Lee Walters; phony Korean War POW
Someone sent us this article which featured Korean War POW Lee Walters who claimed that he was in the 101st Airborne Division and fighting the North Koreans. One day, his unit was flying around wearing parachutes when their aircraft was struck by some kind of fire. He was told to sit down and ride the damaged aircraft to the ground, but the 17 year old disobeyed orders and jumped. He was later captured by the enemy and held for six months, until he got tired of waiting around to be rescued and escaped his captors.
Nice story, huh? Except that the only jump that the 187th would have made during that time period was the Sunchon assault on October 20, 1950. There were no aircraft lost that day.
It looks like Mr. Lee’s only deployment during his three years during the Korean War was to Germany, well, if you go by his DD214;
I don’t see any parachute training, no assignment to Korea, his only awards are the Germany Occupation Medal and the National Defense Service Medal. Now, the Army certainly needed him in Germany and it’s not his fault that he didn’t go to war, but that doesn’t justify his bogus claims of heroic deeds. The article above is about an award given to POWs, and the only thing that imprisons Mr Lee is knowing that he’s been lying for years.
Category: Phony soldiers, Valor Vultures
Florida – figures.
Anyone want to guess who lives not far away (less than 50 miles) from the VFW Post this jerk duped?
I’m guessing either our favorite never-was-a-CPO or our favorite purple-suited Thunderchicken
Or Phony Phil Monkress?
101st Airborne in Korea? Nope, at that time, the 101st had been reactivated as a Basic Training Division and was stationed the whole time at Camp Breckinridge,KY.
The 187th ARCT was assigned to the 11th Airborne Division during Korea.
The 187th didn’t hook up to the 101st until like 1956 or 1957 when they went back to a full combat division status and moved to Fort Campbell.
But since Walters is a flat out liar, who you gonna believe? Him or history?
Facts tend to fuck up folks’ stories, and is obviously elusive to journalists nowadays.
Yep, facts will do that.
I’m betting the 101st connection came into play because he went through basic/infantry training at Camp Breckinridge before he shipped out to Berlin for his tour in Germany.
He was inducted five days after his 17th birthday in Richmond,VA. and probably was shipped off to Breckinridge for basic.
And, nope, not even a Good Conduct Medal since he had seven days bad time and a bust shortly before being discharged.
Jeezus… another “Rice Paddy Daddy”. Couldn’t be proud about just wearing the uniform.
Someone should check out the guy giving out the medals – George Dexter – paper claims that he was awarded seven PH’s.
Got to be something in the auga in Flor-eee-dah.
I just tried to look up George Dexter on http://www.thepurpleheart.com/recipient/ and didn’t find him. There are some Dexters but not a George. I guess “George” could be a nickname.
But I did find that he may have died: http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20141216/news/141219543
There is a memorial for him on http://www.findagrave.com. According to it, George was born in Brockton, MA on 14 May 1921, died in Florida 14 Dec 2014. It says that he served in the 601st Tank Destroyer BN with the 1ID and 3ID, participated in N. Africa, Sicily, Anzio, Southern France, Germany, and Austria and was awarded 2 PUCs, the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and the Croix de Guerre. I don’t have access to Home of Heroes, but someone could look and see if George is listed there as an SS recipient.
Also, the headstone pictured isn’t the VA provided one, so awards aren’t shown on it.
Didn’t find a “George Dexter” as Silver Star recipient at either Home of Heroes or Military Times Hall of Valor. But both of those are only about 70-80% complete for the Silver Star, so that’s not definitive.
I’m betting the mention of a Silver and Bronze Star are actually the Service(Campaign) Stars for his EAME Campaign Medal.
Six campaigns would equal one Silver Service Star and one Bronze Service Star.
That has happened before when survivors have tried to figure out what Father or Grandfather did during the war. Service Stars get turned into Medals by the same name.
Douchebag’s probably a big fan of “Men in War” and always wanted to be Aldo Ray’s character “SGT Montana”…
Shouldn’t he also have an Army of Occupation Medal with Germany bar?
He does – see block 27 of his DD214. That was apparently overlooked by the NPRC clerk that prepared the FOIA reply sheet.
The second image of the DD214 also shows discharge as a PVT, a DOR of 16 Feb 1953 (about 1 1/2 months before he was discharged), and 7 days lost time. Sounds to me like someone went AWOL for a few days shortly before he was scheduled to be discharged; maybe that’s why he chose to invent wartime service in Korea. But I could easily be wrong.
Danke. I missed it on the DD-214, just like the person at St. Louis.
Bitte. Helfen Ihnen gerne.
[…] Lee Walters; phony Korean War POW […]
Nice pic of him and his distended liver in the paper. VFW Post 3282 (Port Orange) did a great job honoring this Veteran of the Korean War who wasn’t.
As soon as I heard 101st Airborne and Korean War the BS flag went up.
Dude looks like a fucking bum. Why can’t theses VFW/Legion type organizations just do their homework when it comes to these turds. Is it because they don’t want to out themselves as phonies too? An unspoken bond between phonies like DullASS Wittgenfeld and Daniel A. Bernath have?
So reporters are no longer required to fact check or ask a single question to confirm the veracity of the crap they are being fed by these reprobates?
Somebody telling me this story in a bar would get the raised eyebrow and a Whiskey Tango Foxtrot pretty quickly and I’m not a huge historical student of the Korean War. 17 year old trooper deciding on his own he was going to hop out and fight the war singlehandedly…he must have been one amazing bad ass at 17 to figure he could take out the Norks on his own and leave his squadmates to their own fate without his help…what a soldier, first sign of trouble he abandons his squad.
I would have to ask this question to some of the more knowledgable regulars, but I recall reading an interview with Jonathon Winters, who served as a Marine during WWII. He enlisted when he was 17, and was on a ship heading to combat in the Pacific (may have been Oki). He said that since he was only 17, he was held on the ship until his 18th birthday, then was sent ashore. It didn’t matter, since the ship he was on was hit by a kamikaze pilot. My Father was drafted at 17, and served in the Philippines, but by the time he arrived, the Philippines was “secured”, so it was probably not considered a combat zone. So, are there or were there regulations excluding minors from combat zones?
Hack………back in 1970 while going thru Infantry AIT we had two troops out of the whole company that did not go to Vietnam. Both were not yet eighteen. One went to Korea, the other went to Germany.
Same deal for two of the guys from my Aviation Maintenance AIT class in 71. One went to Germany, the other to Alaska. Only 12 guys in my class, so we all knew where we were going to three weeks before graduating.
Hell, that’s why they called Fort Rucker (USAAVNS) the “US Army Advanced Viet Nam School”. If you were 18, you were going to the land of little yellow people.
Steve, Good Luck on the North Dakota pheasant hunt. Kill a couple for me.
Hack, not for sure on age restrictions for ground forces, but it didn’t seem to apply for Navy.
My late Father-In-Law enlisted in early August 1944 a week after his 17th birthday. Was assigned to the USS Idaho (BB-42). Served as a Gunner’s Mate through both the Iwo Jima and Okinawa campaigns. The Idaho also got “Kamikazed”. One month after his 18th birthday, on August 27th, 1945 the Idaho sailed into Tokyo Bay with the occupation force for the surrender ceremony.
So, I don’t think him being only 17 during most of that time kept him from performing his sea going combat duties. But, YMMV.
Just chalk it up to some genius in the War Department not considering being on a Navy ship surrounded by enemy submarines and aircraft not being in combat. That loops back to Jonathon Winters staying on the ship. I would have taken my chances on land vice dying by an explosion, fire, drowning or shark attack from the ship being attacked.
For some reason, that makes me recall an episode of Hawaii Five-O were McGarrett was talking to a WWII Army vet. The Army vet is riding his ass about sailors sleeping in racks with clean sheets and getting hot chow. McGarrett responded that it was great, until the ship got hit by a torpedo. The grass is always greener on the other side of the line of departure.
Different war, different time, different US Navy. I never joke about WW II sailors. Theirs was no gravy train by any measure.
That is not a far-fetched theory at all and I am quite confident that somewhere there is a Veterans org, post, hall, chapter, mc, or group that has no members at all who are Veterans. Along that line, my personal favorite is VVA (Vietnam Veterans of America) which, one would think, is comprised solely of Vietnam Vets. And that would be wrong. Anyone who served anywhere (including stateside) DURING the VN War era may become a member and sport the Vietnam Veteran cap.
217…..ABSOLUTELY agree with you. Hope you saw a recent post where I shared the fact that the “Freedom Flights” to D C for veterans were now allowing Vietnam era veterans on the trips. No matter if they ever set foot in RVN, let’s make heroes out of them for a gullible public to thank us so much. My reference was to one slug specifically who was slowly making his name a fixture of the RVN war.
Why don’t they just create an organization for those types and call it Combat Liars?
With all the Stolen Valor being exposed daily, it amazes me civic organizations (VFW and American Legion for starters) are more interested in dues-paying members than vetting wannabees.
Finally I have reached the unfortunate conclusion that there are more and more phonies at Veteran’s Day celebrations than the public wants to know. To each his own, but I avoid them like the plague. It’s difficult looking around and wondering WTF when some of those looking for a pat on the back appear to have no idea what the event truly represents. An anti-social individual am I. Save me the drama from the “suffering” so many want to talk about every time they get in front of a microphone.
“Hope you saw a recent post where I shared the fact that the “Freedom Flights” to D C for veterans were now allowing Vietnam era veterans on the trips.”
No, I am sorry to say I didn’t. I do read your stuff. I guessed I missed it. Vietnam Era Veterans on freedom flights? Arrrgggggghhhhhhhhh.
I wouldn’t join them.
I served in Alaska instead of Vietnam in 74. They stopped sending people over there at that time so I ended up fighting the Cold War up there.
And believe me, I got my ass kicked !!!
Either way, your response shows class, a need for integrity and most of all self respect. Were I in one of those positions the phony “Never Set Foot In RVN” took advantage of, I’d sure hope to have your back bone and at least say, “Yep, I’ll be glad to take your free trip, but I want it to be clear I was only in the armed forces DURING RVN, but do not have claimed to have served in country. Problem solved.
My comment was supposed to be in reply to Climb to Glory’s.
Just another old, gnarly dirtbag.
Knew be was a wannabe when he was introduced. I knew the 101st was not there at that time
He knew nothing about Airborne or POW’ s, he was one SadSack. He’s a bozo and the VFW Post should be embarrassed to have sponsored him.
He did hookup with Kim Chi in the red-light district.
He got there on the local Sujo Express.
I thought he took either the Crown or OB bus . . . .
i hate to see guys from the Korean War and WWII ( even the era’s, if not part of the conflict) turn out to be lying P’sOS. They were always heroes to me as a kid. You always want them to be what we are supposed to strive to be.
It’s like a punch to the gut. What a shame!
I was reading a book about the Liberty Ship S.S. John W. Brown which is based upon actual log books and records taken from the merchant marine crew and Navy Armed Guard commanders onboard. In 1943 an Armed Guard S1C (an E-3 in today’s navy) was detached from the ship and sent somewhere for an unknown punishment for being seen ashore wearing 1st Class Petty Officer’s insignia plus medals for campaigns he never participated in. The Armed Guard officer aboard ship spotted him ashore and reported it!
Douchebags existed back then too!
After visiting TAH I’m skeptical of all vets. In my town of 7000 I’ve met 4 Navy SEALs. What are the odds.
This guy is particularly bad because I can’t imagine much worse than being a POW in Asia.
Well, I’d suggest that maybe being a POW or hostage held by Islamic militants in the Middle East might be a bit worse than being a POW in an east Asian war. At least, that seems to be true regarding your odds of surviving the experience without being rescued.
True
His picture looks like the photographer got to him just before he was going to dye his mutton chop side burns black so he could look like Elvis.
Elvisimpersonatorlivesmatter.
Dude looks all sad and shit.