raise money for veterans. Every year, young Matthew gives the money he makes from the sweat of his brow to deserving local veterans. This past year Matthew gave his money to two families, according to the article at the link above;

This year two veterans’ families will be the beneficiaries of Matthew’s effort. To insure the families’ privacy, John Ott refers to them as “Family One” and “Family Two.” The York families were selected by the Gold Star Mothers organization or from articles in the news media.

Family One is a multiple Purple Heart Award recipient with a wife and a child. A Marine Special Forces veteran he is on 100 percent disability.

Family Two is the widow and two teen-aged sons of an Army Scout killed in Iraq.

Family One is the focus of this post. The “multiple Purple Heart…Marine Special Forces” dude is Nate Fornwalt, the forlorn-looking dude in the picture above. Apparently, he’s been spreading his bullshit for a couple of years around York, Pennsylvania. Here he is talking about his 15 years in the Marines and his time with MARSOC;

Some of his tale;

On one of those details, he was in Fallujah, riding on top of a military SUV, protected by bulletproof glass. He spotted two 155-millimeter shells, side by side, wrapped up in plastic bags on the side of the road.

“I saw them, and I knew something was wrong,” he said. “…Before I could get my mouth open, they detonated.”

He went down.

“It was just real hazy. …It was very peaceful at first. I thought I fell asleep,” he said.

He doesn’t remember how long he was down. He remembers someone punching him, telling him to get up.

He was bleeding out of his nose. His face was lacerated. He had some shrapnel through him, but he didn’t think he was hurt enough to need medical treatment at a Battalion Aid Station. He patched himself up with gauze.

Fellow soldiers in a special operations unit noticed problems. He was forgetting things, and he wasn’t the same physically. When he was on leave, family members noticed changes, too.

And he made a bloody snowman last winter “to honor veterans” and he says that he pinned one of his Purple Hearts to his creation (he claims that he was awarded three Purple Hearts).

Yeah, thanks for thinking of us, Nate. Somehow, I don’t feel honored.

Anyway, Don Shipley got Nate’s FOIA expedited and the NPRC says that Nate did serve 15 years in the Marines and he was an 0331 Machinegunner, but he left the Corps as an Sergeant E-5. Here’s his list of awards;

Good Conduct Medal (3rd Award); Iraq Campaign Medal with 4 stars; Sea Service Deployment Ribbon (4th Award); Global War on Terrorism Service Medal; Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal; National Defense Service Medal; Navy Unit Commendation, Joint Military Unit Award

Yeah, no Purple Hearts, no MARSOC, he’s just a (possibly legitimately) sick veteran with an honorable career that he felt that he needed to piss upon by making shit up. Young Matthew probably would have given the money to him anyway, but he didn’t need to tell the kid a bunch of tall tales. A Google search turns up no less than ten articles written about his “difficult transition” to civilian life.

His DD214;

It looks like he was in Iraq with 4 bronze service stars (not to be confused with the Bronze Star Medal), but there are no Purple Hearts (he claimed he had three for wounds) and there’s no Combat Action Ribbon. He has a year and 9 months of “foreign service” and another year and a month of “sea service”.

Category: Phony soldiers