Sergeant Major Guilty of Identity Theft
A Fort Bragg sergeant major, William Anthony Morrone Jr. was convicted of fraudulent enlistment and making false statements in regards to his theft of his brother’s identity in order to enlist, according to the Fayetteville Observer. Morrone had a discharge when he was younger that hindered his re-entry to the Army, so he used his brother’s name and college degree in the late 80s to reenlist and rose rather quickly through the ranks to Sergeant Major and did a couple of deployments to Iraq during the Gulf War and the War Against Terror;
William Morrone said that in 1988, he lived with his older brother Gerald and came across Gerald’s birth certificate and other personal papers. That spring, he took these to sign up for the Army again. For the second time, William Morrone went to jump school to become an Army paratrooper.
His brother’s college degree gave him a head start at his revived military career, with his rank private first class instead of private, a prosecutor said.
Morrone was stationed at Fort Bragg and spent much of the next 25 years here.
His lawyer claimed that Marrone tried to get the Army to correct his records, but that the request fell through the cracks of the bureaucracy. Like most of us are, Marrone was brought low by his ex-wife;
But Gerald’s wife, Jamie, was troubled by the identity theft. She said her name was on an IRS letter several years ago regarding William’s military income. She said she contacted law enforcement to report the identity theft.
She wanted to see William punished.
Yeah, our best tipsters about frauds here at TAH are from ex-wives and -girlfriends. My goal in life is to have neither. As near as I can tell, Marrone’s sole punishment was a reduction to sergeant first class, two ranks.
Category: Dumbass Bullshit
Well, stealing an identity so one can go off and get shot at is…different.
My reading of this is not that it was his ex-wife that turned him in…. rather, it was the current wife of his brother (the one he stole the identity from). The perps ex-wife is actually standing by his side “Linda Morrone was in court supporting him this week”. Maybe they can make up for the lost income of rank reduction by making regular appearance on Jerry Springer.
Well, you clearly see where I might have been confused trying to sort this story out on just one cup of coffee this morning.
@1. Yeah, calling it ID theft may be technically correct but there seems to be two types of thieves, those who steal another’s identity for immediate personal gain, through fraud and larceny, and the other list, comprised of those who assume another’s name for the reason this soldier did. Oh, by the way, HE is the only name on the second list. What a waste of time and tax dollars this prosecution was.
Yeah, our best tipsters about frauds here at TAH are from ex-wives and -girlfriends. My goal in life is to have neither.
I pray that you get to achieve your goal Jonn, from personal experience I can assure you that little prefix “ex hardly does justice to the large amount of nuisance that comes with it…..
So this guy steals his brother’s identity and then proceeds to serve honorably for 25 years with a fake name? Is this a first? Where somebody uses identity theft to serve an entire career?
This is a little different from our usual stolen identity claims…
ID “theft” was certainly known during both WWI ans WWII. Mostly, it was kids trying to enlist so as to get out from either a very poor home, an abusive home, or they were actually living on the streets. Unless the kid was a real dipstick, most recruiters, according to the stories, turned a blind eye to the thing.
People today tend to forget how truly difficult life was during the Great depression. Families often times had to turn out their older children in order to feed the younger ones, even to clothe them. Many families were destitute and living where they could. Lots of kids were homeless, so many that the government actually had “orphan trains” to take these kids and move them out to the mid west and west to families that could provide for them.
Not quite the same, but similar, is Audie Murphy signing up after lying about his age. Lots of that stuff too.
He was found innocent of receiving increased BAH/BAQ he drew after his divorce and his son turning 21. What cooked his goose wasn’t his first enlistment under his brother’s name,since the statute of limitations had passed, but his subsequent reenlistments that fell within the prosecutable time frame. The state DMV was a bit miffed about the drivers license and registration. Reading into it, it appears that he did try to change his name back several times but got stonewalled.
It’s a bit jacked up because the Army got a good career soldier out of it, he got his dream job, and his brother knew about it and had no problem, Hell even the IRS knew they were dealing with two people same SSN. Anyway it looks like hes basically getting forced to retire at 25 and reduction. Im not sure if he will even get his retirement pay reduced from E-9 to E-7 since he didnt get a BCD or OTH. Pretty sure you get the retirement pay of the highest rank you held.
In a somewhat related type of case I know of a Hispanic Gentleman out here in So Cal that had a very common name like Jose Rodriquez. Apparently one or more individuals used his indentity years ago, along with his SSN to work. When he hit 65 the guy had ended up getting a substantial monthly check, since they had paid in under his name.
“I will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.”
Bottom line: He lied.
That may be acceptable for an elected official, but we hold our military to a higher standard.
I’m pretty sure this is the same Morrone that was a MSG in 2001-2003 time frame and an ROTC instructor at my college. Great friendly character. A very good instructor and NCO, I thought. He seemed a little off, but who are some ROTC pukes to judge?
This is an odd situation as others have posted. He was so hell bent on getting back in that he did this and then served honorably for 25yrs. I’m not sure what a great jump E1 to E3 is for anyone.
I agree with QMC. I guess you could say fraud to somehow enrich himself but he went to Jump School twice and the Sandbox twice. Seems to be a fair trade to me.
Many guys lied about their age to enlist during WW2. Are we going to go back and strip them of their rank also?
So he committed huge tax fraud as well?
Anyway you slice it, it was a dishonest act. My question, is how many soldiers did he chapter out for PT failure, overweight, DUI, etc…?
My ex-wife is in jail for ID theft. She did it for the money, this guy did it to serve his country.
@13. That’s true enough. And breaking into someone’s house is illegal. The fact that the house was on fire and you were trying to save the inhabitants is neither here nor there, right?
“Many guys lied about their age to enlist during WW2. Are we going to go back and strip them of their rank also?” And in every other war and conflict as well. And while we are stripping them of rank, let’s not overlook their medals, including, in at least one WW II case, the Medal of Honor.
As someone who had to fight the good fight to get back in (my initial enlistment ended with an OTH discharge), I get it. It took me over a year of fighting like hell to get back in, and even now I’m finding that my recruiter took a lot of short cuts, that likely will cost me years from my prior enlistment.
So I get it. I don’t know that I’d have gone as far as he did to get back in, but maybe.
@13, I don’t see the relevancy. How many good soldiers did he retain? How many bad guys did he send to their Virginians? I hate the argument that a wrong never makes a right, but when you think about it, shooting someone in the face is a very wrong thing to do, and yet its often the right thing in the long run.
This guy sounds like he was a good soldier. He did what he had to do to get another bite at the apple. Served honorably and sacraficed the best years of his life to his country. And he tried to fix it as soon as he could.
The man did not just lie about his “age”… he lied about who he was because he was barred from re-enlisting in the US Army. I do not know what it was he did to get tossed out the first time, but back then it was kind of hard to get thrown out of the Army.
Yes he redeemed himself in a way with his second and by far more succesful career, but he did it by stealing the identity of another person. Which caused that person obvious issues in their private life and in dealing with the IRS.
Almost his entire adult life was spent lying to his commanders and his men about who he was.
That said, stripping him of 2 ranks and not busting him down and out completely was a just verdict considering his stellar record and combat experience. He did good but went about it in entirely the wrong way.
Gotta agree with #18 – the Army has spent the past 10 years pushing the “Army Values” thing, an example had to be made, especially at that rank.
As a rule, choir boys and ass kickers aren’t cut from the same cloth. If you want Pollyanna, the service academies turn out a good many of them every year. And some of their grads were honest-to-goodness Eagle Scouts.
“So he committed huge tax fraud as well?”
It doesn’t appear like he did. He paid taxes, just under his brothers SSN. Apparently the IRS sorted it out a while back, it just took the Army longer.
The IRS doesn’t play. They get their money and or throw your ass in jail.
8 – was going to bring up the same thing, they said one of odd facets of the whole illegal immigrant’s issue is that many identities are stolen, the illegal pays in taxes, SS, etc. which they can’t recover or be paid – and technically would belong to the legitimate SSN holder.
Sadly, I keep hoping to find that someone has paid a chunk toward my number, but no one but me has…. damn.
@8 and 22, When the IRS finds out or figures out that others have been using your SSN, you better believe they fix that fast. They love it because then they don’t have to pay out on that income.
Not notifying your dependent’s status post divorce and getting mo money? And a SGM at that?
I’m sure there are a few other “indiscretions” on this guy that are still out there.
The Army has waivers for practically everything…what did this guy really do? Whose place did he take/bump on various promotions-assignments?
Yep, that’s definitely SFC Morrone. He was cadre at Ball State University ROTC program 2001-2003 or 2004. He was pulled out the program quickly and without reason at some point.
rules are rules
Wait one second… This douche got to be a Sergeant Major without needing even a Secret Security Clearance? I hope whatever senior officer handed this guy a Cearance without even a basic background check shares a cell with him!
But, hey, don’t worry about anything like foreign governments infiltrating people in the ranks. It could never happen. The Army is too careful about background checks…
The world isn’t perfect and neither are people. The first thing I thought of were all the boys who have lied about their age in order to sign up.
You have to admire someone who wants to serve so badly that he would commit a crime to do it.
I say that he more than made up for the lie with his service. Redemption and all that.
@27. I wondered about that, also. Who was supposed to check the guys fingerprints in the Feeb’s database? And, did anyone really check them, ever?
If he was in a specialty that didn’t require TS, the investigation would have been more limited. It might have been limited to a check for outstanding derogatory info. Not sure (been a while), but I’m not sure fingerprints are even required for a Secret.
If his brother was a “straight arrow” type, nothing derogatory would show up. Unless the SSA raised a flag about the SSN being used at multiple locations he might well slip by.
On doing a bit of reading in the article, it looks like the guy also copped a plea to a felony in WA state in the 1980s after his first discharge and failed to complete his probation terms.
I’m glad to see the guy turned things around. But the more I learn about him, the less inclined I am to give him any more of a break than the court-martial panel already did. And that may have been somewhat generous.
What if it was an illegal immigrant that stole someone’s identity and served “honorably”. Would we be so forgiving?
The more I look at this the more it looks like he was under the gun for shit they couldn’t pin on him. @25 said he was yanked out of an ROTC Billet at some point. He was committing BAQ/BAH housing fraud.
It’s apparent that the Army and his superiors knew about his identity long ago. He must have did something that made them dig this up.
Exact same thing I was going to say #31
I have a hard time hating this guy for committing a crime so that he could serve in the War on Terror. I respect such a strong desire, honestly.
Bottom line…is using someone else’s identity right or wrong??? If this had been an African American male or female, NO ONE would be taking pity or defending these actions. Now, sit with this fact and be honest enough to ask yourself WHY is it this way?
So, what is the opposite of stolen valor? Declined valor? Deferred valor? Give it a day for Duffel Blog to get a bead on it.
Bottom line…the guy is living a lie(s). That in itself is on the wrong side of the equation No matter what the motis/is, it is a crime that he knowingly committed.for years.. And to top it off…he profits from it in so many ways…literally and figuratively.
Unfortunately, I know Bill, lived across the street from him on Bragg. He and my now exhusband were and continue to be good friends. Oddly enough, if a person wants to hide from who he is, the army is the place to go. The story by the observer was only picked up recently, however, back on May 5, 2013 he was arrested by our county, with the charges pending for the identity theft. He was wanted in Montana and extradited back to stand trial. He also had charges in Hickory for the same. Bill was in charge of procuring the prosecution of anyone caught stealing from the PX as well as dealing with housing issues and school issues. He wore his rank, and wore it with pride. Flaunted it. Linda is a teacher here in Fayetteville, and I am very surprised at her position. They had many troubled times, not unlike many army wives to include myself. To be honest with you, I have never known Bill to catch a deployment under his belt. Desert Storm is one thing, since the entire post deployed to ODS. I have never known him to enter either OEF or OIF. He took a position as a ROTC instructor up at Ball State, and was given a credit card with the name Gerald F. Morrone. So Ball State was making a huge stink about it. The army was pissed when our county reduced his charges to a lousy misdemeanor from 6 felony counts of identity theft. The blind eye the army ends up turning towards these soldiers in order to protect their own, is sickening. I was an army wife for 19 years, and I saw hell from a birds eye view. Just search the numerous DMV records in which Bill or Gerald bought and sold vehicles, the hush money to wipe a traffic ticket off the blotter to prevent him from being uncovered, the lack of his wanting to purchase a home because his name was false, doesn’t look like a person who was trying to rectify this situation in my opinion. I… Read more »