Some phony POW statistics

| May 26, 2009

I’ve read these somewhere before (I think TSO sent it to me once), but I thought y’all’d like to see these statistics on phony POWs in light of yesterday’s revelation about super-secret recondo Eugene Reed;

There are only 661 officially recognized U.S. POWs from the Vietnam period. About 550 of those are alive, but the VA says they are paying disability payments to 966 “Vietnam POWs.” It got worse after the 1991 Gulf War. There were 21 officially recognized POWs during that conflict, but the VA is paying disability to 286 Gulf War POWs. For years, the VA claimed that they checked out the records before recognizing all these phony POW vets. Once recognized as a POW by the VA, you have several financial benefits (like not having to make copayments for medical services). Thus the fake POWs are also guilty of stealing money from the government. Veterans groups believe the VA resisted dealing with this obvious fraud because of unwillingness to deal with the resulting bad publicity.

Ten-to-one is about right with Gulf War veterans. It’s probably the same as the ratio of people who claimed they were almost killed in SCUD attacks in that war, too.

I think it’s high time we put our pride aside and end this farce. I wonder if Mean Eugene was collecting benefits for his ill-concocted story. I found this part of the article a bit disturbing, though;

Many civilians accuse the authenticating organizations guilty of being vigilantes, as many people find nothing wrong in a little make believe.

Many civilians, and Charles Anderson, apparently. I’m not surprised that anyone who hasn’t really accomplished anything in their meager existence sees nothing wrong with stealing someone else’s accomplishments. I’m not exactly sure how calling out the media and a phony POW makes me a “patriot” (he says it as if it’s a bad word), but I guess that’s the new code word for “vigilante”.

I think the first time I read this (a month or so ago) we were in contact with POW Net and Mary mentioned that the VA won’t check their list of claimants against DoD’s list of POWs. They also won’t release a list of claimants so that we can check for them. With resources for veterans so scarce that they consider forcing veterans to pay for their service-connected health care, you’d think the VA would want to set this one right.

Category: Phony soldiers

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HM2(FMF/SW)Ret.

Okay. This is a l.ittle over the top even for a moron like yourself. You again miss the entire thrust of the argument and mis-state facts. Does it make you feel like a big man to attack? Seriously dude, high school was a long time ago for both of us.

I object to the way you throw the word Phony around without proof. You did it on the last post and on several others. I simply wanted to know what proof you had that Reed was not a POW. Obviously the story did not mesh, but you stated it as fact without documentation. I object to labels being applied to anyone without the documentation to prove it.

I asked for the proof. POWNet was kind enough to provide the resources that you either wanted to keep super-secret squirel or did not know about yourself (is suspect the latter) and I thanked them. That should have been the end of it. However, a handful of the functionally ill-literate comentators (apprently you included) continued to hammer away after it was all over. Stolen valor is an important issue and the VA record checking needs to be improved. (The VA’s administrative wing needs to be improved all the way around.)

I’m not sure what you call accomplishments or what qualifies you to make such aspersions on my character since you have never met and know nothing about me. But if that’s how you get your jollies, go ahead.

NHSparky

Hey “Doc”,

If there are 10 claiming POW status for every one that actually WAS a POW, I’d venture to guess that more likely than not the Law of Averages says I would be correct in stating that the claimant is in fact a fraud, given that the majority of them are also aviators, not run-of-the-mill ground-pounders.

21 legit POW’s from Desert Shield/Storm. 265 phonies. Do the math.

So if someone states they were a Gulf War Vet, claims they were a POW, and WEREN’T in a combat arm, I’d say with about three or four exceptions, they were full of merde. The fact that the VA WON’T investigate because of the bad publicity speaks more to the embarassment to the VA for not doing even the most basic verification than to the veterans being questions.

To wit (or in your case, the lack thereof), in the words of Ronaldus Maximus, trust, but verify. Now it’s a bit early for beer, so I guess I’ll just spend my lunch hour trolling the Innerwebs for dick jokes.

dutch508

[i]This Account Has Been Suspended
Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible.[/i]

Hey, Alphabet. What’s up with your web-site?

HM2(FMF/SW)Ret.

Dutch:

I took the site down and forgot to take it off my coment box. Thanks for the reminder.

I’m curious Dutch, why do you insist on making fun of my rank? I find it disrespectful not only of me, but of the service in general.