Ron Stone; phony Vietnam vet/author
Our buddy, George Davenport at Special Forces Poser Patrol sends us his work on this Ron Stone fellow. Ron did serve in the Army and National Guard from 1964-1968. He did not, however serve in Vietnam – he was in Okinawa, but not to hear him tell it;
He claims that he graduated from Special Forces school, he claims that he also graduated from Basic Airborne Course and sniper school. He claims that he was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross, an ARCOM, some Vietnamese stuff, a Combat Infantryman Badge and jump wings. None of that is true;
No Vietnam service awards says that he never set foot on the ground there. But not according to him;
And he has a wild imagination, he filled several books with the bullshit clogging his brain;
There was an intel breach when George started hunting Ron and some over-anxious folks gave him a warning and he tried to pull down all of his bullshit claims, but George was too fast for him. Well, that and Ron had his bullshit bio spread out everywhere across the internet so far and wide, even he couldn’t remember where he’d posted it.
Well, he wanted to be famous, so there it is, Ron, you’re TAH-famous.
Category: Phony soldiers
Just how many sniper schools did the Army and Marine Corps run? Damn.
Dude must have dome his via correspondence course (before there was in Internet)…
Back in 1964 neither branch even HAD a sniper school, because neither branch was fielding snipers. The concept wasn’t popular with the brass at the Pentagon. Snipers up until the 70s were basically soldiers who were picked from an infantry unit because of their exceptional marksmanship. They got a couple of days special training, were handed a deer rifle, and told to kill bad guys. But there were no formal schools of any kind.
As I recall, there was a sniper school in-country sponsored by the 1st Inf Div. They came to field looking for volunteers. That was early ’69.
Just……. dayum. He looks like he and Bernath are related. Maybe they could form their own business: “Posers R Us”.
Frikkin’ morons.
“Losers R Us” works for them too.
He might join the Dutch Rudder Gang!!
Possibly a textbook case of violating the Stolen Valor Law. He’s making money selling books behind his claims. Definitely “tangible benefits”.
Very pretty certificates. Visconi is soooo jealous.
I don’t often order pastry, but when I do, I make sure my pastry chef is wearing a black beret.
Funny, that DSC certificate looks exactly like the *FAKE* ones that have the computer file address url printed on the bottom left corner just like Frankie Boy.
FAKE!!!!!!
Look at the top of the DSC… the “award” was give to him by President Woodrow Wilson. Wilson had been taking his dirt nap for almost 50 years when Ron was supposedly got the DSC!
Ronnie – you better get back in touch with Forgin’ Frank Visconi and ask him for a refund…
But Frankie will send it to his expert signature analysis expert, and for $99, GUESS WHAT???
“The signature in question appears to be consistent with how President Woodrow Wilson signed his name.”
So there.
He personally led the bayonet charge at Chateau-Thierry. Saved McArthur AND Patton from the same hun grenade by smothering it with his enormous ballsack.
Just say “Hi” to him and he’ll offer to show you his Luger that he “took from a dead Gook in downtown Baghdad”!
I think you’ll find that the DSC certificate can be purchased here for $28.95.
http://www.citationexpress.com/Cert_Distinguished%20Service%20Cross.htm
I don’t see anything on the site that requires the purchaser to verify they received the award.
Kind of makes me wonder if the guy running the site has any inkling of what his printing service enables people to do.
Oh, and the “sniper certificate” comes from the same place:
http://www.citationexpress.com/Cert_sniper%20school%20ar.htm
What? No claims that he was recalled for the War on Terror? Pfft! Bush league. And judging by that picture on the right in his bullshit shadow box, he’s been rocking this lie before it was cool.
I have a few “buddies” who really were awarded the DSC in Vietnam (as this truth molester claims). One passed away years ago…This more than sickens me. I am pissed off…
Ol’ Ron is taking quite a hit in the “reviews” of his books over at Amazon.com
In one review, a fellow questions Ron’s accounts and Ron makes a reply that he served 24 months at a SF base in Vietnam, etc. The next reviewer calls him out with a link to Ron’s DD-214, etc.
Ron goes quiet after that, but it’s the same with all his other books. Also, quite a few nice “comments” about Ron being a poser on the Ron Stone author’s page.
This guy wanted publicity and was rockin’ this lie for so many years and now he’s gonna get a ton of it, though not the type he was looking for, I suspect. 🙂
BTW, it seems to me that since he claimed these decorations and service which he never earned/did, and then wrote books that made him money, based upon his fake service, awards, etc, doesn’t that open him up to fraud charges?
I found another DSC certificate online with the same signature……dated 1918! Oops!
An ARCOM? Did he get that for trolling the Internet and ratting out soldiers by jumping the chain of command? Since that’s the new standard for an ARCOM and all, I just thought I’d ask.
I thought the same thing. I think the Army is going to have to rename the medal to the Moerk Comm.
Not saying his claims aren’t BS. But I am curious on his actual career. Discharge at Vint Hill Farms? Which as I recall had a connection with SIGINT and the Army Security Agency. Significant Active duty time while in the Guard? Were there certain intel specialties that required NG to fill them stateide during Vietnam? Or were there certain specialities that required “dual” status for clearance or other legal reasons? Any Vietnam era guys want to field that?
More info including his 2-1 here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.756241207794655&type=1
It’s the Special Forces Poser Patrol FB Page
Can’t open the link. But I am curious on his 2-1 and what his real MOS was.
Do you have a facebook account? Try the link that Jonn put in the first paragraph up above.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/425723287513117/
Then you have to scroll down the page a few posts to the one about this poser.
Looks to me like T/T Intcp. The copy is hard to read though.
Teletype intercept?
that would make sense and if there was a linguistic component I can see extended AD for training. But 4 years for training?
Unfortunately (or fortunately) I do not have a facebook account so I haven’t seen his actual assignments.
At a writer’s workshop I came across another writer who claims ASA and SF pedigree during Vietnam whose claims I also question. A trend?
Looks like he got in the Guard 24 Mar 64 and went AD on 22 Apr 64 when he reported for Basic. Basic and AIT took him to around 13 Jan 65 then he went OCONUS until around 15 Dec 66. Came back CONUS for the remainder of his time. I can’t make out the last line on his assignments. His records show he left AD on 19 Apr 68 and left the Guard 21 Apr 68. Not sure how they did enlistments back then, but I’ve never seen one that looks like that. Curious……….
But he still has all the makings of a grade A DIPSHIT.
Yeah a curious career doesn’t make his claims true. I just hadn’t seen a nearly four year overlap of AD and NG time like his 214 before.
I know in the 80’s the Army reserve, not NG, had a near monopoly on MI and was told that was because of Title 10.
Just curious if there special status for reserve SIGINT types during Vietnam. AGR maybe? again his career was before my time.
Prior to and during Vietnam, the USAR and ARNG force structure more-or-less mirrored that of the Active Army. The move of CS/CSS to the USAR occurred after Vietnam, as a reaction to the “stealth escalation” in Vietnam by the LBJ Admin.
Dude worked for CBS News for 6 years. I wonder if he was vetted by Dan Rather.
//break
PineyWoodsNCO can I accompany you on a road trip to Dennison?
The bottom of his bio suggests he is going to write (or did write) a book called “Hot Air” (which discusses his exploits while with CBS News. Maybe all of his books should have that title.
Denison isn’t too far from Denton, TX – the home of that clown politician from Florida(what’s his name?) who said he served as a pilot in the Air Force. Too bad two visits couldn’t be paid to the North Texas area.
You’re thinking of Steve Cushman. Denton, TX was his ancestral home but he left there and lives in Florida now.
Steve Cushman… that’s right. (I forgot he was in FL, but recalled his connection with Denton).
The offer still stands though.
Let me see about making that trip around March…just started another tough semester on my way to getting my Bachelor’s Degree, which by the way will be worth a lot more than Dennis Chevalier’s Ph.D.
My kids’ Kindergarten graduation certificates are worth more than Cheavyliar’s “PhD”
Good luck with this semester PineyWoods NCO.
Is his National Defense Service Medal legit? They don’t just hand those out like candy.
Easy SJ, I got one with a device!
Yep. Some of us even have them with two devise.
Got one in 1990 and 2001.
I think you meant to say “they don’t hand those out WITH candy.”
Which is true.
Stupid budget cuts. Never got MY candy!
🙁
Heheheheh, I DID!! Well kinda, I got a lollipop for not yelling “YAHTZEE!!” during a certain part of the “over 40” annual physical!
I thought I was the only one with a device on the National Defense Medal. 🙂
It’s the first award I throw out to people.
Only one device? 😉
(There are some phonies who might say it’s with two bronze stars.)
They better look at the dates.
I have one device. Too young for Korea; retired before GWOT.
He has the insignia of the 17th Airborne in his shadow box… they inactivated in 1949.
I guess we should be glad he didn’t claim to be a member of the 135th Airborne Division.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_World_War_II_Divisions_(United_States)
(OFF TOPIC: Am I the only one who thinks the Army needs to bring back the 135th Airborne Patch? I love the “black widow” design.)
This maggot looks like he directs gay porn flicks.
Green Thumb…I’m trying to keep my BP and heart rate level and every one of your posts has me laughing till I’m holding my heart/cough pillow for support. Thanks for the laughs my friend, I need them.
Oh by the way, he got a “Soldier’s Medal for Valor” Just in case folks didn’t know it was for non-combat valor anyway.
You know, I tell stories, too.
I have one that starts in Saigon in 1968.
They’re all STORIES. FICTION. FICTITIOUS CHARACTERS, PLOTS, ET CETERA.
If he admits to writing fiction, fine, I have no issues with him. Haven’t read his stuff, so I can’t even say whether or not it’s any good.
But Woodrow Wilson signed off on something for him? So he got into the Wayback Marchine with Mr. Peabody and Sherman and went back to WWI? Wow, he’s a time traveler, too!
What an asshole. He is such a jerk.
So, he went to Ft Devins for basic Morse and Teletype Intercept Operator, then on to Torii Station Okinawa during Vietnam and finally got out at the Army Security Agency location at Vent Hill Farms that closed in 1997. He’s using the 51st USASA SOC “Special Operations Command” to pretend he was Special Forces instead of a standard SIGINT weenie. Although it’s true that some of the members did deploy with SF in country, nothing in his record indicates he was a member of one of those teams. And it would be no different than the Navy’s Tactical Cryptologic Support teams that augment NAVSOC elements in country (i.e. CTR1(EXW) Michael Strange https://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/memorial_wall/strange.pdf).
That answers a lot. Still curious why his 214 appears to show a long overlap of NG and AD time. I thought if he left the guard for AD there would be a break unless he was mobilized or on AD for training.
I suppose there could have been some sort of volunteer tour where you didn’t have to be discharged from the NG. I’ve seen a lot of those in the last decade. Just not sure how it worked during this time period.
Curious given the draft at the time they couldn’t fill the slots with draftees but given the technical nature of the MOS and length of traning, Maybe there were opportunities.
Unfortunately Herr Stone would not be a reliable source to how this actually worked then.
The NG being involved might seem confusing, but makes some sense if you consider that although the ASA had logistical and administrative support from the Army, the actual operational control was under the NSA. Such an arrangement meant that the ASA had the ability to do things differently than might be the case with the Army itself. At some point when Stone was in basic, an ASA guy might have said to him, “M’boy, how would you like to be a super duper secret squirrel?”
Administratively, there might not have been a need to formally move him out of the Guard.
One of the least plausible things about Stone’s story is that the teletype intercept MOS he was trained in would have made it unlikely he spent time in Viet Nam given the NVA need for mobility.
People can rag on intel and the ASA all they want, but the way I looked at it is that sometimes the best way to mess with the enemy doesn’t always involve blowing stuff up. If, for example, you can keep a platoon of grunts from wandering into bad mojo, you can tell yourself you earned your can of Fresca for the day.
Yeah that seems plausible that he was asked to stay on AD during AIT.
I know when the NG was getting Shadow UAV units off the ground (pun only slightly intended). Several members went from AIT to deploying units before coming back to M-day status.
As an aside I do recall some ASA SIGINTer with an SF Team who was KIA early in the Vietnam conflict.
Found it SP4 James T. Davis, 22DEC1961. But my memory was incorrect he was working as an ARVN advisor not SF.
Source: “Unlikely Warriors; The Army Security Agency’s Secret War in Vietnam 1961-1973”
I think they wrote the Ballad of the ASA about this guy:
Starts off with a description of the ASA patch (here’s a good link: http://www.medalsofamerica.com/Galleria/2/P223-Large.jpg )
Black is for the night we fear
Blue is water we don’t go near
White is for the flag we fly
Yellow is the reason why
Red is for the blood we shed
And as you see, there is no red
One hundred men will test today
But not a one from the ASA
Fighting Soldiers From the Sky
Fearless men who jump and die
Men who mean just what they say?
Those guys can’t be in the ASA
There’s more on the interwebs for those who want to look it up. Being intel, I worked with a lot of former ASA guys (ASA was deactivated in the late 70’s and replaced with INSCOM – Intelligence and Security Command.)
ASA has a pretty proud history, it’s too bad this toolbag had to crap all over his.
Long live the lightning-fast chicken-f*cker!
Many MI units feature a patch or crest with a key, a dagger and a lightning bolt.
This harks back to their unofficial motto: “A Lightning Fast Stab in the back is the Key to success!”
Dat beret… Not even the Air Force wears them that fucked up…
Why\how does he have two rifle qual badges? I thought one overruled the other either way it went.
Ahhh, the phony citation. Makes me get nostalgic for Jeff “Rock” Harris. I’m actually waiting to hear back from Mary on a FOIA for a guy who used a wall-full of citations to get a few thousand dollars worth of charitable donations from his community. Just a teaser, but if his my guy’s citation is as phony as this guy’s is. It could be a violation of the new Stolen Valor Act.
Here’s a real problem: Ron Stone does not like criticism. He does not include the ‘look inside’ link to his books which are only available on Kindle, but not on the Kindle Lending Library. KLL makes the book itself free for those who pay the Kindle Premium fee, and the author still gets a library fee payment from Kindle. The author not only does not like criticism, he doesn’t want anyone peeking at what he wrote. There must be a reason for that: he has a weak ego. Apparently from what I read in those comments, he does not know how to tell the story so that it makes sense and rings true, his research is poor if he did any at all, and the details familiar to in-country vets are not there. I can’t tell what his writing style is like, but if someone says the book is badly written, I want to see for myself. It’s ridiculous to not allow people to get a sample of what you wrote. It’s called browsing, and also skimming, the book. It’s a simple courtesy to attract readers. People who love stories can get a sense of whether or not they want to take the book home. There are no previews of his stuff available on Goodreads or Booksamillion, either. The books are also non-returnable, which means you can’t get your money back if you don’t like what you bought. What this means is that if you don’t want to take the chance that people won’t read your crap, you won’t let them have a peek at it. This is a mistake. It glares of a lack of confidence. It forces people to pay for something and prevents them from returning a product they don’t like because they think it’s poorly done. I’d have to this guy is not going to accept any kind of negative response to what he’s done and he will probably threaten lawsuits, make nasty phone calls, write vile things on his glob (does he have a blog?) and will refuse to admit he blows the bag on… Read more »
Not to be confused with Robert Stone, the fella who wrote the book they based “Who’ll Stop The Rain?” on, and actual (albeit left)author who died yesterday.
Ron… you total knob. Some people go to rather great extremes to convince the world of their exaggerated military exploits, and you are one of those.
Come on, man. Did you really think you could spread your BS so far and wide, via books and internet, and not eventually get busted?
Not too bright, are ‘ya?
Sucks to be you, dude.
Oh, and Ron… if you’re not gay, you missed a good chance.
Holy bag of Dicks Will ya look at that Beret !
Maybe he could get a job working for Commander Phil Monkress writing and editing All-Points Logistics’ daily/update newsletter: “Dildo of the Day”.
Or monthly: “Maggots this Month”.
He seems to be, all things considered, a “shoo in” for the job.
The guy should’ve put on a leprechaun’s costume and claimed to be a leprechaun. 🙄
The term “Gay-made Pizza” comes to mind.
I feel very sad that the college library I work in owns one of his books.
Except that I made a mistake. There is a reputable author with a similar name – Ronald H. Stone – and we have one of his books, not the poser’s.