Stolen Valor Team Media Coverage
- Stolen Valor Act of 2013 signed into Law
- Obama Signs Stolen Valor Act Into Law
- May 26, 2013
- Fort Worth police say 'Colonel Mike' created an elaborate ruse about a military career
"FORT WORTH - When Brig. Gen. G.B. McDowell passed away on Veterans Day 2011 near Seattle, condolences in an online guest book lifted up his son, Col. Michael Douglas McDowell.
Top military officers, like now-retired Maj. Gen. J.T. Furlow, wrote that it was a pleasure to have known Michael McDowell's father and to have served with Michael McDowell throughout the years.
But the legacy, it turns out, was a lie.
McDowell, 57, has never been in the military. Neither had his father — actually an Irving evangelist who died in 1985 while leading a revival in California.
The comments from top military officers were fake; investigators believe they were written by McDowell to go along with the phony obituary that he'd created for his father."
- August 25, 2011
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Navy SEAL Claims Questioned
"A man profiled in last week's edition of the Crestline Courier-News as a 31-year veteran of U.S. Navy SEAL Team 6 is apparently not who he claimed to be, a subsequent investigation has determined.
Numerous phone calls, e-mails and blogs on the newspaper's website challenged the tale told by a man identified in the story as Carl, who claimed to have been until 2010 the commanding officer of the elite SEAL team credited with killing Osama bin Laden last May.
...According to a story broadcast last May by the CBS-TV affiliate in San Diego, former SEAL Capt. Larry Bailey and other decorated veterans have co-founded a website, Stolen.Valor.com, which had reportedly exposed about 35,000 fake Navy SEALs as of that date."
- August 19, 2011
- High Court asked to uphold military impostor law
DENVER (AP) — The Department of Justice has asked the Supreme Court to uphold a law making it illegal to lie about being a war hero.
Government lawyers formally filed an appeal late Thursday. The move was expected.
The law has been challenged in California and Colorado.
In California, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the law violated the First Amendment. That's the ruling the government appealed to the Supreme Court.
The 10th Circuit in Denver is also reviewing the law after a lower court ruled it was unconstitutional for the same reason. The 10th hasn't issued a ruling.
The law makes it a crime to falsely claim to have received a military medal. Conviction carries a sentence of up to a year in jail.
- July 1, 2011
- Fraud Hunters Unmask Military Imposters
Most wearing uniforms on July 4th have served honorably, but not all
"... One of the most determined military fraud hunters is Larry Bailey of Mount Vernon, Virginia. He is a retired Navy captain and SEAL. That's the same elite Navy parachute and demolitions unit that swooped down and killed al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in May.
Over several years, Bailey, who regretfully concludes that military fakery is rampant, has exposed a rogues’ gallery of military masqueraders that has included corporate executives and members of Congress.
- June 14, 2011
- Operation Freedom: AUDIO - B.G. Burkett interview with Dave Janda
Dave Janda website
- June 5, 2011
- Operation Freedom: AUDIO - Capt. Larry Bailey interview with Dave Janda
- June 2, 2011
- NBC Los Angeles - Jug Burkett interview
- May 16, 2011
- CBS 8 San Diego, CA
Navy SEALs fight a growing enemy: impersonators
- Washington Times
- Sleuths expose men who pretend to be SEALs
Excerpts/Reprints:
CBS 8 San Diego - Navy SEALs fight a growing enemy: impersonators
Guns.com - Phonies can fun but can't hide
KPBS San Diego - Navy SEAL impersonators on the rise
Star Tribune (MN) - Stolen valor: When it comes to Navy SEALs, the impostors may outnumber the real thing
WAVY TV 10 (VA) - Navy SEAL impostors popping up
Concerned Journalists - Spooting a phony war hero or POW
ABC International (Spain) - Impostors Navy SEALs
New Haven Register - SEAL sleuths expose those who fake service​