Father & son phonies in Fort Worth
From Andy, a link to a story right out of the pages of The Duffel Blog. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram tells us about Brigadier General G.B. McDowell and his son, Colonel Michael Douglas McDowell whose story begins when the elder McDowell passed and his online guest book filled up with names and tributes from the likes of General David Petraeus.
McDowell, 57, has never been in the military. Neither had his father — actually an Irving evangelist who died in 1985 while leading a revival in California.
The comments from top military officers were fake; investigators believe they were written by McDowell to go along with the phony obituary that he’d created for his father.
“I thought the guy did a pretty good job writing that. It’s better than I could have done,” Furlow said in a telephone interview from East Texas.
“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of these people out there that are taking away the glory of people who have done things. … This individual has to be sick to do stuff like this.”
Now, McDowell faces criminal charges as local and federal investigators continue to dig into a ruse that they say spanned at least 15 years and enabled him to fool government agencies and immediate family members.
It’s a pretty long article and in order to get a complete picture of the depths and lengths this guy went to are astounding and should be read at the article rather than me stealing the whole thing.
Dude had a drivers’ license with no picture of him because he had convinced Texas motor vehicle folks that he was an intelligence officer and couldn’t have his photo in the public record. He had Purple Heart license plates, walked around with three cell phones so “Washington” could stay in touch with him – and he’d have imaginary classified conversations with other people in the room. He carried files marked “Top Secret” in a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist. He even had a vehicle with government plates with which he’d pick up VIP folks from airports.
Actually, all I can think of to say is “Wow, just wow.” It seems like a real job would have taken less effort.
Category: Phony soldiers
Hopefully the Texas DMV will get word of the fact that he falsified documents to get those Purple Heart plates – and nail his lying ass to the wall.
LOL at this writing: “It seems like a real job would have taken less effort.” No kidding!
the punch line to the whole story is in the last two sentences of the story and, I think, explains it all.
Wow. He actually makes people like Dullass and Dougie look like wienies.
This dude is definitely the Top Supersecret Secret Squirrel. Has he laid a claim to being a Major Force Recon yet?
He gives people with delusions of grandeur a bad name.
Many soap operas are not this convoluted! This clown could have really accomplished something had he expended the same amount of energy on anything productive.
Don’t you love it when fathers and sons can get together and do things. Like Andy and Opie walking to the lake to go fishing! This guy needs some serious wall to wall.
The briefcase handcuffed to his wrist. Sheer genius.
If you read to the end of the article, one of his relatives thinks it was all started by jealousy toward his late half-brother, a Marine who was wounded in Vietnam and died a short while ago. That makes sense.
Jealousy, revenge, lack of self-esteem — all of those things are motives for doing stupid, and frequently criminal things.
They may be motives, but it doesn’t excuse the behavior.
Un frikkin’ believable.
As Jonn said:
“Wow. Just. Wow.”
Jesus Christ. I wish these fuckers would impersonate telemarketers or some shit instead.
The Guest Book is still up
http://www.legacy.com/guestbooks/seattletimes/guestbook.aspx?n=g-mcdowell&pid=154620472&cid=full
Well, from the pictures that accompany the article, he got his uniforms more or less right. He was wearing branch insignia as a GO on his greens, but that was the only obvious mistake I noticed from a quick look. He wore a DSC, 10 hashmarks and a third award CIB, which would raise suspicions (especially that last one), but all of his awards were at least in the correct order.
Oh, and yeah, he had to stay so secret that they couldn’t take his picture for a driver’s license, but he had Purple Heart plates that read USASOC-real low profile there.
He’d also worked as a car salesman, a volleyball referee and a security guard, police say.
First of all, I did not know that volleyball referee was an actual career. Second comment is that I hope that this guy getting arrested does not tarnish the good image of car salesmen.
Was his dad an actual phony or did this guy just create an obit that portrayed his dad as more than he was? From the article it seemed that the phony tribute page for the father was the son’s doing.
WTF is wrong with the people at the Texas DMV allowing him to NOT be photographed for his license? No one at DMV called a time out or threw the bullshit flag on that one?
Also, GOs don’t wear branch insignia, ( or for that matter usually sport a “soul patch” and scruffy facial hair). He’s wearing Infantry branch insignia on his old greens.
Now, this hurts.
Reading the Fort Worth Star Telegram attached here, this really hurts me a lot. I have seen that license plate before. In fact, I have seen it a few times around Fort Hood, can’t recall exactly when, but I do recognize it. I seen it off post in the Killeen area, and I remember seeing it on post too. This burns at my gut from inside and out because this asshat infiltrated my part of the military world (I served proudly at Fort Hood from August 2002 until March of this year). I seen that license plate around here in East Texas too, as recently as in the past year and a half. And again, this burns my gut because said asshat bullshitted current and former senior officers, even Petraeus. And then to lie completely even more about his father’s death, his own history and not only to us as decent normal human beings, but also his family, and the military itself.
This angers me. And if asshat somehow reappears within visual in my neck of the woods here in East Texas, he will have a damn hard time removing the imprint of a brass plate off his skull. I’m livid about this. This peace of slime needs, for his own safety, to stay right where he is at.
I hope he is prosecuted to the fullest in more ways than one.
Turd grains. Freaking turd grains.
@Pineywoods
You do know that it wasn’t Patreus who actually posted that right?
@O-4E
Yes, I know…but the more I recall, the madder I get.
This son of a bitch poser was in my unit footprint at Fort Hood more than once within the past few years.
@16 – Not to nitpick your nitpicking :), but in addition to the discrepancies you noted, Officers are not authorized to wear service stripes so the hashmarks on his sleeve are not supposed to be there. Officers are, however, authorized to wear the Overseas Deployment Bars on the right sleeve, so at least he got that right. Besides that, I don’t think you’re allowed to rock a goatee in uniform, but that has already been mentioned in other posts. This guy is a true shitbag. I hope the State of Texas lives up to their motto – “Don’t Mess With Texas”
@16, yea, I don’t think his dad ever posed, but the son claimed he was a Gen and whipped up a fake obit several years after his death.Gotta pad that lieout. The comments from his unnamed female relative lead me to think there may have been a few more family members that knew about his shens but didn’t know what to do of just felt sorry because of his older brother.
@22, if you look at the pics of the investigators holding up his stuff, it looks like he corrected part of the uniform and removed the crossed rifles.
That is … a-frickin-mazing, and I don’t mean that in a good way!
Mustang2LT-you’re correct about the service stripes for an officer which I didn’t notice before(I thought “hashmarks” was the slang for the combat stripes, but I appear to be mistaken). Anyway, it was the presence of 10 of them that, while not impossible, looked suspicious along with the DSC and 3rd award CIB (impossible for someone his age). I know there are some GIs who have 60 months or more deployed, but they are pretty rare (10 or more is Petraeus and Odierno territory for GOs).
Anyway-I gave his uniform another look and there are some other curiosities I didn’t notice the first time around: 1)he has a GWOTEM, but no Iraq or Afghanistan campaign medals, not worong, but questionable-especially considering that he chose to wear a Kosovo medal 2) he has both KLMs, but no SWASM. Still, compared to a lot of the losers that we see here he did a reasonably good job of getting it straight.
On behalf of this fledgling country, we thank you for your loyal and steadfast service. G. Washington
Your plan for Normandy was sheer genius. A grateful nation mourns your passing. Dwight D. Eisenhower
@27 – Comment of the thread!! That’s hysterical.
Wow, a letter to be opened after his death, laying out that he was on a mission to portray a civilian and gather info vital to national security, down at the local Denny’s? Whataguy!!
And, his first wife is as goofy as he is, “Even if he has done what he’s accused of, Karen McDowell said, it didn’t hurt anyone.” Uh, yeah it did, you ditz.
AirCav, you left out his letter from Col. Travis, acknowledging the flawless intelligence work that this douche did for the Colonel at the Alamo.
I’m with Pineywoods NCO & Sparks, that douchenozzle is in serious need of a nice, lengthy wall-to-wall counseling session before he becomes Bubba & Thor’s cell block bitch-boy!!
Proud Infidel
I have a 45 inch long, inch thick dowel rod I use for a walking stick I use while geocaching. Right below where my hand goes is a brass plate “travel bug” with the geocaching logo on it.
That is the side I will use to pound this asshat’s skull in. I will make him the most unwanted “travel bug” in the geocaching community.
@30. I believe he actually aspires to love Bubba long time.
If anyone has an answer to this question, please provide one.
Why in the blue-eyed world do these locoweeds NOT write books?
They got to all this trouble, creating a fantasy world that is complete B.S., right out of the starting gate, and they even profit from it, but they do it in a way that harms other people. They could turn this Walter Mitty crap into stories and publish them, and maybe make a buck or two, and it would harm no one, but instead they do this. I’m truly trying to understand this crap.
And then the next question is, since he had this whole secret squirrel fantasy going on, did it ever occur to this imbecile that he might actually get caught up in a real espionage trap? That is a helluva dangerous game to play.
Turds.
Plural.
Ex-PH2: actual foreign intelligence would not fall for his story, but it would be freaking hilarious if someone who wanted to teach him a lesson did their “Boris and Natasha” routine on him just to see him squirm.
A part in the article that was funny:
“He played the perfect con”
“Inside his briefcase, he would have Top Secret labled on files. He would handcuff the briefcase to his arm.”
Whoever wrote that article seems to think that what happens in the movies is true. Comedy at its best.
Along with “Colonel” setting up fake calls and talking about “secure lines” with a hint of “North Korea” and “Syria”
This guy must have watched too many Steven Seagal films.
His uniform is still shit, and instantly suspect. – Multi National Force Observers ribbon (Sinai) next to the DSC at the top of the row – that goes on the bottom, just above the Saudi and Kuwait Liberation of Kuwait medals (which are also out of order). – Army Good Conduct Medal with several knots indicating enlisted service. Not unheard of, but unusual. Officers don’t get the Good Conduct Medal, and he doesn’t look old enough to have picked up that much Enlisted time before crossing over, progressing through the ranks and becoming a General Officer. – “U.S.” insignia are not ligned up properly. They should be perpendicular to a line bisecting the seams of the lapel, not parallel to the ground and apparently pinned on by a drunken toddler. His Aide must be a real shit bird. – Kosovo Campaign Ribbon, Desert Shield / Desert Storm Liberation medals, GWOTEM, DSC and BSV. As well as overseas service stripes that look to add up to 5 yrs of combat deployments. But no Overseas Service Ribbon? Also, no Iraq or Afghanistan Campaign Ribbons. ODS, Kosovo, and OIF/OEF prior to 2005 don’t make five years of combat. – ODS, Kosovo, and OIF also don’t warrant a three-time award of the CIB. That would have to cover three separate eras, the last three of which were GWOT, Vietnam Era (to include ODS), and Korea? He’s aging well… – SF DUI above the right pocket but no SF tab? Not likely, son. SF dudes I know would (and do) violate the “4 badge rule” by putting the long tab over a set of wings on the left breast pocket. Kudos for adherence to the 4 badge rule, though. – Same drunken toddler who pinned the “U.S.” insignia appears to have placed his unit citations, which are also out of order. – The combat patch on his right pocket is a Joint SOF unit, but I don’t think it’s an operational unit, and they sure as hell weren’t in Kosovo or ODS. Probably not OIF/OEF prior to 2004, as the GWOTEM would indicate. I’ve seen… Read more »
Stew-I think that’s supposed to be a Distinguished Service Medal on the top row next to the DSC, not the MNFO.
It all makes sense; “colonel” mcdowell served as the imaginary ACofS G-2 for commanding “colonel” kendude crotchrot’s imaginary reserve SFG(A). At the rate this is going, we’ll soon have a whole imaginary TO&E SFG(A) and complete SEAL Team made up of fake warriors to fight our (very real) wars, and the rest of us can just retire from the real military and and sit back and knock down a cold one…
68W58: Stew is correct. Take a look at the photo of the tools’ ASUs on the hanger near the end of the linked Fort Worth Star-Telegram article.
He’s wearing the DSC as his highest precedence ribbon (inboard on top row). He’s got the DSM as his third ribbon (inboard on 2nd row). The MFO ribbon is the one between the two (outboard on top row).
Hondo-pictures 8&9 look like the DSM to me.
I looked at it again-it probably is the MNFO. At first glance the color pattern looked similar, but you are right that he has the DSM on the next row. Ah well, I was giving him too much credit.
Teach your children well,
Their father’s lies did quickly go by,
And feed them on falsehoods,
When your kids are liars too, then you will know why.
Don’t you ever ask them why, you told them all your lies,
So just look at them and sigh and know they lie too.
With apologies to CSNY….
@31: Good to see another Texas geocacher around here. I’m up in DFW.
The combat patch was bothering me. Finally remembered what unit that is. It was Special Operations Command, Joint Forces Command (SOCJFCOM) until JFCOM disbanded. Now it’s Special Operations Command – Joint Capabilities (SOC-JC). Their role is to train Joint Commands on integrating Special Operations. So, while it is possible that someone could have a combat patch from SOC-JFCOM or SOC-JC, it’s highly unlikely and he’d probably wear another patch instead.
Unless, of course, he was a faking douchenozzle with visions of grandeur and a penchant for theatrics.
Handcuffing TS documents to his writs took me back to Ace Tomato Company in Spies Like Us. “I have a Priority Package from the Nat Sat Printing Room.”
I am actually impressed by his dedication. He should have gone into acting, frankly – he did a better portrayal of an officer than most Hollywood productions.
As for his first wife, the idea of stolen valor not causing harm is pretty common, especially when the actual monetary fraud is not significant. It’s definitely a military thing, because as a civilian I find that I don’t have the level of outrage the vets here do. It’s shameful and a slap in the face to the real recipients of the medals, and he should pay back double any money or gifts he took that were earmarked for soldier or veterans.
Of course not, she has no idea the repercussions it causes. Purple Heart license plates and probably benefits he stolen from others.
This assclown simply takes the whole frigging cake, plate and all. Pineywoods, seen those plates and him at a couple of different memorial ceremonies and a service around the Beaumont area when I lived there (2005-2011). When the ceremonies were over, he was out there quickly though. I’d love to be a fly on the wall at Texas DPS HQ too. Something tells me Texas DPS Director McCall is going to lower the boom on the drivers licensing personel, if he hasn’t done so already. And something else that definitely bothers me as well is how the hell did he get past Ft Hood Gate security forces? When I was hauling equipment to and from any miliary base or depot, I had to present my Texas D/L with picture and a security screening before even being allowed access. Wow. simply, wow.
Holy fucking shit. Speechless. Just speechless. I vote we just declare these two dickweasels co-winners of the 2014 Stolen Valor tournament and be done with it. I can’t imagine anyone reaching a higher level of asshattery.
@49: Can the award be given posthumously though?