Phonies on the front line
Number of people falsely claiming military service on the rise
The number of people falsely claiming military service is on the rise, according to a Feb. 1 article in the El Paso Times and reprinted on military.com.
The newspaper interviewed former Navy Seal, Steve Robinson, who says he receives 20 to 50 inquiries a day in his job exposing false claims.
The Times quotes Robinson as estimating there are 300 impostors for every real Navy SEAL, "and he believes the number is growing."
Also interviewed was a POW Network founding member, Mary Schantag, who said the Network has a list of 3,600 phonies and claims the problem is "epidemic".
The article attributes the trend to "a culture of super heroes and the glory of war", and to people who "want it Wal-Mart cheap and McDonald's quick."
Stories often told by phonies include military battles where there are no other survivors; claims of lost paperwork; or claims that details of their stories are classified.
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