Stolen Valor in South Africa

The folks at the Saturday Star in Johannesburg, South Africa send us an article that they wrote about stolen valor in their country and the South African Special Forces Association which busts pretenders there;

For many years, the South African Special Forces League (now followed by its successor, the South African Special Forces Association) has maintained a “Wall of Shame” on its website (www.recce.co.za) and, says Heinrich von Berg, webmaster of the site, “there are still people out there putting out lies”.

The site has now set up a subsection on its “Media Recces” page for what Von Berg calls “Facebook Heroes” to “accommodate the many new Facebook warriors”.

The latest name to be added to the Wall of Shame is that of a Jaco van der Sandt of Pretoria, who declares himself a “rekkie” (recce) [sic], having served eight years and have seen “things you only see in movies”.

He claims he was shot six times and still carries “hordes” of shrapnel inside his body.

Von Berg says Van der Sandt was “never at any time” a Special Forces operator or even a Special Forces member.

The Wall of Shame is at this link. Mr. Van der Sandt’s claims have disappeared at his Facebook page, so they seem to be doing their job over there. According to their article, they’ve busted phony “recces” pretending while they’re in the US, too.

Of course, no article about the stolen valor phenomenon would be complete without a mention of Mary Schantag and her stolen valor posse;

It has not been easy and a number of those outed have resorted to legal suits – none of which have been successful, says Schantag – and setting up fake and threatening websites and Facebook accounts to discredit the wannabe hunters.

Category: Phony soldiers, Valor Vultures