James Gough; phony Korean and Vietnam Wars veteran

A few weeks ago, we talked a bit about James Gough who was arrested in Worcester, Massachusetts for panhandling while he posed as combat medic of the Korean and Vietnam wars. From the Worcester, Massachusetts Telegram;

Mr. Gough allegedly said he was a combat medic in Korea and Vietnam, despite being a little more than 2 months old when the Korean War started and only 3 years old when it ended.

Furthermore, Mr. Gough fraudulently represented himself as a combat medic badge recipient in an effort to obtain money from the officer, the court documents state.

Mr. Gough could not provide any paperwork from the Wounded Warrior Project. A criminal check showed Mr. Gough was the subject of an active arrest warrant on a charge of breaking and entering, according to court documents.

Mr. Gough did produce a U.S. Department of Defense 214 discharge form. However, nowhere on the form did it show any service in Vietnam, nor him being awarded the combat medal badge.

The military discharge form did show that Mr. Gough received training as a medical corpsman and also indicated, written in pen, the word “combat.”

Yeah, well the National Personnel Records Center doesn’t remember it his way either;

He served during the Vietnam War for 1 1/2 years. He took basic training at Fort Lewis, Washington and AIT at Fort Sam Houston and trained as a medic. Then he was in Korea for a year during the Vietnam War, so it is easy to see how he misremembered his career. Then he went back to Fort Lewis, Washington to outprocess from the Army and then he was out on the street – I’m guessing that he earned his sergeant stripes in the Reserves. He did get the National Defense Service Medal – they don’t just hand those out to everyone, ya know.

His false claim that he had earned the Combat Medic Badge makes his actions a violation of the Stolen Valor Act.

Category: Phony soldiers, Valor Vultures