Sig Christenson; A close encounter with stolen valor

Sig Christenson writes a piece in the San Antonio Press-News entitled “A close encounter with stolen valor” (That’s a paywall, try this link to the cache copy) about an encounter he had with a World War II veteran who told him tales about landing on “Idaho Beach”;

There was a moment in the interview when I realized something wasn’t right. I felt it in my gut.

Maybe it was the elderly veteran telling me his D-Day landing had taken place on a stretch of beach I had never heard of before. As you might know, the Allies landed on five beaches at Normandy — Omaha, Utah, Gold, Sword and Juno.

But “Idaho Beach?”

Then, there was the rest of his story, a good deal of which centered on the Battle of the Bulge. He talked about killing German prisoners, expressing no regret. I mentioned that he sounded awfully matter-of-fact about gunning down POWs.

“Because that’s what it is,” he replied. “It’s strictly a fact.”

I wasn’t so sure. I’ve talked with a lot of Bulge veterans over the decades and nothing like that ever came up, so I called Army historians to check it out.

So, Christenson got the FOIA from the National Personnel Records Center;

While this man was indeed a World War II veteran, he was nowhere near Normandy on D-Day — he had been in the Army just two months. He didn’t leave for England until Nov. 23, 1944.

[…]

Records show he didn’t serve in the division he claimed to be in. It was a different division, one that Manguso, the historian, said was briefly on the northern flank of the Bulge but not credited with being part of the battle.

Christenson was bright enough to check on stories that he thought smelled funny and many journalists won’t go that extra mile, wait that extra thirty days while fending off an editor trying to make a deadline. He says that he won’t confront the liar, so the stories will continue until someone gets around to publishing his tall tales without checking on him.

Category: Phony soldiers, Valor Vultures