Sunday, April 15, 2001
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| By CARL MANNING The Associated Press LEAVENWORTH -- Roger Donlon remembers the California air show he attended in the 1980s when the lie smacked him square in the face. He was standing with a half dozen fellow Medal of Honor recipients when a man came up to Donlon and started talking about how a relative was the first soldier to receive the Medal of Honor in Vietnam. Those listening knew he was wrong -- Donlon in 1964 received the first Medal of Honor from the Vietnam War and they all knew it. All except for the man chatting away. "A little hush came over the group and they all looked at me," recalled Donlon, 67. "I didn't confront him, but told the commander of the American Legion and that took care of that." It isn't the first time Donlon has heard of people falsely claiming to have earned the nation's highest military award presented to 3,436 individuals since 1862. Another Medal of Honor recipient in Leavenworth, Charles Hagemeister, also has his share of stories about what many of the 150 recipients still alive simply call "impostors." Like all Medal of Honor recipients, the men share an unofficial mission -- reporting those impostors to the FBI or confronting them in person. Hagemeister, decorated for heroism in Vietnam in 1967, recalled attending the festivities in New York City honoring troops returning from 1991 Persian Gulf War when he and other recipients saw a man with long hair, partial military uniform and wearing the Medal of Honor. "We know each other and he wasn't one of us. We told someone and the next thing, the police were whisking him off," Hagemeister, 55, said. Sometimes people simply claim to be heroes when they aren't. Others actually possess a Medal of Honor they didn't earn yet still claim as theirs. "They're a disgrace to themselves. They dishonor any recipient," Donlon said. "When somebody dishonors it, it hurts right to the heart, but I don't believe in revenge or hatred." Hagemeister said, "I feel sorry for some of them, to try to live that kind of lie." Donlon and Hagemeister said a major turning point came when the federal law was beefed up after a company that makes the Medal of Honor for the government admitted to illegally making and selling 300 of them from 1991-94. FBI special agent Thomas A. Cottone Jr., who goes after those with illegal military decorations, said the number is greater. It is against federal law to wear a military award that isn't earned. "That is what they admitted to in court. I know they sold more than that," said Cottone, who works in the FBI's West Paterson, N.J., office. He said reports from the Medal of Honor recipients, including Donlon, makes his job easier. "Every one of them has been a help. We are trying to do the same thing. We all are trying to protect the dignity of the medal and all military awards," Cottone said. Cottone estimated about 50 illegal Medals of Honor have been recovered over the years. He said the FBI has investigated about 80 reports of impostors and about 10 have been prosecuted. "Everyone who the FBI has confronted has admitted they were not a legitimate recipient, and based on the circumstances some of those were prosecuted," Cottone said. Donlon and Hagemeister, both retired Army officers, know each other and sometimes they compare notes on impostors. But they aren't mounting an offensive to ferret them out. Often the information comes to them. Maybe somebody will mention to them someone who says they received the Medal of Honor, or maybe they will receive a newspaper clipping where such a claim was made. "We don't form mobs and chase them down. We just deal with it ourselves and if you need to call the FBI, you do," Hagemeister said. "When the FBI comes to your house, it's not a good thing." Donlon estimates he has found about a dozen impostors over three decades; Hagemeister puts his count between 10 and 15. "If someone just claims it, the direct confrontation works," Hagemeister said. "They just disappear into the woodwork. All you can do is expose them." Phony heroes have been around as long as wars, and one way to spot an impostor is to listen to their exaggerated exploits. Real heroes, Cottone says, don't brag. "They are the most humble guys you would ever want to meet," Cottone said. As a Special Forces captain, Donlon led the defense of a camp during a five-hour pre-dawn attack by a Viet Cong battalion. Wounded four times, Donlon directed his men and the fight and prevented the enemy from overrunning the camp. Of his heroism, Hagemeister said, "I was the guy who moved around taking ammo to people and taking care of the wounded." When his platoon was ambushed on three sides, Hagemeister, a medic, raced through gunfire to aid the wounded, shot a sniper and three other enemy soldiers and knocked out a machine gun. He then dashed to get help from a nearby platoon and returned to help the wounded. |
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