Phony soldier is sorry
Charlie Bass told his story one too many times;
Charles Bass had told the story about how he survived a deadly snake bite in Vietnam so many times it seemed natural to tell it again, this time in front of a TV camera on the Fourth of July. He pointed at scars on his hand and the crook of his elbow, explaining how he’d stuck a hollow bamboo in the vein to stop the venom from reaching his heart.
Bass, in a rumpled fatigue jacket, seemed humbled by the attention. “I thank God that I endured what I had to endure for my country,” he said.
I guess “SGM” Charlie Bass had an attack of conscience finally after 40 years of telling bogus war stories and being honored in a museum.
Bass said he enlisted in the Army and deployed to Vietnam in 1969. He returned to the U.S. a year later, pained by post-traumatic stress and disillusioned by the prejudice he says was within his unit.
On his way home, Bass said, he bought some ribbons in a military supplies store, just to make his uniform look a bit more impressive.
First, he told a few tall tales to his family, to make them proud. Then to fellow veterans, for respect. “For a while I was talking about it so much I was actually believing it myself,” he said.
Matthews asked Bass to produce his discharge papers for verification. The document showed Bass had served in Vietnam as a private from 1969-70, earning a Combat Infantryman Badge, but no Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Stars, Bronze Stars or Purple Hearts. Army officials say it will take at least a week to verify Bass’ service.
I will never understand why someone who served their country in time of war feels the need to embellish their history. Like this guy that our friends at POW Net busted;
The P.O.W. Network, which has researched false claims since 1989, submitted requests for public information on the two men and received documents back which do not support the claims of being a SEAL.
Mary Schantag of the P.O.W. Network sent the Herald-Banner copies of the documents she received from The National Archive Center in St. Louis, upon filing the FOI requests..
Brown, from Wisconsin, served in the United States Navy from Dec. 22, 1964 to Jan. 31, 1967, according to the information. No decorations nor awards were listed.
Mary writes that he was just one of the nine Navy Cross self-awardees she busted the week before Memorial Day. I’m supposing that she got their information from news articles and Google alerts. I noticed an uptick in stories about them around the same time in my own alerts.
If you find that you have a couple of bucks left over this week, send it to the folks at POW Net. I just did.
Category: Phony soldiers
“I guess “SGM” Charlie Bass had an attack of conscience finally after 40 years of telling bogus war stories and being honored in a museum.”
Not exactly – I became suspicious of his story after seeing it on the Channel-2 news on July 4th. He did not sound like, dress like, or act like a retired Special Forces Sergeant Major, his story was particularly suspect.
I contacted Doug Sterner to see if Bass was on the listing of DSC holders and surprise – he was not. I went to the museum that monday and told the director I thought Bass was a phony.
Later that day Bass called me and lied to me claiming that he was indeed a retired SGM. It was only after getting the press involved that he finally came clean
http://warstories.bravehost.com/charlesbass.htm