Willie Glenn “Bill” Floyd; Remembered with Stolen Valor
Meet recently deceased Staff Sgt. Willie Glenn “Bill” Floyd. His obituary in the Times and Democrat was paid for by his family and recounts his military career;
He enlisted in the United States Army, where he served two terms in Vietnam. He was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division, the Green Berets.
Yes, everyone knows that the 82d Airborne Division is known as “The Green Berets”.
Upon completion of his first tour of Vietnam, he attended Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College for criminal justice, after which he re-enlisted in the Army and served his second term in Vietnam. He received 27 medals and ribbons: Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Soldier’s Medal, Bronze Star Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Purple Heart, U.S. Nonmilitary Decorations, Good Conduct Medal, Service Medals (NDSM, AFEM, HSM, etc. in order earned), Armed Forces Reserve Medal, Army Reserve Components Achievement Medal, NCO Professional Development, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, Foreign Military Decorations and Service Medal and Vietnam Campaign Medal.
After retiring from the Army after 21 years, he returned to Orangeburg to his family and was employed by Roper as a security officer, Ethyl Chemical Plant as a maintenance worker, Orangeburg County Detention Center as a correctional officer and Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College as a maintenance worker.
I wonder how many staff sergeants with those decorations made it to 21 years. And what is a “U.S. Nonmilitary Decorations” and a “Foreign Military Decorations and Service Medal”. According to our buddy, Doug Sterner, Willie Glen doesn’t appear in any database as receiving any of those awards.
In the picture, there’s no flash behind the SF device on his beret, I don’t recognize the branch on his collar or the flash behind his jump wings, but it doesn’t look like something that belongs in SF. If he was assigned to a support unit in the Special Forces, by the date, judging by his uniform (the poplin shirt), he should have had a “candy stripe” on the beret.
So, our buddy, Doug Sterner, called the newspaper and told them that they published a phony bio. According to Doug, they were “downright rude” about it all, telling him that the family paid for the obituary and there would be no retraction.
Nice journalistic integrity, there, bud. As long as someone ponies up the right amount of cash, they’ll print anything true or not. I guess we know how Alvin Greene won his party’s nomination in SC in the last election.
Category: Media, Phony soldiers
You know what card’s gonna get played if this story gets any attention.
At one time, didnt SF wear Branch Unassigned collar brass? my eyes cant see the pic that well but it would be a US coat of arms like E-9’s wore back then.
Wow, I’m always amazed at the stuff people come up with for their service records.
I had a guy apply to our Police Dept years ago…he told me that he wento through SF training, but it was all a mistake becuase they mixed his name up…and he claimed when he told them he wasn’t supposed to be there, they kept him in the training…I didn’t tell him up front that I had been in the Army, so I let him tell his Bullshitstory.
Then I told him we couldn’t hire somebody as a cop who was so fullofshit.
Out of all the African-Americans who were awarded the Medal of Honor, only SIX (that’s right, 6) were not awarded posthumously.
IOW, they won’t retract because that would mean they’d have to admit they can’t even do a simple fucking Google search and find out the claims of the family are bullshit.
Correction to last: Awarded Medal of Honor in Vietnam.
Eh, he’s dead and like as not his family wouldn’t know the ins and outs of militaria. For example, saying he served two “terms” instead of tours in VN. When they’re dead, judgement passes up to a higher court.
Forty years from now, when the current generation starts passing on, we’ll see many a fobbit turned Terminator in the obits.
Wait, so you are saying he *DIDN’T* win the good conduct medal?
One thing that sticks out in the photo is this: If it is an official photo; where’s the flag?
The other thing, that has already been brought up; there’s no flash on the beret.
Well, maybe they didn’t take pics, back then, with the flag in them? Could be. I don’t remember if there was one in my photo or not, even though that was after his.
I’m more concerned about his eyebrows.
“Nice journalistic integrity, there, bud. As long as someone ponies up the right amount of cash, they’ll print anything true or not.”
Someone dies. Someone in the deceased person’s family writes up an obit to be published in a local newspaper. They pay the fee for the space for the obit in said newspaper. My understanding is that the obit is not edited for syntax errors or spelling mistakes, let alone “truth”. Now… if this was an “article” written by a reporter or a journalist and published, then one could take issue with the newspaper’s “journalistic integrity”, and request a retraction.
All that being said, something about the photo doesn’t sit right, even with my poor eyesight. If you notice there is a thin white outline around the profile, which would indicate that the background has been “amended”, or the image cut and pasted. Photos over time do fade, however, the eyebrows and the fade appear to be a matte gray, as if they have been “painted” over. There’s a little more that strikes me as odd, but I am not that familiar with photoshopping.
Simple. Go the local LEO’s and have the family charged with stolen valor crime. I would think the assholes at the paper would also be complicit after being told that their information was false and refusing to correct it. They would be accessories at a minimum.
Pose that question to them, and I bet a retraction would issue forth at light speed.
Spockgirl, that’s his aura emanating from his presence, not photoshopping. Much like the aura around O. As for the eyebrows and hair, no guesses there. And, his brass looks more like he just shined it with a brillo pad.
It is my understanding also that enlisted troops could not be awarded the Legion of Merit, that it was strictly for officers.
Another classy move, go after a dead man and besmirch his name to his family. You guys are ghouls, completely reprehensible!!!
And claiming awards for actions that many have died in is not? How does one become above reproch simply because they have passed away?
USMC Steve
The LOM has different classes for officer and enlisted. I believe it is one of the few medals like that.
He looks stoned. Maybe its the porn “stache or the albino hair, I’m not sure. But those Good Conduct Medals don’t grow on trees…wait a minute, they do. Never figured that one out…a medal for not getting into trouble. I thought that was like… the minimum standard.
Anyway, the fact that the family (who ought to know the real story) submitted a fraudulent obit based on this fool’s lies ought to be held responsible. The newspaper as well. I hope he pays for his stolen valor in the afterlife and that is no joke.
Obamagirl:
The douche tube goes in another orifice. Drinking it will cause you to do very stupid things, such as vote for Obumbler. You can’t even read a post correctly. We are not going after the dead guy, we are going after the dipsticks who caused the lies to be printed. Besmirch his name to his family? Say what? His family chose to besmirch his name to us.
Now get back to tending Richter and leave us big guys alone.
Valerie,
Having lived in the area for decades, ‘the card’ has already been played – by the ‘journalists’ involved. Had the deceased had less melanin, they would have dug him up and lodged him in the County Jail and the ‘journalists’ would have torn his life history apart.
Cool, I write “fobbit” and Obamagirl shows up!
Spockgirl nailed it: obit space sold for $$ and is unedited. Same goes for most classified ads and personals notices. So long as there aren’t any swear words, the editors don’t check further.
As for retouching the photo, WTH? They ran out of pigment to color his eyebrows and scalp?
Maybe when that photo was taken he was a Chippendale dancer on the side, because most enlisted pay in those days didn’t amount to sack of bean farts unless you were an E4 or up. *shrugging*
Don’t think green tabs weren’t issued during that period of US Army. A candy stripe tab on his beret? Ahhhhh….Ok. OTH, just maybe his nickname might have been “Hairy” ya know? Shave three times a day kind of guy? *shrugging*
Back in the day, students in SFTG wore the beret as depicted (DUI wo/candy stripe)) after passing Phase I of the SF qualification course.
That wing background (oval)was worn by all SF Groups except for the 10th. It was blue with yellow bend and border.
The brass (Unassigned)in the photo was correct for SF during that time period.
The photo appears to be a studio portrait, not an official Army pic.
“Photos over time do fade, however, the eyebrows and the fade appear to be a matte gray, as if they have been “painted” over. There’s a little more that strikes me as odd, but I am not that familiar with photoshopping.” Spockgirl……..
The “painted over” look is probably due to the fact that during that time period studio photographers worked in black and white, and then used water paint to add the colors.
Okay, so let’s extrapolate and say that he did in fact finish the entire course and end up with his SF flash.
Does that justify claiming the MOH, DSC, and every other military decoration in order?
“Does that justify claiming the MOH, DSC, and every other military decoration in order?”
According to mental pygmies like ObamaGirl, it does!
Sparky… No! It doesn’t, however we have no way of knowing if Bill Floyd ever claimed to have been awarded any of them.
When my father died, the undertaker sat with one of my sisters and “built” his obituary. A bit later he met with the rest of the family and in conversation, I asked what he would be putting in the obit, and when he read it to me, my sister unknowingly had hung a bunch of extra things on it. We rectified it then.
So, the culprit here is most likely the family not being familiar with military facts, and the undertaker charging “by the word” for his obit prep.
The newspaper is the knowingly wrong party here, because someone above notified them and they are standing by their falsehood.
Obamagirl is a poster child for naivety for sure.
Frankly Opinionated the only reason you don’t like this guy is because he is black.. If this was a white guy you would be sticking up for him.
Sporkmaster: Yea list one time were that has happened. It’s ok I can wait. Oh here are a few examples to prove you wrong again.
Michael Delos Hamilton
Raymond Schepansky
Melissa Annette Williams
Bob Fitzpatrick
Jack Wilson
Michael Holmes
Skyler Whalen
Kylen Rowe Bounds
Bobogirl; please find a new comeback, because the racism bit is older than you are.
Uh, TinkerTwat? No, we wouldn’t. Although I’ll be willing to grant that perhaps the family didn’t know what he’d been awarded. In that case, simply stating they didn’t know and finding any paperwork he had (DD-214, anyone?) would have been more than sufficient.
So in conclusion, OG–go fucking die in a fire already.
#29 Obumblerbitch See, I can throw names around as easily as you, you little snot. What in hell makes you think that your statement about my color choices has any validity at all. You damned sure don’t know me, and I could have a legion of those you call “blacks”, come here and affirm my lack of racism, but you are not deserving of the effort.
Sporkmaster, do you have any idea to what she is referrng?
One clueless liberal here, but it goes with the territory.
I swear it looks like they just went through the list of Army Medals and picked them all. I haven’t checked but I don’t see one that they missed. With 26 years of service I have never known one Enlisted Soldier, especially a junior NCO, to have received a Defense Superior Service Medal. These usually go to O-7’s and above.
“…Service Medals (NDSM, AFEM, HSM, etc. in order earned)…”
?? This sounds like an email reply to a question. Wonder if a family member emailed someone, looking for a list of stuff the deceased might have earned over 21 years, then copied and pasted the answer into the obituary, without actually knowing or understanding what it meant — just really wanting the deceased to be credited for his service.
Saw something similar with father-in-law’s draft obituary, the drafter had no clue. We corrected it to properly cover his WWII naval service.
Maybe this family just didn’t have anyone to proof it.
And maybe I’m full of it, again…
@32 Frankly Opinionated, one needs to look no further than that crap you sell from your website.. Many of those items have an overt or hidden racist slant to them.. All that hate will burn you up inside..
Sporkmaster: Still waiting for you to point out examples of us pulling punches on any fake vet.
Well, high school is out for the day and look who’s back.
Now, liberal child go back to my website and select any designs that you think are racist, either overt or “hidden” to you. Come back here and post either the link, or the title/script. There are none, got that? NONE.
Waiting, and will check back after I give you time to check it out, do your homework, and get back to your laptop in your room.
Waiting……
And while you are waiting for your turn at the computer, consider this script from the selection offered at my Shop.
“I’m not a Racist. I don’t like his white half either.”
Pretty much sums up my feelings.
[…] 11th, 2012 Last year we wrote about a phony who took his stolen valor to the grave by the name of Staff Sgt. Willie Glenn “Bill” Floyd. Apparently he left more his family than his legacy of lies; Floyd believes what was found on her […]
Seems there is no rest for the dead. Interesting article about his family now “finding” a box of something they thought might be “dangerous” and having to call out the Bomb squad on the taxpayer’s dime. Can anyone say “I want attention”. I wrote a letter to the editor on this one. Unlike his Obit, this article wasn’t paid for by the family, so that excuse doesn’t fly. There is no need to even look at the picture, the medal claims are enough to prove either he or the family were lying sacks of shit. As far as the race card,,, guess what? these bullshit claims are just as offensive to William Carney ( The first Black MOH awardee) than it is to Audie Murphy. Heres a copy of my letter to the Editor. Dear Editor, Its been reported yet again that your paper is reporting untrue information about the military awards of Mr Bill Floyd. A recent article in your paper stated he had earned the Silver Star and Distinguished Service Cross. Your obituary a while back printed other incorrect information, such as his being awarded a Medal of Honor. A quick internet check of rosters that list the recipients of these awards would reveal that he never received any of them. I do not know who started these false claims…. either the deceased or his family. I do know that its an insult to every veteran who has earned these medals for the news media to constantly report claims by individuals who never earned these medals. I personally think the city and your paper have been taken for a ride yet again by a family who craves attention and loves to see these false claims in print. The idea that somehow there was an “unknown” danger in a box in his belongings is ludicrous. It’s tough to admit you were taken in, but the right thing to do is write an expose on what the Floyd Family has done to your paper and the community. They are thieves. They have stolen the valor of men who were awarded… Read more »
Just an update on this. While the reporter from WUSA9 Ms Chinn quickly went out of her way to rectify the bullshit story that Michelle Lynn Tesla Anderson tried to pull on her last week, I never heard so much as a peep out of this paper After I emailed them the content of #39