Phony Vietnam vet John Spodofora back in the news

One of our readers, Earl Galloway, has been making trouble for the Republican mayor of Stafford, New Jersey, John Spodofora, this week. Before TAH was around, Spodofora told constituents that he was a Navy secret squirrel in Vietnam. The mayor was forced to concede that he’d been telling stories when the media got around to asking him that if everything was so classified, why was he talking about it?

When we published his records, he jumped back on the classified pony and said that his Congressman would have to get his records declassified – of course, that’s not how that stuff happens. So, Earl Galloway joined the Stafford Republican Club in an effort to prevent Spodofora from seeking another term in office;

“Out of 59 people who were trying to be accepted into the club Monday night, I was singled out of that group for retribution, for having called out the mayor in the past,” Galloway said. “And they know I still have serious concerns about how the mayor continues to represent himself, his obvious exaggerations and bald-faced lies.”

Galloway said that although Spodofora retracted his Vietnam War claims in March 2012 and apologized to the public, he and his political surrogates have made other public statements since then in an effort to retroactively parse the retraction. Their intent is to leave some doubt that he could have served in the Vietnam theater of operations in some clandestine role for the Navy, he said.

For example, Spodofora has suggested that former U.S. Rep. Jon Runyan, R-N.J., was able to get “special access” to classifed Pentagon records that corroborate past statements the mayor made before his mea culpa. But at the time, Runyan’s office denied such a claim, Galloway pointed out.

Here is Spodofora’s FOIA that we got three years ago;

Notice that there are no Vietnam service medals – that’s because he was never anywhere near Vietnam, despite his claims to the contrary.

Oddly enough;

The mayor and council had just unanimously adopted a resolution in support of pending state legislation that would make stolen valor a crime in New Jersey, with each count punishable by a minimum $1,000 fine. Under the bill, stolen valor is defined as the misrepresentation of oneself as a veteran or current service member, or for false statements in which a person claims to be a recipient of a decoration or medal of the United States armed forces, for the purpose of obtaining money, property or other tangible benefit.

Category: Phony soldiers