Florida Times Union calls BS on John James Lavoie
We discussed John James Lavoie last month when he was pretending to be a highly decorated Marine Master Sergeant. He was indeed a Master Sergeant and he had an eviable career in the Marine Corps, but he decided that he needed some non-existent Vietnam combat service and some awards to go along with it. When we first exposed him, he came back with a tearful story in First Coast News about how he forced to defend himself with a forged DD215
Our buddy, Clifford Davis, at the Florida Times Union writes about that DD215 today;
However, the very characters used on the DD 215 to write the date, as well as list all the medals, were written in a font — Calibri — that didn’t even exist until 2004.
Jenn Contois is a font designer for Monotype, a company that has designed fonts for more than a century. The company created New Times Roman for the London Times newspaper in 1930.
“I just heard back from our senior type director,” she said. “He said, ‘It’s 100 percent Calibri.’ ”
One of our readers made the same observation in the comments on the last article that we wrote about Lavoie. But that wasn’t it with the document;
Lavoie’s name is misspelled as “Lavoe” at the top of the document. As stated, the DD 215 is supposed to correct errors of this kind. A misspelled name would render the form nearly useless if a veteran attempted to use it to obtain veterans benefits like the GI Bill, or Department of Veterans Affairs benefits.
Second, every acronym listing Lavoie’s medals is wrong as well.
Things that we also noticed when we saw the DD215, too. Of course, the overarching fact of the DD215 is that if it had been written in 2009, it’s contents would have been part of the 2015 FOIA – those DD215s become part of the official record.
Lavoie had no service in Vietnam, nor did he earn any of the valor medals that he claimed. Even if the DD215 was accurate, it didn’t support his parachutist wings or his scuba bubble.
Category: Phony soldiers, Valor Vultures
You have to watch out for those Maintnance Battalion Marines, they are a motley bunch.
SHIT-FOR-BRAINS!!! I bet he’s still only sorry he got caught!
I just don’t get it.
A perfectly honorable career ruined, all due to his fabricated need to claim some valorous deed that was performed by others.
If he lied about his DD215, etc., you have to consider that much of what he said he’s done during his 60+ years is a lie.
“Just an average (Master) Sergeant” …. Being an “average” Marine SNCO is something that 99.9999% of the American population could never achieve.
Lavioe you shit all over that.
Signed
Another “Average”Marine SNCO
Hey Top Lavoie,
Thanks for tarnishing all Senior Marine SNCO’s with your douchebaggery. Punk asshole.
1stSgt
Hey! That’s my call sign. It’s been mine on this site since 2011. If someone else wants to use it I demand compensation in cash or beer.
Clown + clown suit = clown in suit.
Congratulations, Master Seargent Dumb Ass. The Internet is forever. And we sure as hell won’t forget, either.
Go fuck yourself.
Even Forging Frank waves the bullshit flag on those documents
My gosh, he lived Oceanside and forgot to put his apartment number on his paperwork. Must of forgot after fighting in Vietnam on his Playstation where he earned all his medals. Oh, by the way…I’M STILL POSTING BERNATH, WICKRE, DALLAS, INTERNATIONAL POLICE, BLACK WIDOW AND THE REST OF YOU SHITS. DALLAS YOUR COMETH THREAT…Im waiting with anticipation and I will see you first, SINCE YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT I LOOK LIKE IDIOT
Still…a SHITBAG!
“My life is crumbled,” he told First Coast News reporter Ken Amaro as Lavoie appeared to grow emotional. “I was already guilty until proven innocent.”
Does laughing at that make me a bad person? If so, I accept the label. The guy is contacted in follow-up by the paper and does what? He hangs up the phone and fails to respond to requests for comment. In other words, when given the opportunity to make his case, to clear his name and prove his claims, he opted to assume the role of victim AFTER creating a false record. I especially like the part where he “appeared to grow emotional.” Yeah, I can see him blubbering and wailing like a frightened baby. It’s too damn bad that his fictitious account of his service “crumbled.” I guess his lies were the only things of value he saw in his life. And now, like snowflakes falling on water, they’re gone. I can’t seem to find my sympathy this morning. Anyone seen it?
Here, you can have some of mine.
Oh, never mind. There doesn’t seem to be enough to share.
Better watch out – his buttbuddy Walton is gonna raise all sorts of hell because, “It appears to me to be very legitimate”.
Has someone submitted an FOIA for Ernie Walton? Maybe the state AL needs to be looking at a new district JAG?
BTW – JJ, go screw yourself you liar! You’re as fucked up as a football bat.
As I said in comments to the other article: if anyone can get the necessary particulars on Walton (firstname/middlename/lastname plus DOB plus POB plus service plus approx dates), I’ll be quite happy to file a FOIA on the guy and we’ll see what his records say.
Where should we send? Thinking a post here may not be good.
If you have the info I’d suggest e-mailing it to Jonn (see “contact us” above) and I’m sure he’ll pass it along.
Maybe it is ambiguous whether he could be in violation of the Stolen Valor Act, although he did have benefits when you consider his appointment as VFW commander.
That said, wouldn’t he be in violation of some other law by nature of forging a federal document? Would he have to have obtained benefit from doing it? Who would just do this for fun and call it a hobby? No, I don’t buy it. He does it for tangible gain, or in his case, to cover up his lies.
I have to say this: the first time I saw the picture of that cockamamie twit, I thought he was Air Force. He looks like he wants to be a pilot or something, with that garrison cap and all.
Seriously boring gasbag with an egofeeding problem.
Not all SV is for a tangible benefit. I would guess that most valor thieves claim service and awards not theirs in order to garner the respect and admiration of others. However, that said, whenever one of these clowns takes a free meal or plaque for certain specified awards or decorations (e.g., a dinner honoring Purple Heart recipients) he has obtained something tangible for his false claim. Now the problem becomes finding a prosecutor who gives a hoot and charges the thief.
Is that a tomato or a strawberry on his cover?
Is he also claiming to be a Master Gardener?
An orange, I do believe, for Florida.
WHY IS IT SO HARD TO BE PROUD OF A SERVICE RECORD LIKE THE ONE HE HAD !!!!!!
Fucking SHIT FOR BRAINS NOW YOU ARE FAMOUS ENJOY!!!!!!!
It takes a special kind of stuipd to forge a DD-215 and misspell your own name. I wonder where he got the original form that he pasted all of the new stuff on to.
Bernathian class stupidity… probably talked wit “Forgin’ Frank” about getting a “corrected 215” for the price of $20.
He probably has an entire book of Navy Federal Credit Union checks with his name misspelled. You have to be a special kind of stupid to SPELL YOUR OWN FUCKING NAME WRONG. Of course, he may have outsourced the work to Forgin’ Frank.
As the reader who spotted the font problem, I can only say that I hope he receives a letter from American Legion HQ terminating his membership for good. The kicker is that the letter should be typed in Calibri font.
You’re devious, I like that.
Nice job with the font.
I hope the letter is hand delivered and shoved up his ass.
Claiming fake Vietnam service.
What a dirtbag.
If it’s typed with a recent version of MS Word, there’s a very good chance it would be. That’s the default font that ships with certain versions of MS Word. (smile)
The Farce is strong in this one….
Where do we find men of such Calibri?
Easy.
All-Points Logistics.
Damn, that is funny. My lovely bride Rosetta just asked me why I am laughing.
In a crowd of fakes, this one does tend to stand Font and center.
This isn’t completely dead yet, there are ways that JJ Lavoie can resuscitate it. Let’s explore a few theoretical possibilities… The font Calibri is a rare instance in which the knock-off was produced years before the actual font. Tobias Snatch was the college roommate of typographer Luc(as) De Groot. Tobias kept the original cocktail napkin that the font design was sketched on by De Groot during a drunken frat party. Since De Groot was more talented than Tobias, jealousy always drove a wedge between them. Tobias sold the design to the US military long before the Microsoft commissioning with assurances it was not in the private sector. The US military then commissioned IBM to make a selectric ball (remember those?) that had strict inventory control and given to the CO, the JAG officer and the records clerk of each unit. JJ came in on his last day in a drunken stupor and sat with a clerk that was jealous that he had no field time and purposely left off the higher awards. JJ, being modest as well as drunk, did not think much of it but did raise a question about this. The clerk pulled out the keys to the safe, opened it, took out a little box and opened it to reveal the highly coveted IBM selectric ball with the Calibri knock-off font, sparkling with light from its polished surface due to lack of use. The clerk assured JJ he would follow up with a DD-215. They had highly secretive units in Vietnam. Lavoie arrived in early 1973, was wounded during the same mission that he was awarded the Silver Star and evacuated. They patched him up and sent him back in only a few short days later on the same mission only to be wounded a second time and subsequently receive the Silver Star for a second award. All before March 1973 when the directive allows for awards for Vietnam service. There were also two days during the US Embassy evacuation in 1975 that exist as a possibility, but I think the guy dangling from the helicopter has… Read more »
Very similar to Jerry Vroombout.
I wonder if they are buddies?
So, he was at 1st Maintenance Battalion in the early 1990’s, as was Hack. I was at Electronics Maintenance Company (ELMACO) down in the warehouse district by the air station. I believe that our hero was probably Ordinance Maintenance Company, which I think was located up the road with Battaliin HQ or down at Del Mar. The thing about 1st Maintenance Battalion is that they would literally hand out Navy Achievement Medals. After a certain Sergeant received her fifth Navy Achievement Medal in two years for working on a top secret project with the Company XO late at night behind locked doors, Colonel Yff (that was his last name) had her pick someone from the ELMACO formation to receive a NAM. Maybe this guy racked up five NAMs, and was able to trade them in for a Silver Star. Sort of like the frequent flyer upgrades that the airlines offer.
YOU CAN ALWAYS TELL wherever he’s either slept by himself or told one of his bogus war stories, he always leaves me behind him!
He’s an asswhole and a whole ass.
Hmm. I guess that makes him a double a-hole (both an ass-whole and . . . well, nevermind).
(smile)