The REAL most outrageous Stolen Valor cases

Now that Stolen Valor is a news item these days, some new outlets are putting together their own lists of the top stolen valor case. The SITREP, for example, wrote about what they called “Top 5 Most Outrageous Stolen Valor Incidents” which were weak sauce compared to some incidences in our archives. Here are my top 6 in no particular order (click their names for their actual records);

Charles E. Baxter

Baxter used to parade around in the uniform of a two-star general. He handed out challenge coins with his flag rank. When we began our investigation, all we had was the picture and his name tag and the ROTC detachment where the picture was taken. When we finally got his records, it turns out that he was a Vietnam veteran and he’d been discharged as a private first class in 1968.

Michael Patrick McManus

Mr. McManus was photographed at an inaugural ball for the mayor of Houston in 2009 and his picture was blasted out across all of the milblogs. We didn’t have a name, but someone in the gay community there, gave us a name. He pretended to be a lieutenant colonel who had been discharged because of the Clinton-era Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. In reality, he’d been a private first class and a military policeman in 1987. He was actually arrested for Stolen Valor but unfortunately, he died before he could get to trial.

Nicholas Androsky

No list of Valor thieves would be complete without mentioning Nick Androsky. Someone at the Ranger Training Brigade sent us Androsky’s photo when he showed up at his step-father’s basic training graduation at Fort Benning and began to berate drill sergeants for their treatment of said step-father. The drills marched him to the battalion headquarters where they took pictures of him – the pictures went viral that day. Unfortunately, Mr Androsky passed from this life last year. His actual record showed that he was discharged as a private after his court martial for substance abuse. He is probably the poster face for Stolen Valor due to his popularity.

Paul Tillson (from New Jersey)

Paul Tillson took a series of pictures at his wedding in this uniform and some alert reader sent the photos to us. He was discharged as a staff sergeant in the New Jersey National Guard and never deployed. The unfortunate part of this story is that there is a Paul Tillson in Oregon who catches flack for this Paul Tillson from people who aren’t paying attention.

Paul Tillson was sentenced to six months in prison for defrauding the VA of more than $150,000 over 13 years.

William Derek Church “The Round Ranger”

Another of my personal favorites is Mr. Church. Again, we started with nothing more than his name tag and wedding photos. We knew he was a phony just from the position of his beret and some of the medals that he displayed. It turns out from his records, he was discharged from the National Guard before he could finish Basic Training. When we busted him, he created sockpuppets who came to his defense, and our readers took him down, too.

Mark Wayne Tiemann

Finally, one of my personal favorites, Mark Wayne Tiemann, the Round Marine, is another poster child of Stolen Valor. We first saw his picture four years ago, and it wasn’t until this year, one of his neighbors gave us his name in the comments which allowed us to get his records. Tiemann had been a sergeant of Marines and served six years, but he thought he deserved more. he didn’t put up a fight, though and went quietly off into the bowels of the internet.

Of course, we have hundreds more, but these are some of my favorites, mostly because they were so hard to find and we put hours into the hunt and their lies were so blatantly obvious.

Category: Phony soldiers