Orlando Sentinel; Vets find military records often embellished

The Orlando Sentinel writes about stolen valor, pinging the story about George Rosario they did the other day about the mayoral candidate who embellished his records during the campaign to include two Bronze Star Medals and a Purple Heart that he doesn’t have in his records;

The claims — which Rosario’s campaign manager blamed on “miscommunication” — were spotted recently by a retired Army veteran who spends his free time catching people he believes are guilty of so-called “stolen valor.”

Embellishing one’s military service is becoming more and more common nationwide, said Mike Vitale of Clermont, who met with Rosario about the misrepresentations, which have since been removed the candidate’s website.

They also quote some guy you might know;

Among those also keeping watch on bogus claims is Mark Seavey with the national office of the American Legion. Seavey exposes people daily for exaggerating their military service. He also works with a group called valorguardians.com, which lists hundreds of stolen valor cases on its website.

At The Legion, he breaks offenders into two categories: embellishers and those who never served.

Seavey, who left the Army as a sergeant after serving 11 years in the Army and the National Guard including deployments to Afghanistan and Bosnia, said during the Vietnam War it was much less likely for someone to falsely claim to be a soldier. That’s changed, he said.

“The general populous holds military service in much higher esteem now,” he said. “The American people, whether they support the wars or not, tend to support the warriors.”

We’ve filed for Rosario’s records, too, just to clear this whole thing up and I think it’s going to make Mr Rosario look a whole lot worse than it does already.

Category: Phony soldiers, Valor Vultures