Stolen Valor airman
See that airman on your far right in the picture above? That’s Anthony LaTorre receiving an award from his university on Veterans’ Day last year. He was spotted in the photo by another airman who didn’t know the glorious hero on the stage, but knew him as an aircraft mechanic with three lower level medals;
The story told how the university recognized five former service members at a Veterans Day concert last year. LaTorre, according to the article, represented the Air Force. He said he served six years, from 2004 to 2010, deploying three times — to Baghdad and Fallujah in Iraq, and Kandahar, Afghanistan.
LaTorre’s claims outraged Wilcox, who sent an e-mail to Air Force Times laying out what he knew about his former co-worker.
Yeah, and here’s LaTorre’s brother explaining his sibling’s disorder;
“Whenever someone tells him a story, he integrates it and believes it as if he did it,” Todd LaTorre said when told about how LaTorre misrepresented himself. “He tells it with great accuracy.”
LaTorre had sought help but never accepted his inability to distinguish his experiences from someone else’s, according to the brother.
“He’s in denial,” Todd LaTorre said. “He’s a real good person, but he has no idea of what he’s doing.”
Oh, well, as long as he’s a good person.
Read the whole story at the Air Force Times.
Category: Phony soldiers
Who really cares. Is the guy in the audience upset he didn’t get an award? So some kid who served was still honored. He was there as the air force rep, and he was in the airforce. So he put a few extra medals on his chest, its not hurting anyone.
So he put a few extra medals on his chest…
Yeah, no big. You’ve got to be kidding me.
Specifically: It was not just a few extra medals. His fraud also included lies about rank and occupation. Furthermore, he received a tangible benefit from his lies, therefore you have the potential for a fraud charge. He “stole” the honors that could have been presented to someone who actually accomplished what he merely imagined.
GenerallY: Medals, ribbons, warfare devices, and uniform items are all indications of an individual’s job performance, their qualifications, completion of schools/training, and are a brief overview of their career.
Phony doctors are prosecuted. People with fake academic accomplishments are shunned and in some cases prosecuted. People who acquire goods via deception are charged with fraud.
If the family member that talked about his mental disorder is accurate, that young man is very unstable and needs a closed psychiatric facility immediately. Denial of his condition makes him dangerous.
Sal: You don’t understand it, so it could not be explained to you. It is something that we veterans understand, and are bound to hunt down in respect for those who did earn the honors. Those honors to a military person are much like the bonus’ offered to a business person for performing well. For someone to falsely wear them is no more than embezzlement from the services.
“Air Force Times verified with the Air Force what Wilcox remembered about LaTorre: He maintained the F-22 Raptors at Langley, his only assignment; earned three service ribbons and no personal achievement awards; and separated early — in 2008, not 2010 — under less than honorable conditions after being disciplined several times.”
Sal, I doubt the U.S. Airforce wants a looser who was booted out “under less than honorable conditions” representing them in any way, shape or form.
I helped process a Soldier out of the Army who got a general discharge, not an easy thing to do, it takes a pile of documentation to accomplish. Again, this clown got booted “under less than honorable”, those are circumstances much more dire than a general.
Sal doesn’t get it, never will. And Jonn, he’s not just a good person, he’s a “real good person”. Even though he’s standing there with ribbons on his chest he didn’t earn and rank on his sleeve that he may have earned, but lost.
Plus, the dipshit is wearing a CCT/PJ beret…misrepresenting himself as a selected/assessed member of the AFSOF community.
I worked with a few CCT/PJs during my ARSOF career…this douche nozzle best hope that he doesn’t run into one of those folks in a bar and make the mistake of talking smack about his time at Hurlburt. If he does, he’ll be able to “integrate” the world class ass kicking he receives into whatever BS he cares to pass on in the future, “…with great accuracy…”, I’m sure.
And if he does make that mistake…I want a copy of the video 🙂
As for Sal, I take it you never wore the uniform yourself…this scum bag is a fucking LIAR…now, is that clearer for you; do you understand NOW?
Honor is not something that someone else can give you, no amount of fancy colored crap on an ugly blue suit is going to give this person honor or take it away. You all put so much weight in some trinkets that it blows me away. My coast guard buddies tell me they give awards away like candy because it keeps you fools excited. To be honest, it seems pretty gay to me
Well, Sal, you just identified yourself right there. “Ugly blue suit” and “Coast Guard buddies” show what you really think of the men and women who honorably serve this country. If you truly supported them in any way, then you wouldn’t belittle them with phrases like “ugly blue suit”.
That is because you are a screaming fuckwit moron sal. And the coast guard ain’t military, they are homeland security and have been for nearly 8 years. As to the ribbons, they are things that represent what we who actually earned them did. When I see a combat action ribbon on a Marine, I know that they have been in combat and actually put steel on target.
To make it as simple as you are, if your statement was anything other than bullshit, and they mean nothing, why did this retard put all those ribbons on his blue suit? Why is he wearing the headgear of the only elite unit in the Air Force? Why did he promote himself with the unearned rank?
Get some oxygen and a clue, and try thinking before you show yourself to be a dumbass, moron.
Honor is not something that someone else can give you, no amount of fancy colored crap on an ugly blue suit is going to give this person honor or take it away
I know you don’t get this sal but that’s the whole point. What he’s doing does diminish the honor of those who don’t lie about there service….that “fancy crap on an ugly blue suit” does represent what someone has acomplished if one doesn’t cheapen it by adding undeserved awards….
Honor is not something that someone else can give you, no amount of fancy colored crap on an ugly blue suit is going to give this person honor or take it away
That is correct Sal, but that “fancy crap on an ugly blue suit” is not a representation of honor that’s been given, it’s an acknowledgement of honor that the individual has earned for them self through their own actions.
Other individuals falsely using the symbols of national and peer recognition diminish the effect of valid recognition. If anyone could hang a degree on the wall without earning it, and receive compensation based on the respect that degree is supposed to engender, eventually the entire reason for actually working for a degree is undermined thereby rendering the work of those that have gone before, wasted, and the represented subject of the degree, suspect.
Do you personally hold anything in high esteem Sal?
I would not worry about spending too much time on this one since the IP addresses for both comments here have been used under the same been used here before under another screen name.
Why am I not surprised?
“To be honest, it seems pretty gay to me.” -Sal, that insensitivity laden remark is going to get you sent to the SPLC GULAG where the Ministry of Love will adjust your intollerance levels…
Not trying to be disrespectful but I must disagree with USMC Steve on a point he made. True, the US Coast Guard is under The Department of Homeland Security but the US Coast Guard is recognized as a branch of the military. Coast Guardsmen flew USAF HH-3’s in Vietnam. US Coast Guard LT Jack C. Rittichier was KIA piloting an HH-3 for the USAF. His remains came back to the US in 2003 after being MIA since 1968, when his helo was shot down trying to rescue a downed aviator. I wore a POW/MIA bracelet with his name on it for many years until his remain were repatriated.
Coast Guardsmen also piloted patrol boats on the waterways in Vietnam. In WWII Coast Guardsmen piloted landing craft during the invasion of Normandy. Even today US Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers (the elite in Coast Guard aviation) are undergoing BUD/S training to become SEAL’s.
I mean no disrespect by what I say sir. Please do not look upon it as such. All I ask is that the facts are accurately given. The Coast Guard is a military service and more. It might not have the long, distinguished, and decorated battle record that the USMC has, but they are a military service.