Phony Soldier planted with stolen valor
Editor’s Note: COB6 got a copy of his DD214 from the cemetery that says he did go to Vietnam and earned 3 PHs and 4 BSMs. However, he doesn’t appear in POW Net’s database of Vietnam veterans. I’ve added the rest of his 2-1s to this post. It appears that the DD214 is a forgery, since it seems unlikely that the records center would inadvertly leave BSMs and PHs out of his records.
A new reader sent us a tip about Donald L. Stump, a retired Army Reserve sergeant first class, who was buried in Illinois upon his demise recently;
The problem is that he didn’t earn a Bronze Star or 3 Purple Hearts, yet there they are on his tax payer-funded headstone;
Stump’s service ended in 1964, with his only overseas duty station listed as an APO NY address. Then his service started again in 1971;
Notice that it’s all stateside. None of his 2-1s show that he went to Jump School, Ranger School or the SFQC, yet there it all is on his FOIA. It looks to me like he spent a lot of his Reserve time as an Oh-5-Bravo radio guy at a higher echelon support role, nothing that would lead someone to believe he was an A-Team ops sergeant like the last line of the 2-1 records. Anyone ever heard of the Duty MOS 11BSF1? If I’m not mistaken there was an 11B5S ops sgt position. But I doubt that an Oh-5-Bravo would just lateral over to an eleven-bee-four slot.
His obituary tells quite a story about his career;
In Vietnam from 1965 until 1971? His records show he wasn’t even in the military during those years. 140 jumps in Vietnam- 50 of them behind enemy lines? Which enemy lines would those be? And how’d he find time to get those Bronze Star medals what with all of that pre-jump refresher for those 140 jumps? As far as I know, there was one combat jump in Vietnam by the 173rd – that’s quite a bit fewer than 140, isn’t it?
Notice at the top of the 2-1 it says he had eight years of prior service. that’s the period from 1956 until 1964 when his records end. He wasn’t in Vietnam from 1965 – until 1971 like he says. Those were the years he sat out the Vietnam War. And it looks like he snowed some Reservist clerk to add his Ranger tab and jump wings, since none of his records show any time in those schools.
But now here he is, planted next to heroes with his DD214 on his headstone and it doesn’t look like he belongs there. Who is going to tell his wife, kids and grandchildren he doesn’t belong there?
Victimless crime indeed.
Category: Phony soldiers
The strangest, and saddest, kinds of SV cases.
I have to wonder how his kids got the idea he was so decorated if he “rarely talked about it.” When they say they found the awards in the house, did they find citations? Or just the medals? Does anyone check to see if these awards are earned before they put it on a headstone? Reporter seems to have erred in the late man’s birth date, assuming the tombstone is accurate. Wonder what else he got wrong, since the tombstone also only shows one Bronze Star.
I don’t know that he doesn’t belong in the cemetery, since he definitely served. But c’mon people! 15 years as a comm sgt may not be glorious, but it’s still honorable, far more so than lies about being a Ranger.
It says he was in Vietnam from 65-68, not 65-71, not that it makes any difference since his records show that he wasn’t even there at all. I don’t get it, his records don’t show any overseas ribbons or medals, yet it was claimed that he was a combat Vet with all these decorations? Did no one check before writing the story?
The info in the article seems to have come from the family, and not the deceased. It says the medals were found by the family. It is possible that the family found the medals, tried to find out what they were, and simply assumed Mr. Stump earned them. (Perhaps he collected medals??)
The family is involved in this one, and I would keep the idea open — at least for the moment — that the family wanted to believe the very best of Mr. Stump, and didn’t investigate what they THOUGHT they knew about him.
I’m probably being overly cautious, but this isn’t the first time I’ve seen ridiculous things in obituaries.
I hope my kids never find my old reenacting gear. If so, I’ll be written up as having served in the Waffen-SS as a Pionier prior to joining the US Army and serving in Iraq. I also have some old WWI German medals and ribbons so I guess I’ll be a recipient of the Iron Cross and a veteran of the Ardennes as well…
Good to hear the update, even if the Ranger and SF training didn’t happen at least he is entitled to his burial and headstone.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by dana l dillon, A Proud Veteran. A Proud Veteran said: Phony Soldier planted with stolen valor http://bit.ly/c6WKaU Via This Ain't Hell […]
Damn, if he were so hard-charging, just WTF was he doing from ’64- 71? Sittin’ around, smoking dope stateside? Jail? Seven years of college?
Looks like this was updated again. Phony DD-214, huh? If that’s the case this guy is one of the worst kind of stolen valor offenders; instead of boasting and bragging, he misled his own family and ensured he’d get the funeral of a decorated hero.
How many times a month did you jump if you were on status? Wasn’t there a requirement to receive jump pay?
What do you do about getting that stone removed and the granite repolished to say, “BFE” instead of BSM…etc…
Can you send this to the local paper, or to a reporter writing an expose?
For some reason not feeling the vibe on this one. He served. End of story. Unless someone comes forward saying he was bragging about being something he wasnt, how do we know the military didnt get his papers mixed up? That never happens, right? Plus, he’s dead. Let his family have some peace.
The only ‘guess’ I can make is records destroyed in the St Louis fire in what, ’73? Would like to see an original of the dd-214. OR, like mentioned above, his pay stubs. JUST.ONE.STUB with the jump pay might go a long way…
After studying up a bit on the history of the 173rd I noticed that they conducted the only MAJOR jump of the Vietnam War, not the ONLY jump. There are accounts of small unit and individual jumps on dates other than the ‘Operation Junction City’ jump. More study would be required to confirm that.
In any case, 140 jumps in 3 tours of Nam is a ridicules assertion. That’s an average of one jump per week for 156 straight weeks, more per week when you factor out leave and processing time.
Wolf; I wondered the same thing. That’s why I wanted to know if anyone had checked his records at all. I still have all my records, including an official copy of my DD 214 from St. Louis. I have all my orders from every duty station/school/promotion/award including all my VA stuff and if I were to take a dirt nap today, they are there for everyone in my family to see (they are stored in a briefcase that I happened to buy at the PX, you all know the one; black plastic, rather cheesy).
Granted, the man is deceased, but is it right to remember him in death as someone who wasn’t what’s advertised on his headstone in life?
POW Net maintains a database of Vietnam Veterans? I am curious what they use to mine their data?
Makes bile rise up the back of my throat. This tarnishes the brave men and women who ACTUALLY went above and beyond in the name of their country.
Yeah, he’s passed, and we should respect him and his family, but this is one of the worst kind of lies to tell. The legacy of our military deserves better.
Sadly, I bet theres thousands of graves like this around the country, planted before SV became an important and well-researched issue.
That’s pretty ghetto to go to the extent of a phony DD Form 214 to get some cool sh*t on a headstone. Why not a CMH (2 OLC) while he was at it?
Dig him up, and either plant him in a nameless grave in potter’s field, (after cracking the casket to take the medals you just know he wore at his funeral) or bury him in the drying field of a sewage treatment facility, like he deserves.
Um, with the number of reports its your call, Jonn. Which-ever you decide bro, I’ll back you up!
garryowen
Too bad David L. Stump wasn’t outed before he became dead. Other newspaper articles I’ve seen also say he was a life member of two (2) VFW posts and a member of Vietnow, guess they don’t send in DD-214’s for verifications. He did have active duty 56 to 64, then reserve 71 to 77. Wonder what kind of VA benefits he claimed, Agent Orange?? Can his headstone be corrected??
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/airborne-jumps.htm
So, from that link (since I didn’t have to take off my shoes), I count a total of 10 combat jumps in Viet Nam, most of them team-level. The article claims he had 140 jumps during his time in Viet Nam, including more than 50 behind enemy lines. While his 2-1s show he wasn’t IN viet Nam. Curiouser and curiouser.
This is kinda depressing, considering what the family obviously thought was correct.
I THINK IT SAD WHAT HE DID.BUT AT LEAST HE PASSED AWAY THINKING HE WAS HERO,CAUSE IF HE WAS STILL ALIVE HE’D BE DIGGING HIS OWN GRAVE AND JUMPING IN IT…
The 201 file and obituary was sent to a news reporter in Chicago. Should the picture of the headstone be sent also? Will the National Cemetery replace the headstone with a corrected one??
One can only hope.
Last night I came across an article in Military.com about late Texas Senator Charles Ferguson Herring that had changed his records from WWII that stated he had received medals he wasn’t entitled to. His Hero status was removed from his online biography by the state of Texas.
Now if this can be done in that case, I’m sure it can be done in David L. Stumps situation. Remove the headstone that are lies and replace it with a corrected version!
Stories like this blow my mind but are not that uncommon. Lets take those that claim to be combat veterans. Seems there are some veterans who want to claim they are combat veterans when they have just served in a war zone. A veteran of foreign war, yes. A combat veteran, he-l no. A Vietnam combat veteran who earned the Combat Infantry Badge was denied membership in the R.I. Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association just recently. This Nam vet met all the requirements in order to join. But both the National CVMA President and the RI CVMA made up bogus stories about this combat vet in order to keep him out. What are the requirements to join the R.I. Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association? Have a DD214 that states one has served in a war zone (campaign medal) , 20 bucks dues, and a bike over 500cc’s.
This allows one to wear a patch saying one is a combat veteran when the state rep and his slackers okay this person. Thats all there is to it if one is a yes man. The state rep who was behind denying the Vietnam vet was a desk jockey in Iraq. His right hand partner in crime never left the wire in Iraq but yet they judged a real combat veteran. IMHO, one who claims he/she is a combat vet when one never received a combat badge or medal of valor is swiping valor. Never mind judging a real combat veteran and denying him his due right.
Yep i was a cvma member and when i questioned why non combat vets cab,cib ,car and af combat medal were not a requirment to join i was persecuted …told them to fuck off on a national level….why someone would want to pose wearing a patch stating combat vetran when the only combat they ever saw was a food fight on uss who gives a fuck is beyond me…its the same as wearing fake medals…not saying combat support isnt important but some people were just chosen by fate to be in combat and some people get butt hurt when told there not combat vets for just being there…fuck those posing valour thiefs
What your saying here is if one never left the Green Zone in Iraq or was a Communications officer at some big base in Afghanistan, these people if they ride a bike, could join the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association? Man, we called these people fobbits (never left the firebase) when I was over there. Maybe instead of Combat veterans Motocycle Assn. they should change it to Fobbit Veterans Motorcycle Assn. and use this for a patch.
http://rhinoden.rangerup.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/fobbit-square.gif
They can join with a global war on terror expeditionary medal….get that in navy for going off the shore if the states for 6 months or getting drunk and partying in bahrain…..seen it happen was a member until i questioned this….should have been a combat badge/medal as a requirment 80% of there membership is posers ..and they started getting nasty with me sending me texts from a trac phone claiming to be the hells angels …dont belive me go ask a group of them and 7-8 out of a group of 10 where they say combat theyll tell u they wernt in actuall combat but were close…gets worse around navy bases
Did this Donald L. Stump, a retired Army Reserve sergeant first class, who claimed to have been in Vietnam from 1965 until 1971 and claimed to have 140 jumps in Vietnam- 50 of them behind enemy lines belong to the R.I. Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association? Seems he would of got along good with many there including the state rep who has a burr in his saddle for veterans that earned a combat badge and the joker on their BOD who displays a combat badge he could not have possibly earned.
Need to do a little correction of Stumps first name, It is David, not Donald. Somewhere along the line it got changed. His headstone and 201 file show David.
I would like to see what his phony DD-214 shows as far his awards and medals.
I see on a tweet back at the begining of this Phony Soldier planted with Stolen Valor that somebody got a copy of his DD-214 from the National Cemetery.
I was told by P.O.W.NETWORK.ORG that the DD-214 is the most forged doucument in the Vet community and that most organizations DO NOT, do any kind of follow up to verify them. Apparently the National Cemeteries are no different.
If a 201 file doesn’t list Vietynam service and awards then how can a DD-214?
This Phony said he served as a 101st ABN Ranger 65 thru 68 in Vietnam.
The 75th Ranger Companies were not formed until Feb. 1969 and they were from the 74th Infantry LRP, LRRP that all or most American units were using.
I saw B.G. Burkett last night at a speaking engagement he had at Cantigny Park, Ist Division Museum. He had a question from a person about records being destroyed in the fire that Mr Wolf mentioned earlier. Some records that were in the fire, but not completely destroyed were only WWII veterans. No other sections of Veteran records were damaged by the fire.
So in Stumps case his 201 file is accurate with no Vietnam duty and he indeed forged his DD-214 to show service in Vietnam with the 101st ABN.
My question to anybody is this, How to get the headstone changed and not show Vietnam, BS and PH with OLC?? Since he did serve active duty, just not in Vietnam.
This is to the Admin. I have a copy of Stumps phony DD-214. I don’t know if you ever had the pleasure of reading it or not, but it is nothing like his REAL Service Records. It isn’t anything like his obituary either. His obit says he was in Vietnam 1965,1966,1967, his phony DD-214 says he was in Vietnam 61,63,64 and was wounded in each of those years. These are the years he was in Germany per his Real Service Records. What a scumbag. I can send a copy if you want me to.
His fake headstone needs to be replaced, changed!!
Donb125,
Please scan the 214 you have and email it to the admin here. If what you have is true, the VA is part of this fraud. I’d like to know the truth.
Thanx
Sorry I haven’t gotten back to you sooner, but what I sent you is all I, We have. It was sent by his wife as proof that he was some kind of a hero. What we have is now included on the POWNETWORK.ORG site under his name. We are still working on getting a better and more readable copy, so please bear with us.
[…] Stump; planted with stolen valor; update December 28th, 2011 We first wrote about David Stump a year ago last August when he was first buried in a Chicago area cemetery. His obituary said that […]
I have additional info on Dave Stump and his claims. Interacted with him on several occasions and am deeply disappointed to discover his subterfuge.
[…] mail) the news that David Stump who we first discovered was buried with his Stolen Valor back in August, 2010 with a forged DD214, has had his headstone replaced. The resukts are above. We’d heard that […]
In the interest of completeness: it’s possible that this bozo’s Airborne Wings are legit. Apparently there was a Jump School at Fort Campbell during the 1950s/early 1960s. It appears to have closed in 1962. That fact is not particularly common knowledge – I was stationed at Campbell in the mid-1980s and don’t remember ever hearing of it.
http://www.socnet.com/showthread.php?t=106713
http://www.327infantry.org/node/3660
The rest of his claims (3 tours in Vietnam, 3 PH, BSM, Ranger) appear to be outed. But he may have actually been Airborne qualified.
I guess he never talked about it because he could not remember which lie he told to which person.