Military imposters “down under”

John Hines: “As far as I’m concerned, I’m a returned serviceman.” Source: TheAustralian

Pat sends us a link to “The Australian” article about military imposters who are being busted by their own stolen valor website, our friends at ANZMI (Australian & New Zealand Military Impostors). The article is behind a paywall, so I’m not sure how to do this without getting into trouble with The Australian. I’ll c&p as much as I can without getting in trouble;

“Well, you can buy whatever medals you like,” says Bill Hobson. “It’s the wearing of them that’s the problem.” Bill Hobson is the nom de plume of a retired former 20-year member of the ADF who has spent the past two decades exposing military frauds as a driving force behind ANZMI (Australian & New Zealand Military Impostors), a web-based name-and-shame group that’s been labelled everything from saints to vigilantes to a lynch mob.

Sound familiar?

Since February 2009, ANZMI has investigated 675 cases across Australia. Of these, 242 were proven to involve some form of deception, from inflated deeds to the unlawful wearing of duplicate medals to full-tilt narrative fabrication. ANZMI has busted heads of RSLs, heads of business, modern major-generals. Almost 100 years on from Gallipoli, the complex lustre of military heroism remains a powerful lure for the unworthy. Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Warren Snowdon says military impostors “cash in” on the “special status and respect in the community” Australian servicemen and women have earned. He calls the issue a “major concern” to his department.

In June, Hobson raised concerns over Melbourne’s Glenroy RSL sub-branch president Lance Smith, a 69-year-old who falsely claimed to be a Vietnam veteran for more than four decades, receiving $2000 a year and a petrol card for his role as president. Deputy chief magistrate Robert Kumar described Smith’s actions as the lowest act he’d seen in 28 years as a magistrate. “When I contacted the RSL, they wouldn’t have a bar of it,” says Hobson. “They knew this bloke so well, he was such a wonderful person that it couldn’t possibly be true.

“What [impostors] do is they absolutely con their friends and family into believing their lies.These blokes feign nightmares and call out in the night and jump around because they’ve got post-traumatic stress disorder from their blasted ‘military service’. It’s unbelievable. They treat their family badly and then they use the excuse that they’ve got post-traumatic stress.”

“Somehow I integrated myself into it and next minute they’re saying, ‘Oh, have you got this medal, have you got that? We can get you into this’,” he says. “Next minute they’ve got me on the Nui Dat House [a low-cost accommodation service for veterans and ex-service members of the ADF]. I just went along with it for the ride. And it was so bloody easy. No one checked anything. Next thing I know these blokes have me lined up for two bloody medals. I could’ve gotten the bloody DSO [the prestigious Distinguished Service Order] if I kept on going. It was so easy once you got on the track.

“I ran across four blokes who were doing the same thing I was doing. One bloke would pass you onto another one, get another medal, then another medal. You were wearing a decoration. No bugger had the hide to come up and ask, ‘Is it yours?'” He says these four men “are still out there”, buying duplicate medals and passing them around a fraternity of fakes. “It’s so stupid when I look back on it but, you know, it gave you a little bit of a pump putting another medal on. But I was masquerading in front of people who lost husbands. I done something wrong. Morally and everything that comes after that. I don’t ask for any forgiveness.”

It all sounds so much like what we deal with here. You should read the entire article, if you can find a way.

Category: Phony soldiers