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IT'S THE LAW: MEDAL LIARS FACE NEW SANCTIONS --

California state law enforcement may now cite

those who falsify their war exploits.

Tom Gentile, a retired Army sergeant major who investigates allegations of military impostors and reports his results to authorities, wanted California to pass an even stronger law. With 42 years of military service, he runs the Legion of Valor Museum in Fresno. (photo: Brian Baer / bbaer@sacbee.com)

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Story here... http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/593148.html

Story below:

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It's the Law: Medal liars face new sanctions

State law enforcement may now cite those who falsify their war exploits.

By Peter Hecht - phecht@sacbee.com

One in a series of reports on new laws that take effect Jan. 1.

The new director of the Three Valleys Municipal Water District in Claremont introduced himself with tales so harrowing, so seemingly courageous, that people took notice.

Fellow board member Dan Horan said Xavier Alvarez told him he saved a U.S. ambassador – and the American flag – while wounded by gunfire during a daring rooftop helicopter rescue in Lebanon.

Horan said he was puzzled when Alvarez, a board member elected in 2006, later changed his story to say it happened in Iran. And he was skeptical when his colleague also bragged of rescuing Marines pinned down by Viet Cong gunfire in Vietnam.

On Sept. 26, authorities charged Alvarez, 49, with violating a 2005 federal "Stolen Valor Act" by standing up at a gathering of water officials in July and announcing he was a wounded veteran, 25-year Marine and a recipient of the fabled Congressional Medal of Honor. Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian, who is prosecuting the case, said Alvarez never served in the military.

To state Assemblyman Paul Cook, R-Yucca Valley, the case represents just one of many – far too many – episodes of people impersonating veterans, embellishing service records or claiming medals they never earned.

Cook, a Marine Corps veteran and a Purple Heart recipient in the Vietnam War, this year pushed through a California version of the Stolen Valor Act.

The law, which takes effect Tuesday, adds another tier of enforcement to the federal act by allowing state and local law enforcement to cite anyone who falsely dons or claims a military medal or decoration the person didn't earn.

Expanding upon an existing state statute allowing misdemeanor citations against people who falsely claim to be active service members or veterans, the law makes it an infraction to lie about military awards on a job application or in an interview or by boasting in public about medals never earned.

Cook said Assembly Bill 282 is needed because – save for a few federal prosecutions – "the FBI has bigger fish to fry" and there are simply too many cases of "repugnant" phony heroes whose lies defame the service of honorable veterans.

Some of the offenders are real veterans embellishing their service. Last summer, the FBI charged Augustine Hernandez, 76, of Montebello with posing as a U.S. Army general and wearing the Purple Heart and Bronze Star to a memorial ceremony – even though he retired from the U.S. Army as a private in 1954 with no such medals.

In 2002, a Roseville man, Justin McCauley, came home after serving as a Navy ordinanceman on the U.S. Kitty Hawk and falsely claimed in a Bee interview he was a Navy SEAL wounded in ground conflict in Afghanistan.

Others may have political or financial motives. In September, sentences and guilty pleas were announced for six Washington men charged with lying about their military service, including anti-war protester Jesse MacBeth, 23. He claimed to be a decorated Army Ranger who participated in Iraq atrocities, but he'd been discharged after a month in the Army in the United States.

Another Washington man, Reggie Buddle, 60, was convicted of posing as a Marine Corps chaplain so he could perform weddings, funerals and baptisms. Still another, Larry Lewis Porter, 52, was sentenced for making up combat experiences to fraudulently seek naval disability benefits for post-traumatic stress.

The new California law would penalize bogus warriors with an infraction and a $250 fine.

But that is well below federal penalties allowing a $5,000 fine and six months in prison for lying about military honors. The federal law also imposes up to a year in prison for wrongly claiming the Congressional Medal of Honor or top military awards including the Army Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross, the Air Force Cross, the Purple Heart and the Silver Star.

Cook, who unsuccessfully pushed for a felony statute in California, said he is seeking public humiliation for people peddling phony stories of heroism.

"If someone is charged, that in itself is a stigma, a tremendous punishment," he said.

But Tom Gentile, a retired Army sergeant major who runs the Legion of Valor Museum in Fresno, said he felt let down when the Legislature failed to adopt a tougher law. "I didn't just want a watered-down version of the federal law," he said.

Gentile is one of numerous veterans, angry and frustrated over alleged impostors in their midst, who actively investigate and report to authorities people who claim dubious military glories.

Another is B.G. Burkett, a Texas stockbroker and Vietnam veteran who co-authored a book, "Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History," exposing impostors and bogus combat tales.

"One thing about people who serve in war is they usually don't want to talk about it," Burkett said. "The heroes are seldom going to brag. If you hear two guys talking and one talks about the men he served with and the second guy says, 'Let me tell you how I won my Silver Star,' your antenna should go up."

Gentile said he recently confronted a man who appeared at a POW-MIA day at a Central Valley veterans hospital wearing a colonel's dress uniform heavily adorned with medals and decorations, including the Army's Distinguished Service Cross. Gentile said when he stopped the man to question him about the medals, the man hurried away.

"The tipoff was that he was wearing too much garbage, too much 'fruit salad,' " said Gentile.

He said military decorations are easily bought on the Internet, allowing "someone to pin a medal on themselves and come up with Rambo-type stories."

"It takes away from from the real people who served," he said.

In Claremont, Horan said he felt queasy listening to his water board colleague, Alvarez, expound on his alleged combat experiences. At one meeting, prosecutor Missakian said, Alvarez introduced himself as a Medal of Honor winner and – clearing his throat with emotion – said: "I got wounded many times."

Horan himself was a Marine stationed during the Korean War at Camp Pendleton in California. He worked in the motor pool and was a driver for a colonel. He never saw combat but was deeply proud of his service, and said he is glad California passed a bill to help "get the phonies out from where they are hiding."

"I think those who served would like to be protected," Horan said. "I just felt a bit sullied out of the deal, by him (Alvarez) claiming 25 years in the military and doing all these heroic things. Here I am, a former active Marine. It just felt dirty."

Alvarez pleaded not guilty Nov. 26 to a federal charge of falsely claiming the Medal of Honor. A trial has been set for Jan. 22.

In October, after hearing from angry veterans, the Three Valleys Municipal Water District voted to censure Alvarez over his military service claims.

Alvarez, who still sits on the board, provided another stunner, Horan said: "He voted to censure himself."

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Larry Scott  --

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