Library of Congress’ Web site holds 24 bogus valor claims

[CommunityEditor]

The Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project, which for the past seven years has been collecting oral and written histories of veterans’ war experiences, contains 24 entries for Medal of Honor recipients that are bogus, according to official records.

Of the 49 purported recipients of the nation’s highest award for combat valor who have participated in the nationwide project by telling their story for posterity, only 25 appear on the official Medal of Honor registry mandated by Congress in 1916, which includes 3,463 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who have earned the medal since its inception.

The bogus entries came to light based on a review of Veterans History Project records by Doug Sterner, who maintains an extensive, yet unofficial, online database of valor award recipients, and Mary Schantag, who runs the POW Network, a Web site listing U.S. prisoners of war.

Their review also turned up 47 history project participants who appear to claim unearned service crosses — the nation’s second-highest combat award — and 45 participants who falsely claim to have been prisoners of war.

Bob Patrick, director of the Veterans History Project, said the records are provided by interview subjects voluntarily, and project staff rarely verifies Medal of Honor claims. They do not review entries involving lesser awards for valor or service.

Based on a list compiled by Sterner and Schantag and provided to Marine Corps Times on Monday morning, the project’s Web site included 32 unsubstantiated Distinguished Service Cross claims and 14 for the Navy Cross. It also includes the profile of Wallace M. Gallant, who was listed as of Monday morning as a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the Air Force Cross and the other two service crosses. No service member has ever earned all three service crosses.

Patrick was hesitant to classify the interview subjects as frauds, and held open the possibility that there were clerical errors along the way.

As of Monday afternoon, it was unclear whether any of the subjects could be prosecuted under the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, in which false verbal, written and physical claims to unearned military awards carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $10,000 fine.

But he added that there’s only so far that the project can dig on its own. Verifying the reported awards of “roughly 50,000” veterans who have participated in the project since it was created by Congress in 2000 is “not feasible,” given the breadth of information that would have to be reviewed and the lack of a national database for recipients of awards other than the Medal of Honor, Patrick said.

Instead, the Veterans History Project relies on the public to point out false information and makes “a good-faith effort” to “strike that from the individual’s record” when it is discovered, Patrick said.

Sterner said this case exposes the problem with records relating to valor awards: The government does not maintain a central database of award recipients that, if made available to the public, could easily disprove false claims of valor nationwide.

Sterner also applauded the project’s goals, adding that “the worst thing we can do because of this problem is kill the messenger” and places the onus on Congress to establish a searchable database that would have prevented this problem.

Several lawmakers who were recently contacted by Marine Corps Times expressed their support for the establishment of the database and hearings to discuss it, but none has yet scheduled a hearing nor drafted legislation.


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/20...roject_070917/

It is astounding that the U.S. military does not keep a database of military awards. Even though it will require a great effort to put such a database in place, it should be done.

Thanks to Doug and Pam Sterner for their work in honoring those who have and are serving.

[CommunityEditor]

Update: Support builds for military awards database (http://www.militarytimes.com/news/20...abase_070928w/)


If the Defense Department kept a national, publicly accessible database of military awards recipients, it would be harder for phony heroes to claim unearned awards and easier for law enforcement officials to identify and prosecute those who try, lawmakers have said over the past three weeks.

In response to growing concern over the nation’s military award imposter pandemic following revelations that the Library of Congress’ Web site for the Veterans History Project lists hundreds of unsubstantiated war stories, two lawmakers — both veterans — sent a “dear colleague” letter throughout the House of Representatives on Sept. 28 asking members to co-sponsor a bill that would make the database a reality.