Daniel A. Bernath; phony CPO

| December 11, 2013

Editor’s Note: Daniel A. Bernath passed away on January 21, 2018

Daniel Bernath

Scotty sent this to us over the weekend and I was holding on to it for a drought, but our own Ex-PH2 was excited that Daniel A. Bernath was a PH2, too. Just by looking at the rank on his sleeve, you can tell he’s a phony since, instead of laying out the bucks for new rank, he had a stripe embroidered on the sleeve. He has service stripes for twenty years of service, but his FOIA tells a different story;

3 years and change in active service, and a couple of years in the Reserves. Now let’s do some math – you’ll need most of your fingers, he’s wearing seven awards in the picture and the FOIA says that he has five. Well, finally we got a Navy phony who is not a SEAL.

Bernath portlandia medals

DSCF0759.jpg~original Bernath Caddy

Bernath portlandia medals close up

Bernath crash

ADDED: Look familiar? Courtesy of Sparks to whom I bow for his superior Google-foo belt.

John SheppardDaniel Bernath

From MCPO;

Bernath photos 3

Category: Phony soldiers

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Sparks

How dare Bernath!!! A Navy POS poser who is not a SEAL! What the hell is the world of SV coming to? That is a good looking stripe on his jacket though. My sixth grade niece could have done a better job with a crayon. Why does it say “Honorary”, on his picture? MCPO NYC, can you help me out? Is there an Honorary CPO? As an aside, are beards still allowed in the Navy?

Pinto Nag

Question for anybody who might know. I saw an obit that indicated the man served in the Army from 1970-1971, and did two tours in Vietnam. Is that possible? I thought a tour in Vietnam was 12 months?

Andy

I don’t know, something about his face and neck look “off” almost like the picture has been photo shopped. then there is that funky rocker on top. think that was shopped into the picture as well?

Ex-PH2

Sparks, the designation ‘Honorary Chief Petty Officer’ is bestowed ONLY by the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy and no one else. Barnabas the Thief up there didn’t get the honor. Bob Hope did, not this d-less wonder.

He claims 15 years of service, but he’s wearing 5 (count ’em) hash marks on his sleeve. 5 x 4 yrs per hash = 20 years. He can’t count. He also claims he was the photographer who shot the splashdown and rescue of the Apollo 8 crew, but the black & white photo he shows is a bad newspaper copy of a news photo released by NASA to the newswire services.

The noise you hear is my teeth gnashing together. 😛 , as in >:}{ Grrrrr!

I just find it amazing that someone who made E-5 can’t remember how many years each hash mark represents. That alone makes him a colossal dorkwad.

If he’s using this embellishment to get business, he’s profiting from it. Isn’t that the qualifier for stolen valor?

Ex-PH2

Andy, I think the rocker on the rating badge was embroidered on his wife’s zigzag Singer sewing machine. The thread is pale yellow, whereas the actual thread used is gold-wrapped silk. Those rating badges and rank patches are done on industrial embroidery machines, the kind that do expensive upholstery.

Ex-PH2

PN, that sounds like a mistake to me.

Pinto Nag

@6 Yeah, it sounds like a mistake to me too. This is kind of a bad place to put that question – I didn’t mean to jack the thread – but the above is about the only “poser” we have on here at the moment. :/

TheCloser

When I first saw that picture, I thought he was wearing a Chief’s jacket. He is not. He is wearing the old style ‘salt and pepper’ jacket (note the silver buttons, a Chief’s jacket has gold buttons).

Ex-PH2

It’s probably because he couldn’t get the real chief’s jacket at a surplus store.

He’s also wearing aircrew wings, which are not on his FOIA, which means he was NOT on a squadron shooting crew,

I’m taking his insults to the rate of Photographer’s Mate just the way you guys take the insults to the Ranger and PJ and combat infantry: personal. 😛 Still growling.

I’m surprised he didn’t claim to be a SEAL, with all this. PH is a rate that gets you into the SEALs.

Hondo

I’ll ask our Vietnam-era readers. I thought the standard Navy active duty term during Vietnam was 4 years. What did someone have to do to get out over 6 months early in the middle of the Vietnam War (mid-1970)?

Hondo

For what it’s worth, per the FOIA reply from NPRC 3 of the medals he’s wearing are legit; 4 are bogus.

He’s wearing the NGCM, NEM, NDSM, AFEM, VMS, HSM, and VCM. Per NPRC, the NDSM, AFEM, and VSM are legit. The NGCM, NEM, HSM, and VCM he’s wearing are bogus – they’re not on his FOIA reply. Neither are the aircrew wings he’s sporting.

He’s wearing what seem to be 3 unit awards on the right side. Per NPRC, only one of them is legit (the Navy MUC). The other two are bogus.

He’s also missing one medal he rates, the KDSM. While the KDSM was created in 2002, eligibility was retroactive to 28 July 1954. DoD also granted an exception to policy for the KDSM, allowing award of the KDSM to folks who were previously awarded the AFEM for service in the Korean AO during 1966-1974 without having to give up their AFEM.

This guy exemplifies the acronym “LSoS”.

NavyE9r

99.9% of the PH I’ve ever met had Naval Observer Wings NOT Naval Aircrew Wings.

Lee

Ex PH 2- What years did you serve? My dad was a Naval Photographer from 1980-2005. I wonder if you crossed paths with him at some point?

Ex-PH2

Hondo, his service record shows that he went into the Navy in December 1966, but spent from entry date until 6 March 1967 in what I guess was a holding company at Great Lakes.

The standard tour in country in Vietnam was 12 months. I thought guys were obligated to 4 yrs active, plus 2 reserve, also. My brother had 1 year active in the Army, the rest reserves, but it was when Vietnam was winding down.

Combat Historian

Ex-PH2, you need to march over to this loser’s abode and kick his embellishing ass…

Hondo

Ex-PH2: I believe draftees during Vietnam served 2 years active. Voluntary enlistments were longer, but I think the Army allowed a 3+3 enlistment during Vietnam (3 active plus 3 reserve – and I could easily be wrong about that). It was my understanding that the USAF and USN allowed no less than a 4-year (active) enlistment during Vietnam – they could afford to be more selective, as many were trying to enlist in the USAF or USN to avoid serving in the Army in Vietnam. Not sure about the USMC, but I think they were the same as the USAF and USN regarding enlistment lengths.

In every case, prior to 1984 the total commitment (active plus reserve) was 6 years. Whatever you didn’t do active, you did in the reserve component – even if it was in the IRR. In 1984, that changed to a total 8 year commitment.

I’m wondering how this guy managed to get off active duty over 6 months early while Vietnam was still hot. Besides his lies and dorked-up awards, something else isn’t quite adding up here.

MCPO NYC USN Ret.

A play from Green Thumb:

TURD.

I commented on this TURD yesterday in another post.

Green Thumb

What’s up with the beard?

The photo looks a little old.

Could you have them in the Navy back then?

DaveO

SMH: a decent period of service, during wartime, ruined by insecurity.

Be a good thing if the services has a class on Stolen Valor at basic training and initial entry courses for officers and flight warrants: Don’t ruin your life because you aren’t a Master Blaster or SEAL.

Ex-PH2

@13 – Lee, I was in 3/1967 to 8/1970 and then 6/1972 to 8/1974. I was out before your dad went in. Was he ever at the Naval Photo Center next door to Bolling AFB at Anacostia Flats?

MCPO NYC USN Ret.

@ Green Thumb

TURDS come in a various fornms:

Bearded TURDS and the like …

Ex-PH2

This guy’s truly stupid. Lack of attention to detail is the hallmark of the SV loser, isn’t it? The buttons on the jacket should be gold, not pewter. The rating (rank) badge is altered, and poorly done. On Scotty’s blog, there’s a photo of him (he claims) and another guy manning a deck gun, but you can’t really tell if it’s him or not. Too blurry. How covenient.

The beard? Not neatly trimmed and I don’t recall ever seeing a CPO wearing one. When I did medical photography in Philadelphia, I saw three doctors with beards, but they were neatly trimmed, and the docs were getting out, anyway.

Total dilberto, almost as bad as phildo – making a living based on his inflated resume. And what’s with the ‘law school in England’ thing? Aren’t American law schools at least as good as Brit law schools? His whole CV doesn’t jive.

Still gnashing teeth. >:}{

Some of the guys from the Yorktown back then were exposed to Agent Orange, which was stored in 55-gallon drums in the paint lockers. Now they’re getting AO cancer. Maybe someone should alert Bernath.

Well, don’t look at me.

Green Thumb

@22.

There is no wrath like that of a woman scorned.

Go get him, girl!

Anonymous

How dare he not claim a MoH with a silver oak leaf and a Battle of Hoth ribbon? (Hell, can’t he at least spring for new rank if he’s going do this?)

MCPO NYC USN Ret.

We should ask for his HON CPO cert!

I have seen one and been present when awarded.

I am sick at home and operating on BB or I would have contacted this fu@kstick. As a Genuine CPO I am required by our unwritten rules to destroy him.

CTRC (not a fake)

What a disgrace, and this guy can’t even get the uniform correct. The real Chiefs know what it means to be “The Chief” and we carry that tradition and pass it down with great pride every Season.

TwoFiveZulu

Hondo et al: The Navy had a policy that if you reenlisted 90 days early either at sea on a deployment or in a combat zone you got credit for the 90 days. You could do that twice, hence the six months ‘early’ out. I did the same thing and got credit for 20 years at 19 years and six months. Don’t know if they still do it.

Ex-PH2

Go for it, Master Chief.

Ex-PH2

Still gnashing teeth.

Alberich

#22, in Britain (and other countries) law is an undergraduate degree, not a separate post-graduate school as it is in the U.S….it’s possible, but by no means easy, for a foreign-trained lawyer to get a law license in the U.S. without getting a new three-year law degree here. (A few states will let you take the bar, but the ones I know require you to take some courses at a U.S. law school first…which usually means getting into a degree program…)

Now, when is one of these SV scumpuppies going to take the plunge and pretend to have been a judge advocate?

Ex-PH2

Good answer, Alberich.

I went looking for info on UK law schools, and here’s a quote:
‘You have to get a 2.1 to even stand a chance of selection for a decent law school at LPC level and, being honest, a decent university if you are going to get into a City law firm or any major commercial firm. Being really honest… you haven’t a chance of getting into Muttley Dastardly LLP unless you went to Oxbridge or a top Russell Group university – why would *WE* take second best?’

Oxbridge is attached to Oxford University and Cambridge University, for law students, but very tough to get into. If this person couldn’t qualify for a Navy “A” school, am I supposed to believe he could qualify for either Oxford or Cambridge? And they’re quite expensive, too.

A Proud Infidel

Well, at least he’s not embellishing with an Apollo Door Gunner’s badge, I’ll give him that. But he’s still 8TFU and nuttier than a bucket of squirrel sh1t!

Brownwolf

@3 Andy & @18 Green Thumb,

I agree – the image does appear Photoshopped. If you look to the left of his head (our right), you can see some residual artifacts from photo-shopping. You barely see someone else’s hair-style and ear shape blended into the bluish background – if you blow-up the image. There is some blue background color to his lower jaw-line, on his left. The head does not look well placed. The hands look slightly younger than to the texture of the (blotchy) skin of his face. The body belongs to someone else. The face looks like a match of this image; http://www.aspecialdayguide.com/danflag.jpg

Also, if you look at this image; http://www.aspecialdayguide.com/dan2004sm.jpg – he blued out the background with the same shade/tonalities of this image he was prepping to use for his phony honorary chief image. Basically, he was working on the unknown sailor’s image at the same time he was prepping his own portrait image. I’m still looking for the unknown sailor’s image online. The image looks circa post-first Gulf War (and before 9-11) because the National Defense Service Medal looks altered – photoshoped to remove one service star by the way the ribbon material on the image looks altered. The yellow center of the NDSM looks funky. There are also other anomalies in the image but it is getting late here.

It still does not excuse him from his web of deceit.

Tman

Buy this poseur a beer!

The first time evah that a Navy poseur was not a super duper secret squirrel SEAL!

Hondo

TwoFiveZulu: didn’t know that; thanks.

However, don’t think that’s what happened with Bernath. If he ever reenlisted, even once, I’m pretty sure he’d have had to serve more than 4 years total on active duty. And he’d have to reenlist twice to get 6 mo “early out” under that policy.

John Robert Mallernee

Comrades in Arms: Maybe I’m spending too much time reading stuff at this web site, because apparently, it’s having a psychological ricochet effect on me. Just like “MCPO NYC USN Ret”, I’ve been sick in bed for the past couple of days, and while sleeping, boy, did I ever have a weird dream! In the dream, I was wearing a khaki Navy chief’s uniform with a gold SEAL badge mounted above the ribbon rack. There was no ocean anywhere, just a small town surrounded by rugged desert with mountains, dunes, cliffs, and canyons. I don’t remember what I was doing, but I think there was a dog with me, and a native village below one of the cliffs, and a small, isolated Navy office in the desert where I cleaned up and changed uniforms. So, you guys are having an effect on me! I was never in the Navy, and could never have become a SEAL. I was in the Army, my highest rank was sergeant (E-5), from which I was busted to corporal (E-4) prior to my Honorable Discharge. Today, Thursday 12 December 2013, and forty-four (44) years ago on Friday 12 December 1969, as a Private First Class in the United States Army, I landed at Cam Ranh Bay, Republic of Viet Nam. I was a volunteer, proud to be a part of American history, but BOY, was I scared ! ! ! I was twenty-three (23) years old, one (01) year younger than my father was when he landed on the beach in Normandy, France shortly after D-Day 1944. On D-Day 1944, the woman destined to become my stepmother was stationed in Florida, watching for enemy aircraft, as one of the very FIRST (number 104) women to enlist in the newly formed Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC), which later became the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). Unknown to me at the time I went to the Republic of Viet Nam, my biological younger brother (we were both adopted by different families) was a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army, stationed in Germany, my previous duty station. Only… Read more »

GDContractor

@#36 – Good Morning Mr. Mallernee – I just wanted to say I enjoyed your post very much and I hope this Dec. 12 is better than the one 44 years ago. God bless men like yourself, your brother, and your father. Keep dreaming and keep posting. Get well and take care Sir.

@#31 Ex-PH2 – Who are you to question his intelligence? Didn’t you read where after many hours of self study, he passed the test in order to be licensed as an Oregon Public Notary? The man is a freakin genius… why don’t you get that?

Ex-PH2

GDContractor, it’s too early for satire. It’s dark, it’s cold, and I’m not awake yet.

I cannot responding porprellly yet – oh, hell, I can’t beven pyte. Too early. I’ll back get you to one that on.

Found out that gnashing teeth is more damaging that weeping and wailing. Please cast this blowhard into outer darkness.

Thanks!

Andy

@33, Brownwolf, I’m glad you think it’s been shopped too. when I looked at it I knew something about it was off. His head and neck are just ever so slightly out of proportion to everything else. Def falls into the “uncanny valley”.

USMCE8Ret

His “Honorable CPO” face shot looks strikingly similar to his bio photo (the one where he claims to be a lawyer).

Ex-PH2

If that’s not his dress blues jacket from the 1980s**, then who is the poor soul who was decapitated?

**Or was that the late 1970s? I lost track of all that.

Scotty

His face very well could have been photo shopped onto the Hon. CPO photo. Just the same as the top rocker is the wrong color & has been photo shopped on. The fact that the photo has been used on numerous web-sites including the VFW post about him puts the blame squarely on the PH2’s shoulders.

Scotty

Some one by the name of ” Yelp Classaction ” has made comments on his shame blog proclaiming to be Bernath. The TAH blog link is attached. So hopefully he will make his way to this blog & explain himself. If in fact it is Bernath.

Jacobite

That’s a definite Photo-shop job, and a bad one at that. The first thing that jumps out and screams ‘shopped’ is the size of the head in proportion to the body, second is the difference in the depth of field between the head and pretty much anything else in the photo.

Ex-PH2

Scotty, whoever the guy is, whose portrait Bernath stole, the REAL PH1 is actually a PO1 – Petty Officer First Class, NOT CPO – with 20 years of service.

It’s entirely possible that someone who is listed on the Yorktown crew roster as a PH3 squadron photographer for VS27 could tell us whether or not Bernath was the dipstick and LSOS back then that he has come to be now.

Don H

@2: During the Vietnam war, a tour in country was a year. You were allowed to extend, since the system at the time was for individual replacements. When I was a captain, our Command Sergeant Major had spent six years in country. Typically, that would be referred to as “six tours” even though he might never have left other than for R&R leave. This is unlike today’s system, where units rotate, and you have “dwell time” between tours.

That doesn’t answer the question about the amount of time he was in the service. Figure 2-3 months for basic training/AIT, then straight on a plane for Vietnam as an individual filler. Doesn’t leave time for two years in country. Now, if we want to be generous, I suppose he could have come into the service in January, got to Vietnam in March, and if his unit was one of the ones that started to redeploy in 1971, He could have had more than 12 months in country, so the second “tour” could have been less than a year.

Alternatively, if he was wounded and evacuated from country, that would have ended his tour at that point. Or he could have been evacuated with disease or non-battle injury. So it would be possible to have two tours and possibly a Purple Heart–but not two years in theater.

But, again, that’s just if you want to be generous.

Green Thumb

So this dude is claiming he is an attorney to boot?

Scotty

It’s my mistake about listing him with only 15 years of service instead of 20 from his service stripes.
It would be a big score if we could locate the PO1 whom he stole the photo from.

NavyChief

And he’s wearing a GCM he didn’t/couldn’t earn. And never,ind he’s in uniform with a damn beard!

1AirCav69

During Vietnam the Army had a two-year enlistment plan but you had no choice of MOS. Had to take “3 with the guarantee”. Your reserve time, 3years, was totally inactive even for the 2 year RA’s. 2 year draftee’s could have to spend reserve time but few did. Only those who didn’t go to Vietnam had to do 4 years active reserve. I had friends who enlisted into the Navy on a 2 year program but had 4 years of active reserve. My brother, CT, wanted to be in subs but it was 6 years. He went 4 active with no active reserve time. An Army tour in Vietnam was 12 months. Navy was 12 months. Air Force was 12 months, and the Marine Corps was 13 months. My buddy and I enlisted in the Army for 3 with a guarantee for Airborne, “unassigned” which meant Infantry. We didn’t know it until boot camp that we could have taken 2 and volunteered for Basic Airborne Training in boot camp. (sigh) Recruiters didn’t lie, they just didn’t give us the facts. Hope this helps.

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