How One Epic Document Exposed the Secrets of the Vietnam War - The New Web. None were real. As were 45 claiming to have been prisoners of war. pictures to prove it. Slessler said many of the imposters he sees suffer from 'survivor guilt.' Burkett, but flights of fancy can also be shot down. I've run into a half dozen in the last few years, that were to quick to tell stories of their heroics & actions.Too me IF one says they were a Seal, or a Green Beret, I push a bit. I doubt there are 10 million of them, but it appears to me there are a lot of fakes. DePaulo says its not surprising a person already held in high esteem would choose to fabricate a military background. Researching the book made her spend time, she said, "with the real citations -- learning about a man who received the Distinguished Service Cross at the cost of his life, and finding out that some phony had modeled his citation on that one. After the show aired, several Iraq veterans wrote to the Guardian of Valor. "It was so difficult. Very few served in Vietnam. Daubmanns tale of escape from the colonial hellhole prompted the German government to treat him as a national hero. I dont know what stopped me, but I heard myself saying the words, Too good to be true, and decided to call the Ranger headquarters at Fort Benning, Georgia. parlance of those of us who were there), I found a number of them. Network Web site lists U.S. prisoners of war, reviewed all the history project records. He says most imposters are spotted before they are admitted to a VA facility. Still, Yandle and veterans groups convinced the Globe and, later, Mike Wallace of the CBS News program "60 Minutes" and then-Massachusetts Gov. I have been unable to find that precise survey, but this seems to be the place where the 13,853,027 number of impostors comes from. Published Sep 24, 2018. Now, extrapolate that across the nation, and imagine the millions of dollars that this runs into.. Without 9,492,958, and During this Census count, the number of Americans falsely He does claim an "FBI study" "a few years ago" estimated 300 fakers for every real living Seal. think I have been able to deduce what has happened. statement. The VA shows on their site https://www.va.gov/opa/publications/factsheets/fs_americas_wars.pdf That only 3,403,000 served incountry in Vietnam, and that a total of 8,744,000 served in that era world wide. 'In Vietnam, it just took longer to emerge.'. (I wondered about this because it made no sense to me State Vietnam Veterans Vietnam Veterans (per 100k) Utah 42,774 1,272 How [] I run into far more than my share of World War II fakers, said Sterner. An archive compiled by a national prisoner-of-war. The same vet websites Kevin links to also give a ~9.1 million figure for "military personnel served on active duty during the Vietnam Era." Thieves among honor: counterfeit veterans - Military Times 1,713,823 of those who served in Vietnam were still alive as of August, 1995 (CENSUS FIGURES). How many Vietnam veterans are dying each day? but then remembered that if you set foot in a combat zone even for an hour or On Burkett's walls, chockablock with his MBA diploma and certificates attesting to his knowledge of financial arcana, are plaques from the Vietnam Veterans of America and the Veterans Land Board and a framed letter and photograph of Burkett on the podium with former President George Bush for the dedication of the Texas Vietnam Veterans Memorial nearly 10 years ago. He wasn't even sent overseas until September 1968, six months after the Khe Sanh siege was over. I am an in-country Vietnam vet. By fits and starts, Burkett learned how to investigate. does not seem to be accurate and my review of the census doesnt bear this out. Vietnam Veterans Against the War: Commentary: Fake Vets Chasing Fame - VVAW I said that was funny because I didn't remember seeing him there.Anyway, there are statistics that suggest several million and really comes down to the sources you wish to cite. Fake War Stories Exposed - CBS News So now I had a purpose and a system and I decided I was going to create a book, so I started researching the gaps.". But the Stolen Valor claim is itself a fraud perpetrated on the public.By some estimates, 4-5% of the population in general are sociopathic liars. It was much easier to do before. A Commentary on UFOs, Paranormal events, and related topics. claiming to have served in-country is: 13,853,027. He had been a prisoner, but not in Vietnam. Richard Blumenthal Not the First Public Official to Misstate Military found it which, I think, adds some legitimacy to the figures and does suggest a The second you tell people that you are a veteran, they look at you differently. 'We're becoming more and more aware of it (fake combat vets) and more and more wary of it,' said Mary Stout, national secretary of the 35,000-member, 235-chapter VVA. How many Vietnam veterans are still alive? (2023) Did Senator Richard Blumenthal Misrepresent His Military Service? ", "This was real people dying real deaths. Last year, he dropped out of the state's gubernatorial race, admitting he never got closer to Vietnam than peacetime Korea. I had decided that I would Bill Williamson US Army Vietnam Veteran, Blog of shame. There is no hard count of how many people have lied about their military service, but one of the best sources on the topic thinks the number is in the millions. 568) comes from DOD statistics, not any public Census data. It doesn't seem to exist. When his unit came home and started gearing up. Its all done for personal gain, he said. Vietnam War Facts, Stats and Myths - US Wings Vietnam veterans' personal income exceeds that of our non-veteran age group by more than 18 percent. Vietnam veterans welcome home commemoration : This ain't Hell, but you For the past three years, Burkett has worked behind the scenes with the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of the Inspector General on Operation Stolen Valor, aimed at uncovering people in the Pacific Northwest whove fabricated military service in order to obtain VA benefits. In the spring of 1998, Burkett managed to convince Wallace and others that Yandle was a fake. How Many Vietnam War Veterans Are Still Alive? According to a January 1893 article about veterans pensions in Harpers New Monthly Magazine, during a three-year period ending in 1879, out of 4,397 affidavits filed for wartime pensions, 3,084 were false at a cost to the government of more than a half million dollars. According to the American War Library, as of February 28, 2019, it is estimated that approximately 610,000 Americans who served in land forces during the Vietnam War or in air missions over Vietnam between 1954 and 1975 are still alive to this day. Other still claim to be combat vets as an explanation for emotional problems. If fact it is close to the total that served and suggests that Viet vets don't die as quickly as others.Either the 2010 figures haven't been digested yet or I could not find them. (At other sites, the claim is the 1990 or 2000 CENSUS) I just posted a link with results to the 1995 Census Statistical Abstract of the United States, upon which Beaton claims the statistics resides, and as proven by the Census document itself, there is NO SUCH NUMBER, only the number of living active duty vets during Vietnam. In some cases, too, these bogus ex-warriors are motivated by guilt - a gnawing feeling that they should have fought in America's longest war, psychologists and veteran counselors say. Marshal Hanson (and apparently quoted by every vet site as complete gospel), he provides the U.S. Census as the source, just like everybody else:www.veteranstoday.com/2009/02/26/vietnam-facts-vs-fiction/Had you read my post, you would have seen that I quoted this source, including its negative note at the end that was highlighted in yellow and typed in boldface. They want to be around real vets,' said Martin. Maybe creating phony statistics on nonexistent vet imposters was designed to get vets understandably angry so they would send their hard-earned money to scam vet charities like the VVF. REALITY: Duke's only military experience was a brief stint in the ROTC while attending Louisiana State University. The 1990 census shows 7,646,908 claim to be Vietnam era vets. 569 again lists an ESTIMATED 8.744 million active duty military personnel during the Vietnam era, here defined as Aug. 4, 1964 to Jan. 27, 1973. Strewn about the floor, piled crazily on a chair, slopping over the edge of a credenza, teetering on top of his desk are stacks and stacks of file folders containing Xeroxed personnel records from the Vietnam War and tattered news clippings. They are NOT to be used for official government findings The Stolen-Valor Detective: Unmasking People Who Pretend to Be Veterans 'My pretense took on a life of its own and almost became real. But this site also has a political agenda, but since it seems to mirror yours, it is reliable and all the other sites are not.But you might want to look at:http://www.veteranstoday.com/2009/07/08/who-are-the-real-vietnam-vets/And while there is a title that says, THOUSANDS WEARING SERVICE RIBBONS NEVER EARNED IN VIETNAM which sort of reinforces my point of view, there are many things in the article that are wrong. veterans of which according to other sources, about 2.7 actually served in . In 2007 the project listed 49 Medal of Honor recipients on its Web site. You know, you could get yourself a sword and say, Hey, Im home from starving in the Mideast with the Crusaders.. Women Vietnam Veterans and PTSDAnother paper using data from the HealthVIEWS study, published in 2015, found that 20.1 percent of women Veterans who served in Vietnam have . How many fake Vietnam veterans are there? On the US Census web site www.census.gov/prod/cen1990/cp2/cp-2-1.pdf on page 45 there is a chart that lists veterans and which era they served in. Fakery was reportedly widespread during the Civil War and its long aftermath. The project, it would turn out, had a profound effect on her. I was a Ranger. Here Id called him on his lie, and he had the gumptionthe beliefthe desire to somehow lie again, as if by lying many mines, the lie would turn true. I would think of as reliable sources except I do not have copies of either However, veterans groups estimate that today approximately 9 to 12 million Americans fraudulently claim they served in Vietnam. support it. A Parade of Fake War Heroes - Los Angeles Times VA experts says others fabricate stories to grab attention, or in an effort to get disability benefits for bogus combat injuries or fake post-war stress.