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Marine veterans group urged to purge fakers

The Marine Corps Association is ignoring fraudulent veterans in its ranks, say a growing number of critics disgusted with the organization for publishing a membership directory listing dozens of unearned military decorations.

The criticism follows the association’s response to learning that at least 40 profiles printed in the 2009 Marine Corps Association Membership Directory had false or fraudulent medals listed, including 16 Medals of Honor and 16 Navy Crosses. The National Personnel Records Center, which maintains former service members’ paperwork, also had no record of at least five people listed in the directory ever serving a day in the military.

Tom Esslinger, MCA’s chief operating officer, said no members have been expelled from the organization, including Donald Laisure Sr., 80, a former private who admitted to Marine Corps Times that he pretended to be a retired four-star general with a Navy Cross and Silver Star.

MCA, a nonprofit with about 80,000 members, is considering what to do with Laisure. Any decision the association makes must be approved by its board of directors, which isn’t scheduled to meet until December, Esslinger said.

MCA posted a one-page addendum to the directory on its Web site after the problems were outlined in the July 6 issue of Marine Corps Times. The addendum includes corrected information for all 40 profiles originally called into question by retired Lt. Col. Thomas Richards, a Navy Cross recipient and MCA member.

Richards first discovered irregularities in the directory while looking for individuals eligible to join the Legion of Valor, an organization for Medal of Honor and service cross recipients.

MCA officials said many of the incorrect profiles were not the result of individuals lying about their military records, but because of errors by Harris Connect, a publisher contracted to collect information for the directory. Harris officials acknowledged the company’s mistakes, but critics say MCA needs to launch a full investigation of its membership, starting with those who claim high-level military decorations and service as a general officer, which are relatively easy to verify.

“You have to police your own,” said retired Col. Len Hayes, executive director of the 1st Marine Division Association, a separate nonprofit with about 11,000 members. “Once a guy emerges as a phony, it’s just inconceivable that they don’t purge him from their association.”

Hayes said that after he read about the mistakes Harris made, the 1st MarDiv Association launched an investigation of its own membership directory, published by Harris last year. The group is in the process of verifying members who claim to be retired generals or recipients of the Medal of Honor and Navy Cross, but has not found any discrepancies.

Last year, the 1st MarDiv Association demanded that two members resign or defend their military record after their claims raised the eyebrows of the association’s leaders, Hayes said. One of them, a former corporal, first said he was a retired captain, but shifted his story to say he was a retired lieutenant colonel. The second one, a former private first class who served in Korea, said he was a retired colonel who earned a Navy Cross as an F-4 pilot in Vietnam.

“We sent them a letter telling them to appear before our directors to show cause on why they shouldn’t be thrown out, or to resign,” Hayes said. “Both elected to resign, and we notified a FBI agent in L.A. about them. That’s what the Marine Corps Association should do.”

Richards, an MCA member for 30 years, said he still believes MCA does a lot of good work, but thinks its leaders are trying to weather the bad publicity without making serious, time-consuming changes.

“They haven’t demonstrated that they take it as seriously as their statements suggest they are,” he said. “I’m a longstanding member of the Marine Corps Association, but I think they’ve gone astray on this one, relative to their mission, vision and values.”