Gordon Katske; phony pilot, phony Vietnam vet
Thomas sent us this link late last month about Gordon Katske who claims in the article about him that he was a fixed-wing and rotary wing pilot in Vietnam and that he had been shot down “over enemy territory”;
Following in his father’s footsteps, Katske enlisted in the Air Force just as the war in Vietnam was heating up. He became a pilot (call-sign: “Doc”) of helicopters and F-4 fighter jets, emerging at barely 20 years of age as a much-decorated captain (and still healing from injuries sustained when his chopper was shot down in enemy territory).
For future reference, “Doc”, captains don’t enlist, they get commissioned by Congress. he says that he was a pilot when he was “barely 20 years of age”. Katske was born in 1944, his records show that he didn’t join the National Guard until 1971 making him 27.
No awards for service in Vietnam, no pilot do-dads, and it looks like when he was 20, he was in college and medical school, in Chicago, which is probably like Vietnam these days, but not then.
Katske goes on to tell the reporter that he was “inducted into the Royal Society of Medicine by appointment of the queen.” Yeah, I’d believe that shit just like I believed the crap about his military service. It looks like he benefited from draft deferments through most of the Vietnam War and then went to the Guard where he was less likely to be sent to Vietnam – not that there’s anything wrong with any of that, but then to steal from people who went to Vietnam and put their lives in various levels of danger is just creepy and the ultimate “F-You” to actual Vietnam veterans.
If I lived in San Jose, this is the last person I’d let in the operating room with me. I’m guessing that the rest of the shit he brags about in the article is probably bullshit, too.
ADDED: I’ve been staring at that picture all day trying to figure who he looked like, then I remembered – Harcourt Fenton Mudd;
ADDED AGAIN: The Mercury News shut down the web page so here are some of the pertinent screen shots from a cache copy;
Here’s a .pdf of the articlethanks to Hondo, who I also neglected to mention got us the FOIA on Katske in the first place.
Category: Phony soldiers
That pic shows him with a handle bar moustache. I guess that so REAL VN-era pilots can ride his face. Loser.
Just like with all other posers, I have far more respect for a fresh dog turd on a sidewalk than I do for this TURD!!
Somebody must have told him pilots also where the Medical AFSC badge for enlisted personnel.
I wonder if he’s a member emeritus of IVAW? After all, he’s just as qualified as many of their members.
Right, DeWald?
@3. Is that what the teeny-tiny crest on the left pocket is? I thought it was a tie tack.
I didn’t know many (any) AF pilots that flew both F4’s and Helos.
I was in Vietnam and never knew of any helicopter/ F-4 or F-anything pilots. Not saying there weren’t any but unlikely as hell. I am having surgery on my knee July 12th. Now I will have nightmares that this guy will show up in the OR as I drift off to lala land. I wouldn’t let him change my tire, much less operate on even my wife’s cat…and I hate my wife’s cat.
@5 Hahahaha, that it is. One of the smallest AFSC badges around.
Grooming standards way out of regs (even though it’s the Air Force, back then, they still had grooming standards comparable to the other uniformed services) i.e. moustache looks like he’s the villian tying the chick to the railroad tracks. Sideburns past the center of the ear. Hair touching his ears and too long in back. Fucking slacker.
If he is going to pose then why no 6 stack of phoney ribbons? Even doctors get a NDSM and a Vietnam vet would have the accompanying in country service ribbons. Needs to comb the moustache and eyebrows up over his bald spot.
What he meant to say was, “I am the Marguess of Lansdowne.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Marquess_of_Lansdowne.jpg
Fuggin’ “Doc Dick Dastardly” and his flying machines.
I am SHOCKED everyone thinks this is Stolen Valor. This guy is totally legit. Okay, He’s wearing a medical AFSC badge with no wings, no NDSM, no nametag, and a really bad comb-over. But you are overlooking a very important piece of evidence. MUSTACHE! Anyone with lip adornment like that, is totally legit. For my first piece of evidence, I would like to call the Griffin family to the stand:
Lois Griffin: [on Peter’s new mustache] I think it’s handsome.
Brian Griffin: I think it’s gay.
Peter Griffin: Oh yeah? Well, if I’m gay then Freddie Mercury was gay.
Brian Griffin: Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen? He was incredibly gay!
Peter Griffin: He was not. He had a mustache. That’s practically like having a wedding band.
I rest my case…MUSTACHE!!!
It looks like he is the only one who needed to be appointed by the Queen to the RSM. http://www.rsm.ac.uk/membersh/joining.php
Let me translate poser speak for you guys….
Following in his father’s footsteps = My Dad was a liar too!
Katske enlisted in the Air Force just as the war in Vietnam was heating up = With my deferment I was able to smoke dope in college while avoiding the draft and we had some trouble controlling the thermostat resulting in a really warm party room…
He became a pilot (call-sign: “Doc”) of helicopters and F-4 fighter jets = I was in charge of the frat house medical kit I think, but I was so f#cking high most of the time I thought I was in flight dude!
“inducted into the Royal Society of Medicine by appointment of the queen.” = now that I have time to reflect on my cowardice during my youth I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve done nothing but protect my own 4ss all my life, so before I die I intend to pretend to be a decent, honorable man instead of the low-life piece of sh1t I really am…
Here’s hoping Karma is not amused sh1thead, and you reap what you’ve sown sooner rather than later…
emerging at barely 20 years of age as a much-decorated captain = When I was a junior my frat brothers made me a plaque because I always had the best dope and keg parties!
(and still healing from injuries sustained when his chopper was shot down in enemy territory). = Once, I was so f#cking high I fell out of the 2nd floor window onto some small shrubbery in front of the dorms…broke my arm and it took me like 6 weeks in a cast before I could roll a good doobie again bro!
The guy is a very distinguished doctor (a Cardiothoracic surgeon ffs) and yet he still feels the need to embellish?!? I guess it’s true “Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea”.
@15 Thanks for that, now I understand.
In the article, he also claims he helped discover the intraoperative cell salvage machine – another lie.
I guess the medical profession has its posers, too.
OldTrooper: I’ve seen this guy’s complete FOIA from NPRC. Believe it or not, that’s the photo that was in his official military records at NPRC.
Yikes.
He’s a cardiovascular specialist? And he lies like a rug?
Must be in the ‘catch me if you can’ category. I want to see his medical license. This is really creepy news.
I’d say at this point his name is Mudd.
@21
I get jokes…..
Harcourt Fenton “Harry” Mudd…..
/someone channel Stella.
Ex-PH2: doesn’t surprise me at all. Doctors as a group are no more or less moral than the rest of us.
Some lie, cheat, are serial philanderers – whatever vice you want to name. Hell, some even get caught driving drunk, like a locally-well-known orthopedic surgeon in a town where I used to live did about 15 or so years ago.
In short, doctors are human – even if many of them do act like they think they’re God.
Jonn,
I agree with Harcort Fenton Mudd and I’m going to throw in a little Andy Kaufman in there as well.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GzQNaaZsh_8/SmnU7gCWQVI/AAAAAAAAI1w/8F1TW-RrXQ0/s400/76.jpg
I got an idea…strap his ass to a Piper Cub. Send that bad boy over the 38th parallel on a direct course with Pyongyang.
He won’t be a liar anymore after that.
Bet TSO wishes he had a Stache like that to go with The Beard.
I wouldn’t let this sawbones cut my sandwich. Just goes to prove that if you go see a doc and get a bad vibe — LEAVE. Right now. Your vibe is telling you something, and you need to pay attention.
The link is no longer working:
http://www.mercurynews.com/saratoga/ci_23286454/dr-gordon-katske-is-named-one-americas-top?source=rss
The webpage cannot be found HTTP 404
The recent comments were the truth which is against MSM policy.
That dude kinda looks like Ron Jeremy in the lower picture. Or maybe it IS Ron Jeremy,..and this is his alter ego!
Remember, 50% of the doctors you meet graduated in the bottom half of their class.
Unless, of course, you’re at VA
Last time I saw this guy he was flying Brendan Frasier into a sandstorm
Yeah, looks like CODE BLUE for the story. But, before it went down, I read the article. His father was with the 101st at Normandy. Don’t think so. That damn Google is a monster. A two-minute poke around and, lo and behold, I found some info regarding Gordon Katske. He was indeed in the Army during WW II. “Mrs. Floyd Katske and son are visiting her home in New York while Captain Katske is attending jump
school at Fort Benning, Ga.” The date? July 27, 1944
Here’s the link:
http://library.digitalnc.org/cgi-bin/showfile.exe?CISOROOT=/newspapers&CISOPTR=42536&CISOMODE=print
@ Veritas:
It’s a minor thing, but I’d not jump to conclusions that his father was a liar as well. It’s possible, sure, but I’ve also met people whose parents were fine, upstanding citizens, yet had kids who fucked up and lied through their teeth.
I hate to throw that 1-1/4″ combination wrench into the reduction gears, but about that mustache –
http://www.af.mil/information/heritage/person.asp?dec=&pid=123006521
Not that this guy is anywhere within a billion-gazillion miles of Brigadier General Olds in terms of integrity, class, skill-sets, accomplishments, etc., … (especially that whole “integrity” thing there).
Perhaps he fervently wished that growing such a mustache would magically turn him into the adventurous, gallant, swash-buckling hero he never became. Sadly, it almost looks to me as if our doctor here has modeled some of his lies on the career of BG Olds.
The Mercury-News may indeed have pulled the article – but not before a cached copy was saved to PDF. I’ll send a copy to Jonn.
I also understand someone might have sent the Mercury-News a copy of Katske’s FOIA. (smile)
@32 It was a satirical comment….probably should have put /sarc to make it clear
@ Hondo: It might just be a problem with their site, too – the search function on their main site leads to the same error. It would be great to see the original article, though.
well bobble, Gen Olds was a true Ace with the stones to plan and pull off something like Operation Bolo. I doubt many people would have a pair bigger than his to tell him to fix dat moostach.
@ Veritas: My mistake then, no problem.
VOV … often times we need to put satire disclaimer on our comments, because some (not all) can’t recognize well crafted satire even when it is being rammed down there throats.
@28: Copy the link and paste it into Google, and it brings up the archived copy.
Don’t these people ever learn that once it’s on the internet you can’t ever make it disappear?
Hayabusa: or they could just read the archived PDF copy in the link at the end of Jonn’s article. (smile)
CORRECTION to CMT 31. I wrote, “A two-minute poke around and, lo and behold, I found some info regarding Gordon Katske.” No, I found some info regarding his father, Floyd. And by the way, that’s the name of Gordon (Suave Stache)Katske’s brother, who is also a doctor.
@ 39: To be fair, I understood and enjoyed the rest of VOV’s post, but given my own experiences I thought it worth pointing out. I seem to recall times here when people are quick to attribute to family that which is really only the shortcomings of one person.
I’d cut the dad some slack. First, the article says he died in the 1950s, so anything they have in the article must have come from the son. And it doesn’t actually say he was with the 101st in Normandy, only that he was with the 101st in World War II. Based on when he would have completed jump school (using the date of the newspaper article as a reference for when he attended), he most likely got assigned to the division as a replacement—Graham Cosmos and Bert Cowdrey’s book on Army medical support in the ETO says the 101st had over 20% of its medical personnel unaccounted for after the campaign ended. Factor in casualties on top of the missing, and they were probably plugging lots of holes. So his being a replacement, as the 101st reconstituted after Normandy, would be logical.
But I still blame the son for embellishing his dad’s record, which probably didn’t need to be embellished anyway.
http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/010/10-23/index.html
I can’t find any patents for Gordon, but it looks like his brother Floyd has 3 for the treatment of urinary tract disfunction. So much for inventing that cell saver.
I had 1 pilot come from A-4s to the helios. A Major, I think to just pick up his command thicket. By the way, he was shot down on his first night Med-Evac. Joe
@44. I agree that Suave Stache’s father is not at issue. However, what sonny boy says about his father and himself is.
@33, from the linked article on Colonel Olds:
@28 Closer.
I just got on the link fine AND read the lovely Facebook comments….
” Hey “Doc”, you care to provide your DD 214 to back up your claims of Commissioned Officer, Pilot, Vietnam service, etc? Records show you served in the National Guard during peace time, no combat service. care to comment?”
” Awesome fiction story. Douchebag was in medical school and the National Guard during Vietnam. Stolen Valor poser!”
” Congrats for lying about wartime service? Come on people do the math. Why don’t reporters check their facts before printing this BS? ”
/Awesomeness.
@ 43 … Take a chilly pilly there Willy. Today is my birthday, I woke up with severe back spasms, had a VA appoint where the doctor wanted to inspect my overboard discharge pipe, and now I am at work with a bunch of morons (not all, but most).
So I am having a really shitty day … if you know what I mean.
So, please don’t make it any worse.