Carlo Dobrich -The American Legions Navy SEAL Sex Instructor
The folks at Military Phony send us their work on Carlo Domenico Dobrich. Dobrich often goes by the nickname “Hawk” and sometimes by “Smokejumper.” His middle initials are sometimes listed as “M” and “C.”
Dobrich has claimed to be a veteran of the U.S. Navy, serving from 1989-1998.
Hawk Dobrich – LinkedIn
He repeated the claim of being a veteran when talking about a hearing loss. We are unclear if this represents a claim of a service-connected disability.
Although it was reported that Dobrich claimed he was a Navy SEAL, we did not have any public statements from him in that regard. However, “Hawk” was reported to have worn a Navy SEAL Trident to an Early American-themed event in combination with a legacy U.S. Navy sailor uniform.
Dobrich rose through the ranks to become the Post Commander of his American Legion post.
. . . . .
After contacting the UDT/SEAL archives and checking the UDT/SEAL database it was discovered that there is NO record of “Carlo Domenico Dobrich” or any other variation of his name ever completing BUD/S Training or assigned to any SEAL teams.
Carlo Dobrich’s military records were ordered through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The dates of service in the USN were claimed to be 1989-1998.
The FOIA request was made with the Department of the Navy, which maintains records from the mid 1990s-present.
The Department of the Navy responded with the below letter. As somebody around here would often say: “The Navy said ‘Who?'”
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE MANPOWER DATA CENTER (SCRA)
To account for earlier service, the DoD Manpower Data Center / SCRA database was searched. The years Jan 1986 to present-day were searched with no results found for each year. The years searched encompassed all of the dates of service claimed.
Below represents a sample null result from 1991, when Dobrich would have been 22.
DoD Manpower Data Center / SCRA Results – 1991 – Carlo Dobrich
. . . . .
OTHER RESEARCH
We were able to find out why he goes by the nickname “Smokejumper.” [NOTE: This article appears to have gotten his age wrong by 10 years – at that time he was 47 y/o vs. the 37 y/o reported.]
Dobrich – Mugshot
* https://www.homefacts.com/
offender-detail/VT1655581/ Carlo-Doemico-Dobrich.html The following court case centered around misrepresentation, so Dobrich entered documents into evidence as proof of his claims. The only problem is they undermined his claims of being in the service several of the years in question. The case did not appear to address claims of military service, however.
* https://www.plainsite.org/
dockets/7h9oxr56/vermont- district-court/usa-v-dobrich/ . . . . .
DISCUSSION and SUMMARY
There is no record of Carlo Dobrich attending BUD/S-SEAL training and no record of him serving with a SEAL Team.
The Department of the Navy official response shows that they could not locate records on him. Being IN the U.S. Navy is a prerequisite for becoming a Navy SEAL.
Although we cannot independently verify this – we are told that Dobrich was removed from his post at the American Legion and had his membership revoked because he could not produce a DD-214.
By now, one would think the American Legion would perform the most basic due diligence on members before they can hold office in their organization. Kinda makes ya wonder how many other sex offenders are lurking thereabout. With all the ways to verify service and check criminal records these days, there is no excuse for this kind of grabasstic nonsense. I am pretty sure the American Legion’s Misson is:
To enhance the well-being of America’s veterans, their families, our military, and our communities by our devotion to mutual helpfulness.
Legionnaires need to understand that there is nothing mutually helpful that comes from making a military phony that is a sex offender a Post Commander. Seriously, we have been asking them for years to REQUIRE verification on their members. The American Legion has once again shamed veterans everywhere with this egregious act of negligence. Shame on them… again and again and again.
Mutual Helpfulness… my ass. Since they refuse to stop putting military phonies in charge of things, let’s at least encourage the American Legion to not let those with a public record of sexually abusing children run things. Maybe they think Dobrich was just being Mutually Helpful to little girls…
Category: Fake SEAL, Navy Poser, Phony SEAL, Valor Vultures
Howdy my TAH family.
Back to the grind.
Before anyone says anything, I’ll be back on later this morning.
THIS douchbag looks, at first and very cursory glance, a candidate for scaphism at least (HA beat all of you to it… this was my usual go to here and some folks here seem to have stolen it from me after I stole if from someone *else* here so…)
SO, we’ll have to have a discussion about other things this “fine” individual is worth of shortly.
IF, in my absence, there is anything *else* my attention needs, please let me know here as I’m certain, I’ll be closely monitoring this thread!!
Cheers
Skrimps!!
I was going to go with “sounds like ‘Polejumper’ is more like it. Then I thought I’d go with something about Civil War era fat-ass SEALs. Now I’m more annoyed at the American Legion. A DD-214 written with crayon on a bar napkin probably shouldn’t be the only prerequisite for entry. Maybe for basic membership, but as you “rise up through the ranks” they should start getting more requirements, like checking with the DOD or something. And the folks there at the hall – NO ONE could detect any BS from a guy who had NEVER SERVED in the Navy that was passing himself off as a NAVY FREAKING SEAL? As the current occupant of the White House says frequently, Come on, man!!
Polesmoker
Poleclimber.
Hey, that’s the name of the Colorado Governor…
Man Eater
Before a genuine fireman can be called a smokejumper, he must first master the art of sliding down the pole.
Dare I say it? — A feat I’m sure he learned in prison.
“Dare I say it? — A feat I’m sure he learned in…..piston.”
There. Fixed it for ya. Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week,
I thought one had to parachute out of a perfectly flying airplane into an area of a raging forest fire before one could be called a smoke jumper. Although, this guy blew a lot of smoke on the Algore’s innertubes trying to get to have his way with a 13 year-old girl. Too bad for him he was communicating his sexual desires to a LEO in another state, which is what got him prosecuted in federal court. He would have likely served at least 2/3rds of that sentence in a federal PITA pound.
Seems like there has been a rash of diddlers recently. Seems to be a common thing with these Phonies. Even the VFW does a poor job vetting people.
Him and Oskar Dirlewanger…
In his defense, he did serve. Of course, that was a prison sentence, but no reason to get nit picky.
That picture of him posing for the photo at the top appears to be from last year’s All-Points Logistics Employee Christmas Ball.
He serviced the inmates in Cell Block “D”
Another phony navy seal and it’s only Tuesday. Sex Education huh? Well there Carlo Domenico Dobrich, it is So rich that you have taught us, once again, that a child looking for sex on the inherwebz is a cop. Sure hope that the bois at the BTJ&T Deli kept you well fed on man meat sammiches (the kind with the special sauce), tossed salads, and Creame d’ Sumyunguy Soup. Hope you jumped on and smoked a buncha poles while there. COCKSUCKER, LYING POS!
Fake seal, fake legionaire, even ride a fake moto sickle, only thing real about you is the disgust that I have for you AND your state’s American Legion Posts Chain of Command. PHUQUE YOU BOTH with the Barbed Cock of Satan as your worthless soul burns in hell.
I can’t believe that I am, again, the FIRST (ht 2 Sapper 3307) to call for the deployment of the TAH Hemisphere of Insults for this tool. Can I get a SECOND and an AYE?
ChipNASA to the White Courtesy Phone. You already have a Motion, a SECOND, an AYE, and a DO IT BAYYBEEE for yesterday’s phony. Do we get a BOGO when it’s a 2fer?
Not only does he have an AYE, he has a SI, OUI, JAWOHL, and DA!
Come on, Chip, we need a couple of HOI deployments, chop chop!
Oh, before I forget in regards to this baboso…
SEGUNDO!
OK Jebus you twats (forgive ke Ladies), can’t you READ?!?!?
OK so we have a request and a “SEGUNDO”, here for this goober, do we have an AYE?!?!
Yes we can have a TWO-FER for the HoI.
I have to go back and read, I’m at least 5 or more days behind.
Let me catch up and do the work and while we wait for the AYE vote here, I’ll look at the previous days fuck bois and see what HoIs need deploying.
TOODLES!!!
I have live my life based on the following:
When all else fails, read the instructions.
Also, to quote Rainier Wolfcastle from The Simpsons:
I vas elected to lead, not to read!
🙃🍺🥃
DO IT BAYBEE!!!
And there’s the rub, ooohh wait, not a good pun here. OK well let me get to it…. OLD Carlo here needs to get the rack so, bitch, I hope your fakery was worth it because now, you’ve earned the coveted … The Hemisphere of Insults®™ (aka, “This Ain’t Hell” Thesaurus) FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!! TACTICAL NUCLEAR ROUND OUT!!!! THREE PASS AIRCRAFT BOMB RUN!!!!! DANGER CLOSE!!!! MOPP LEVEL 4!!! TAKE COVER!!!!! Carlo (Carla in Cell Block “D”) Domenico (Should be dromedary, because you’re soon going to be asking yourself “One Hump or Two!??) Dobrich (Yeah, you’re going to be hearing “D’OH! Bitch! shortly) HEY DICKLESS (SUPER Dickless) WONDER, (“Yes, it’s true this man has no dick!” …**HT to Ghostbusters**) We all hope you read this and come back here and try to defend your actions, but, you won’t because, YOU’RE A STRAIGHT UP COWARD, NOT a Navy SEAL, vile, flaming piece of skunk shit, ALLEGEDLY, but not confirmed or proven, but in some people’s opinion, works balls, tickles taint and tongue punches hobo’s crusty fart boxes all, I Guess, while being a syphilitic, turd-sucking feces factory, HOLY Baby Ape Shit Breath, Bitch-ass Fuckstick guzzler, pile infested, onion-eyed flapmouthed butt-bailiff, “Fowl” mouthed Chicken Fucking Chickenfucker, You flaccid piece of tofu, Simply a fart in life waiting to be fabreezed away, YOU’RE the reason Joe Biden tried to throw himself down the stairs of Air Force One, moral equivalent of pond scum, THIS MOTHERFUCKER IS A WALKING TURD, inflamed, “Towel boy” in a gay bath house, DILLY DILLY!!, When he wants to put on some mood music, he has Alexa play Dueling Banjos, Ambulatory verbal dissembling anus, Fucking one cell spermatozoon with a tiny flagella, gaping giant ass walking fungus shit nugget, Bag of seasoned dog shit, Cambodian cunt sauce, he deserves to have his private parts gnawed by angry badgers, Anyone who ever loved you was wrong, bucket of ass chum, Poopy Headed ball working asshole, JERK OFF !!, Soup Sandwich, if you Mom would have known you were going to turn out like this, she’d have prayed for a miscarriage,… Read more »
smeerlap, fud, cock-sucking piece of shit, overused prison fuckboy, tittyfuck cum spatter (Shamelessly stolen and credited, Terminal Lance …https://terminallance.com/2017/02/28/terminal-lance-461-drill-instructor-academy/?fbclid=IwAR36LjF848ATFa879zl5OZ6An7xsUuRL1_-VASzLgdLTI-p5o4g14ylaXE4) and from the Book of Face comments, if I could, I’d shove you back into your mother’s pussy so the doctor can FINISH the abortion, Peter-Puffer, I bet the knobs of all the cocks you’ve ever sucked are shinier than the arse end of a bald eagle in a nose dive!, ncid floor buffer wax spreader, both of your Grandmothers should have had an abortion, just in case, Harebrained duckfucker, I’ve seen bigger wieners on a cocktail plate!, You look like something I’d draw with my left hand, untreated, festering pus pocket, You’re a grey sprinkle on a rainbow cupcake, you twink, You are more disappointing than an unsalted pretzel, It’s impossible to underestimate you, Don’t be ashamed of who you are. That’s your parents’ job, oh wait, you *SHOULD* be ashamed too, because, the more the merrier, You are the human version of period cramps, If you’re going to be two-faced, at least make one of them pretty, You are like a cloud. When you disappear, it’s a beautiful day, you thought you’d be nice the other day and you lent a girl an umbrella, so, that makes the total of girls you’ve made wet this year -1, if you were a trophy at the end of my race, I’d walk backwards, you try to present yourself as a knight in shining armor but really, you’re a loser in tinfoil, if you were ever a teacher, your students would never wear a seatbelt while driving to school, because they’d want to die before ever having to take one of your classes, you’re what Olive Garden is to real Italians, If he was on Prison Bachelor, he would offer his cellmate his brown rose, you have a chronically, domestically abused, tiny pee pee, this valor poacher thinks he’s so hot and such an intellect, that he gets a semi chub (all that he is able) by his actions and subsequently, is in danger of raising blood blisters on his Third Thumb… Read more »
likes to suck the turds out of rabid dogs bungholes, is a lying sack of wet doughnut batter, He looks like the kind of guy that really needs to take a bath…with a toaster. baby cave, analconda, Grade A chode yodeler, tittilating scrotalator pole smoker, Vaginal Sand Fairy, Drollenpijper, wide open mouth pivot man in a circle jerk, feral abacus, leg humper, You look like you were conceived through anal, meadow muffin, ax wound drippings, you’re such a loser, when you spank your little wee-wee, your hand falls asleep, horse squeeze Ball Cheese, you were born after your Dad cream-pied her asshole then finger fucked her vagina, your “heroic “ career is less believable than UFOs, Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, you are the poster child for ED, when I want to terrorize my children, I tell YOU are under their bed, when I saw this sperm receptacle, soggy biscuit eater, my eyes rolled so hard I saw my own brain stem, I cannot believe how incredibly stupid you are. I mean rock-hard stupid. Dehydrated-rock-hard stupid, Stupid, so stupid it goes way beyond the stupid we know into a whole different dimension of stupid. You are trans-stupid stupid. Meta-stupid. Stupid collapsed on itself so far that even the neutrons have collapsed. Stupid gotten so dense that no intellect can escape. Singularity stupid. Blazing hot mid-day sun on Mercury stupid, you emit more stupid in one second than our entire galaxy emits in a year. Quasar stupid, nothing in our universe can really be this stupid, Perhaps this is some primordial fragment from the original big bang of stupid, Some pure essence of a stupid so uncontaminated by anything else as to be beyond the laws of physics that we know, His mother made it be known that he had a Do Not Resuscitate declaration when she would take him for a haircut, Schlumpadinka, wazzock, Tampon Tunnel, used toilet paper-sniffing Turbo knob vacuum of a meat gazer, terminal crotch infection, asshat, roach turd-munching shit-for-brains, a black hole would spit you out, the founding fathers said all men are created equal….except… Read more »
NOT a Navy SEAL, NOT even IN THE NAVY AT ALL!!, Not a Veteran, and, unfortunately a pervy sex offender that likes little children, EWWWWW, why are we not surprised, a FRAUD and should NOT be a Commander of the American Legion, American Legion, as old Joe would say “Come on MAN!!!” , hopefully you’re about to get fed a steady diet of the old prison pork sword, you are worse than the Devil’s Hemorrhoids, TOTALLY a retarded, soul patch ball dusting, burn pit of worthlessness, you know the old saying “don’t throw the baby out with the bath water?” You would be the exception, he can go fuck a hill of dildos, you’re so fugly, you could make the Sun go down and not want to come up again, you make people that know you, want ass cancer, you make Hillary Clinton’s vagina look attractive, should be blowing everyone in cell block D and taking it up the ass, simultaneously from everyone in cell block C, This guy is a piece of lint on stinky goat nuts, You fucking LAND WALRUS, shit snorting stain on Hillary Clinton’s yeast infected kootchie covers, you’re lucky we don’t dress you up in drag, drop your ass off somewhere in the Middle East and let an entire battalion of ISIS soldiers and supporters butt rape you until you’re turned inside out, This guy has spunk. And by spunk, I mean he likes to ingest copious, and I mean immense, monumental and breathtaking, amounts of Baby Batter, Ball Barf, Trouser Gravy, Man Chowder, High Fructose Porn Syrup, Daddy Sauce, Choad Nectar, Throat Yogurt, Penis Colada, Nut Butter, and Weiner Sauce, remember that story in the news a while back about a guy that was arrested for fucking his girlfriend’s dog that had been dead for a few days, in front of a daycare center? Yeah, you’re worse than that guy, I hope that soon you get to meet Jesus, and by that, not die, but that would be nice, BUT and I mean “BUTT”, you get vigorously and repeatedly ventilated by a guy named… Read more »
Remember to reference “Sarge” and request the Staff Summary Sheet of Shame
————- ———–
Oh and one time Blake Morgan said: “ I swear I was hearing “O Beautiful for spacious skies… For amber waves of grain” playing as I was reading this…. “
So without further ado, here is a link to the New York Orchestra performing America the Beautiful, at Carnegie Hall, for your listening pleasure, if you want a musical accompaniment to the The Hemisphere of Insults®™
Patton Quote added to the end …
On George S. Patton: (Multiple sources but… http://www.pattonhq.com/speech.html )
“He could, when necessary, open up with both barrels and let forth such blue-flamed phrases that they seemed almost eloquent in their delivery. When asked by his nephew about his profanity, Patton remarked, “When I want my men to remember something important, to really make it stick, I give it to them double dirty. It may not sound nice to some bunch of little old ladies at an afternoon tea party, but it helps my soldiers to remember. You can’t run an army without profanity; and it has to be eloquent profanity. An Army without profanity couldn’t fight its way out of a piss-soaked paper bag.” “
————————–
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxXdE7pBTjQ
And the Gun Bunny Choruses with ALL of the miscreanted ‘weeds and the Adorable Deplorables;
AMEN and AWOMEN!
The hearing loss probably had to do with the large amount of semen collecting in his ear.
Anyone else wondering why Dave is drawing little blue dicks on all the pictures? Must be a Marine thing.
Duh.
Cause blue is the first color he grabbed out of the box of Crayola’s!
I can’t find my red crayon
He ate it. Tasty snak.
WOW, 2 phony Seals within 2 days at the TAH starting gate. What happened to all the others from different branches so I can go to the 2 dollar window to place my bet.
Douche.
For my fellow Acronym OCD sufferers, it’s Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA).
https://www.justice.gov/servicemembers/servicemembers-civil-relief-act-scra
Hey! Nobody’s going to acronym jail? Call my lawer, this is false imprisonment! Don’t make me play the white privilege card!
This is why I tend to stay away from the organizations like the Legion and VFW. The quality control varies from post to post and they seem more interested in numbers than quality. I have met more SEALs, Rangers, and SF personnel then probably truly exist. The BS stories and elites attitude of these types keep others away. Much like going to the VA, love getting mean mugged because I look to young to have earned my right to be there. When I ‘applied’ to be in the VFW, they didn’t bother to check for a DD214. The took my money and I was in.
I was an “At Large” member for years in the VFW. Never had to produce a DD214 until I joined a post.
Its just too easy to verify service these days, there is no excuse for the AL and VFW to have posers.
Dave Hardin,
Bingo.
Just went through a (rejected) “transfer”,
where the incoming guy 1st showed an INELIGIBLE DD-214
and a National Guard retirement letter.
It gets better.
When asked to provide his 1991 DD-214,
to verify his Gulf War / SW Asian Campaign Medal….
First his VFW post claimed they found it.
Then they claimed they made a copy of it.
When I offered to drive to his town, to pick up the this copy
(anytime / anywhere, home, VFW),
I soon received a callback from the guy himself,
who stated “I will no longer be joining your club.”
Obviously, he faked his way into his long time post,
that post not only approved him, but protected him in this transfer effort,
and they all expected our post to accept his transfer on a verbal.
Sadly, some posts are happy to keep the canteen bar bu$y by running themselves like a well known POW*MIA chapter.
Difference is, the POW*MIA chapters have NO veteran eligibility requirements,
unlike those clearly specified by the American Legion and VFW.
Ugh, some phonies.
Ugh, some posts.
Let them eat chili.
Dave,
Another VFW borderliner I discussed previously,
same background, same National Guard retirement letter type,
is now stumping to become (state level)
Department Junior Vice Commander,
which most of us know, leads to Sr. Vice, then VFW Department Commander.
Worse, he has friends, who claim he’s eligible, and describe his time in a war zone glowingly.
Other describe his war zone time in DAYS,
removed for health/injury/whatever.
Note – He has been kicked out of multiple posts years ago.
But he’s a glowing volunteer today.
All in. The hats, the clothing, all of it.
I suspect that IF he is voted in as Dept. Jr. Vice Commander, Stolen Valor and Military Phony websites will be getting a few reports (by others), and likely with much more detail than I know.
The truth revealed will be interesting.
We shall see, by summer.
‘I think we will start posting the bio of post officers that refuse to clean up their house.
🙂
I like that idea…
The post I belong to has some associate memberships and auxiliary memberships. Sometimes I ask someone sitting at the bar what branch they served in, and they say something like, “I wasn’t in, but my dad served.” They then tell me their membership status.
If someone wants to drink a beer at a Legion post, there is some membership type for them.
I did get my mom and dad an auxiliary membership at the Casa Grande VFW post a few years ago. It was one of the few places in town you could drink and smoke inside.
I lost all faith in the VFW doing the “right thing” four years ago when they elected a non-NDSM recipient as their Commander-In-Chief./s
Smokejumper, this is TossedSalad. Come in.
Manhole Inspection in ten minutes.
Carlo looks like he’s been a victim of that ancient oriental art of Cock-Block Fu many times in his life….
That’s why you gotta use the Man Lock to protect you manhole.
Manhole inspection…
Update
OMG
“Hawk Dobrich” has removed all his photos from public view,
but he is posting on FakeBook TODAY.
Check out his post from 7 hours ago (approx. 6:30am).
“RESPECT IS FOR TH0SE WHO DESERVE IT,
NOT FOR THOSE WHO DEMAND IT.”
Yes, phony Hawk Smokejumper’s FakeBook page
is wide open for clickies and comments.
https://www.facebook.com/hawk.doobrich.9
Even worse…
Dobrich shares this little tidbit of wisdom,
which FakeBook clearly shows originates from PAKISTAN.
https://www.facebook.com/3amthoughts.page/photos/a.964433480392218/1936902886478601/
So once again a phony baloney uses the Legion/VFW to “bootstrap” his fakery.
I’m starting to wonder if these organizations serve any real purpose other than to help fake veterans support their fake claims?
And before someone says “they provide a color guard for veteran funerals” or “they carry the colors in the 4th of July parade”, ask yourself one question: If the VFW/Legion stopped doing that tomorrow, would anyone else step up and assume that duty?
And if they wouldn’t, then doesn’t that tell you something?
Martinjmpr,
To their (partial) credit,
the legitimate veteran orgs in Elko, Nevada
are NOW stepping up to fill the canyon
created by the demise of their phony bologna black vest bikers.
NOTE – It’s likely org guilt, and now forced obligation,
since BOTH the VFW and Legion in Elko not only harbored biker phonies,
but allowed the Elko POW*MIA Awareness Ass
to conduct meetings at their posts.
2021 public events in Elko will be a hoot to watch.
But they waited until Les Brown Stain was cold and in the ground to do it, huh? It’s too bad that turd didn’t get his comeuppance when he was still drawing breath but I guess anything is an improvement.
Of course, the cockroaches always scurry away when the light gets flipped on. But in a few years when the light is off, will they come crawling back? That’s the bigger question.
To be fair, in the statement “I’m a vet who has lost a fair amount of his hearing” could mean “I’m an amateur veterinarian who got kicked in the head by the horse I was molesting and lost my hearing”, right?
I mean, it’s POSSIBLE, isn’t it? 😉
Cocksucker.
Forest B.,
Make that Cocksmoker.
You know, since he’s a smokejumper and all.
^^^ Word.
That post is just up the road from my AO about a 30 min drive and about a mile from the largest VA hospital in northern New England.
I don’t remember hearing about this on the local news but may have not been in the area at the time. That breathing hard to a cop over the phone is actually fairly common up that way though. I have heard of many others just not this one.
Between them, the American Legion and the VFW have approximately 18,000 posts. It occurs to ol’ Poe that a business opportunity awaits some enterprising veteran to create a web-based business vetting applicants and candidates for post leadership positions.
The primary selling point would be that the proffered service could help them avoid such public embarrassments as we continually witness here at TAH.
And there are more than enough such embarrassments to be included in a selling presentation to convince them of the worth of such a program. Of course, those posts where the phonies are in charge might be a bit of a hard sell.
This is a good idea. Have the applicant pay for the background check too. That could lower the BS to a low roar. Membership rolls will suffer some shrinkage when the lights come on.
A lot of Posts went under during the pandemic. But there are still plenty out there.
Some perspective – when MP opened its door wide for both cases that we posted and military verification, we got swamped with a lot of verification requests from fraternal veteran organizations. Enough so, that we quickly became overwhelmed and it became a full-time job to just do the military verifications.
These orgs did NOT want to have anybody posted, and after we spent a lot of time verifying this or that, they would deny the person’s membership and merely kick the can down the road. Ironically, we would see the same exact person weeks later trying to apply to another organization. Hence, the importance of a post to the internet. I have no doubt the vet orgs were grateful for the countless hours we dumped into helping them.
MP recognized that it was getting away from its main mission, so we decided to require a $50 donation for military verification – in instances where a case did not have any evidence or the informant did not want the case posted. The $50 was a firewall, really. Not high enough to be cost-prohibitive, but high enough to weed out the insincere and people that were just curious about their neighbor. The free work then dropped off to a reasonable level, but we still get a fair amount of military verifications that we do. Almost none from fraternal veteran organizations anymore.
It is a difficult tightrope – we want to help them out but can’t afford to have our model of posted stolen valor perps to take a second seat. Maybe it is a matter of price point, but there must be some way that they can learn how to do it vs. have us do it for them. Always willing to help with a difficult case.
So, the dilemna continues.
The organizations could easily do it themselves for about $1 per member (the cost of a stamp, envelope, a couple of sheets of paper, and some printer ink) via a request to NPRC. That cost could be charged up-front to the prospective new member as an eligibility verification fee, and to all current members as a one-time verification fee. New members could be allowed, but kept in in a provisional status pending return of eligibility verification.
I described precisely how such a system could be implemented at the local Post level in an article here almost 7 years ago:
https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=47844
The fact that VSOs don’t do this leads me to believe that many Posts are more concerned about $$$$ than truth.
Exactly. Usually when we find one poser … there is a swarm of them in the hive.
The fact that VSOs don’t do this leads me to believe that many Posts are more concerned about $$$$ than truth. I think it’s even more basic than that, Hondo. There’s no point in implementing a solution to a problem if you don’t acknowledge that there IS a problem in the first place. I’m not a VSO member so I don’t get their magazines or newsletters, but have either the VFW or AL ever actually admitted that they have a problem with fakers/phonies/embellishers in their ranks using their VFW/AL association to burnish their fake credentials? If they have, I’ve never heard of them doing so. My guess is that the biggest, unspoken fear of the VSO chiefs is that if every faker or embellisher disappeared tomorrow, their whole empire would collapse. That’s the reason they don’t want to pursue this line of inquiry – they’re afraid of where it would lead. I think the VFW adopts this head-in-the-sand attitude because they know that if they really started turning over rocks and investigating deeply, they’d find very quickly that the fakers and embellishers are either a majority or at the very least a solid minority of their most active, participating members. Which if you think about it, makes perfect sense. After all, if the guy who claims to be a Navy SEAL/Fighter Pilot/Ranger/Green beret is also the “post commander” of the local VFW, is anybody – especially a civilian who never served – even going to QUESTION his background? The sheer number of fakers, phonies, embellishers, con artists and outright criminals that have been exposed by web sites like TAH and MP seems to me to be an indication that the problem is probably a lot bigger and more common than any of us have considered – the whole “only an 8th of the iceberg is above the ocean’s surface” thing. So, as sensible and reasonable as your proposal is, I don’t foresee it ever happening for the simple reason that if it did, it would likely mean a very quick end to the VSOs at least as we know them… Read more »
Martinjumpr,
I have openly stated,
at VFW post and district level,
that it’s a safe low estimate that 3% of approved card carrying POST members are INELIGIBLE (fraudulent).
Also, that the percentage of unverified and ineligible “At-Large” members is significantly higher
(Due to VFW National’s failure to verify eligibility online and also at convention At-Large new membership drives.
Anyone would think this should get majority agreement, and it does, but it’s a slight majority,
and the number of furled brows, eye rolls, and mouths turned sour every time the subject comes up, is the tell.
(Note – My offer to volunteer time to assist Department (state) level verification of Department, District, and challenged Post level members….
was summarily dismissed.
Basically, “No thanks, we’re good.”
That’s disheartening.)
More….
I can beat a dead black leather vest here.
The Post that let Les Brown into the VFW
fields a former Department (of Nevada) Commander, who NOW sits on a committee at VFW National.
Crickets from him, or them, in 2019 and 2020.
Not to mention (but I will),
Nevada Dept VFW then put Les Brown into a Dept committee head position.
All so easy to verify eligibility,
and NONE of them in Nevada bothered.
Ugh.
And Double Ugh.
Hondo,
Thanks for the 2014 link.
I’m enjoying the catch up reading.
Well, not in that good kind of way,
since there has been little to no improvement in 7 years,
and in some areas just might be worse today.
Twat-with-Teeth…
I see NO Firearms signs on some posts.
How about a few NO Phonies signs?
INCOMING…. at MP.
Smokejumper deserved the 30 days at the top of the MP heap.