Lots of news over the past several months about people in the military wearing awards and qualification badges which had never been approved, as well as people in and out of uniform lying about their past military service accomplishments. I remember one such "faker" from my days in uniform during the Vietnam War.
I was a company commander at Engineer Officer Candidate School (OCS) located at Fort Belvoir. We were graduating around 100 new lieutenants a week. Hectic to say the least. Candidates were guided through their rugged 23-week, OCS training period by Tactical Officers (TAC), some having just returned from combat duty. One such first lieutenant wearing a 1st CAV combat patch had been assigned as the senior TAC for a class of candidates in a company assigned to another battalion than the one I was in. From what I gathered by talking to my fellow company commanders, this guy was being noticed for the qualification badges he wore on his fatigues, and award ribbons he wore on his Class "A" uniform...one being a Bronze Star with "V" device. One evening at the nearby annex to the Officer's Club, the decorated lieutenant was approached by one of our battalion commanders who had himself served in the 1st CAV. They talked about where each had been assigned with the division, and what sort of combat they had experienced. Afterwards, the battalion commander concluded something was not right. Too many things about this guy's combat service did not add up. So, he called up a friend in the Engineer Officer's Assignment Branch and asked him to do some checking. Shortly afterwards, he got a call in return telling him no such person existed in the officer ranks in the Corps of Engineers. But, one of the same name DID exist in the enlisted ranks.
Turns out this guy was in fact a SP/5 personnel clerk, who had been assigned to the 1st CAV, and who had concocted a completely new and very official looking personnel file for himself as an engineer officer. He made sure the record showed that he had all the typical Vietnam era service awards, plus added the valorous Bronze Star for good measure. To top it off, he added fake Airborne and Ranger School qualification to his "record". He then prepared orders for himself having him assigned to Fort Belvoir as a first lieutenant, versus a SP/5 that he was. Got to give him an "A" I guess for guts, plus he must have been a pretty good personnel clerk to make this all work out as it did.
I know this sounds crazy when you look at it, but back then "paper" records were utilized...both in the field and at engineer branch. And, people were moving all over the place, back and forth to Vietnam. This guy simply slipped through the system. After he was exposed for what he really was by the battalion commander, it was decided to just let him quietly and quickly exit the Army with a general discharge, rather than to punish him more severely and thus having to explain how such a faker had gotten himself assigned to train OCS candidates for combat. True story, embarrassing as it may be to the Army's personnel system back then.
