Jesse Macbeth
He became somewhat of an internet sensation when PepperSpray Productions uploaded the video of former Army Ranger Jesse Macbeth, who had apparently served on a 16 month deployment to Iraq with the U.S. Army Rangers, 3rd Ranger Battalion. He said that he was stabbed multiple times, took shrapnel to his leg and was shot in the back. He claimed to have earned a Purple Heart.
Macbeth claimed that they were told to “strike fear into the heart of the Iraqis” during an official Ranger debriefing (that they somehow received before a deployment). He claims that they were encouraged to “do whatever it takes” to those means, perpetuating his agenda with the Iraq Veterans Against the War movement. He speaks of executions of men, women and children.
PepperSpray Productions retracted the video later, issuing an apology. The reporter who created the video said he had no idea — a clear example of the dangers of men and women who falsely claim military service. After all, how would the average person know better? Small media groups don’t have the resources to look up the service records of random individuals off the street, but their videos now have the potential to go viral. When an alleged combat-wounded veteran has his voice heard in a political sphere, this can have a real effect on the American populace.
Oh and in reality, Jesse Macbeth was in the Army for 44 days and was dismissed having failed basic training.
Robert A. Livingston
Lakeland, Minnesota is a small town with a population of approximately 1,800 people. Their former mayor, Robert Livingston, had run his campaign on the foundation of his “military service as a field grade officer.”
Livingston makes the list, not just because he ran a successful campaign and became the mayor of the small town. He actually forged multiple documents, to include his DD-214, went to the VA, and began to collect his benefits. In total, he is reported to have taken $110, 566.21 in medical care from the VA, and $27,198.66 in tax-free disability.
This is an astute reminder that the these lies can and often do escape the public’s eye. “There’s no way he’d actually have the audacity to lie about that, they would’ve found out by now” is apparently an invalid excuse, as Livingston made it all the way through his (albeit small) political career and navigated the inner workings of the VA under the banner of this successful lie. It also serves as proof to the real, financial damage it can cause. That money doesn’t come from an infinite pool of cash somewhere in the clouds, it’s real money meant for real veterans who earned it.
Brian Dennehy
This successful actor has actually earned several legitimate accolades, to include a Golden Globe, two Tony Awards and he has been nominated for Emmy Awards six times. Dennehy played in movies like the first Rambo “First Blood,” and “Romeo + Juliet, and TV Shows like “The West Wing,” “The 4400,” “The Blacklist” and “30 Rock.”
He served in the United States Marine Corps from 1958 to 1963 in Okinawa. Wondering why you haven’t heard him listed in the articles favoring veterans in Hollywood? Probably because he lied about his service, claiming to have experienced horrifying combat in Vietnam, when in fact, he never set foot in Vietnam — not as a Marine anyway. Later, he publicly admitted to his deceit and apologized:
I lied about serving in Vietnam and I’m sorry. I did not mean to take away from the actions and the sacrifices of the ones who did really serve there … I did steal valor. That was very wrong of me. There is no real excuse for that. I was a peace-time Marine, and I got out in 1963 without ever serving in Vietnam … I started the story that I had been in ‘Nam, and I got stuck with it. Then I didn’t know how to set the record straight.”
This seems to be the alternate story for those who steal valor — not the Idema-lifestyle where lies could be uncovered around every corner, but the more regular people who perhaps exaggerate their stories minutely, then finds themselves treading water and telling more lies to cover the first.
This often happens with veterans telling war or military stories, and “leaving out” certain truths, like letting someone assume they deployed or assume they were in firefights just because they were overseas. That lie can easily develop into small exaggerations or false tidbits, but no outright lies. That continues to evolve until you have lie piled on top of lie — and they’re treading water.
And like many towers built of lies, it all eventually comes crashing down on their heads.
Featured image courtesy of YouTube.
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