Norbert Keough aka Norbert MacLean and ANZMI

Last year, we wrote about this fellow, Norbert Keough who was known as Norbert Basil McLean III while he was in the US Navy. Within weeks, we started receiving letters and emails from a legal firm in Tasmania threatening to sue us for defamation of the poor fellow. Of course, since Tasmanian courts have no jurisdiction over us, we’ve pretty much ignored the threats.

This morning, our friends at Australia New Zealand Military Imposters (ANZMI) send us a link to their very extensive work on Mr Keough/McLean.

While we published his records, and told folks that he wasn’t a participant in the Gulf War despite the awards he wore for that campaign, they found him playing ambassador on New Years Eve 1991 in New York City, half a world away a mere two weeks before the beginning of hostilities.

On New Years Eve 1991, Norbert MacLean III threw a party at the Berkeley-Carteret Hotel in Asbury Park. He mailed formal invitations. He rolled a red carpet from the doorway of the presidential suite to the elevator.

He hung a United Nations flag at the doorway. He posted signs that read, “Reserved for Ambassador MacLean” in the parking area for the white limousine he’d rented.

For months, Maclean had been claiming to be an ambassador.

“He got very offended if you called him Mr MacLean,” JoAnne Guertin, former front office manager at the Berkeley-Carteret said, “He wanted ‘Ambassador Maclean’”

Maclean, a former Lakehurst resident whose father is that town’s police chief, is far from an ambassador. He’s a 22 year-old former Navy sailor recently court-martialed after being charged with bouncing 81 checks.

Just two weeks ago, MacLean was seeking legitimacy in a different forum. He was on the November ballot as an independent candidate for one of the two State Assembly seats in coastal Monmouth County’s 11th District.

Maclean announced his withdrawal from the race on May 19, the day after an interview with the Asbury Park Press during which he was confronted with the Navy charges and other instances of bounced checks. An official in Maclean’s campaign said the interview had not prompted the candidate’s decision.

…’The reason for this painful decision is because of unfinished business with the United States Navy in Washington, DC,” Maclean wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Daniel J. Dalton.

So, the little twerp packed his bags and left for the Land Down Under to escape his infamy and he strapped on military decorations he didn’t earn thinking that no one would discover his lies, until we got his FOIA;

Now ANZMI has questions;

Norbert Keough, or ‘Norb’ as he likes to be called presents himself as a distinguished veteran of the US Navy, a Gulf War Veteran, a champion of veteran’s rights, and a non-practising Barrister. Don’t however, challenge Norb’s credentials as he is very keen to litigate. We wonder why?

The truth is, Norb is nothing but a fraud. Yes, he did serve in the US Navy but if you can call being discharged after being Court Martialled ‘distinguished’ you probably believe the rest of his stories.

After threatening a number of senior members of the RSL with legal action for daring to ask legitimate questions about his past, Norb relocated to Tasmania where he reinvented himself in the Tasmanian RSL and picked up work with Jackie Lambie as an advisor on Veterans Affairs. It also seems Norb is keen to have a tilt at politics.

Norb has created the image of a distinguished US Navy Veteran to enhance his public image, but in doing so, has left a trail of confusing photographs which depict changing medal entitlements, service not consistent with the published record, and lies about his actual service history.

Yeah, Norbert likes to threaten people, but we’re accustomed to that. I’m sure I’ll get another costly letter in snail mail from his lawyers. It’ll join the others in my circular file.

Category: Phony soldiers, Valor Vultures