Why has no legal action been taken to date?

Dear POW Network,

Please pass this supplemental note to Mr.      xxxx xxxxxx.

Sir,

Grab a cup of coffee… the answers to your questions will require a bit of reading. Your questions regarding military imposters (SEAL imposters in specific) are both logical and obvious, and we have asked those same questions ourselves… many times. In gathering basic statistics while answering such queries as yours, I came to a conclusion much like yours. [A quick caveat – my simplistic and very unscientific statistics as explained in the following paragraphs relate solely to my own personal experiences.

In January 2002 the group of ‘authenticators’ I worked with were given 1182 unique names to check against the SEAL database. There were more inquiries than that, but I didn’t count duplicate names being investigated. Of that total number only THREE (3) men’s names were legitimate and listed in the SEAL database. The simple statistics were derived by subtracting those three from the larger group, then dividing the greater number (imposters) by the smaller number (real SEALs). The result is that during the month of January 2002 we encountered 393 SEAL IMPOSTERS for every real Navy SEAL.

While this figure is startling in itself, the context must also be understood; this occurred during January 2002, only three months after the first US forces went into Afghanistan in the aftermath of the 11 Sep 2001 terrorist attacks against our homeland. There was heightened public awareness associated with the international political scene, and the media was swamping the airwaves, Internet, and printed news with stories about American military forces and their initial successes against Al Qaida and the Taliban. Since the first US forces to move “over the line” into enemy territory are/were Special Operations Forces, those units figured prominently in the news stories.

Whenever public attention is brought to focus on “heroic” individuals, and publicly-expressed admiration for such ‘heroic’ individuals, there are always a number of persons within our society who have fantasized of filling such a role, and of receiving such public admiration. Ultimately a portion of that number of dreamers will step over the line and begin offering false claims of actually having been in such a role. They draw upon those news stories and the ‘action-adventure’ depictions in TV shows and Hollywood movies in creating their own fantasy combat scenarios. Pulp fiction books in related genres provide additional ‘detail’. Even the most inept imposter will find many civilians who are, themselves, so desperate to “know” one of these ‘heroes’, that they will eschew all critical thinking and blindly accept the fantasy tales as bona fide accounts of actual combat actions.

There can be little argument that public acclaim and admiration can be very addictive; one need only look at the role played by ‘celebrities’ in our social culture. Success in pulling off a military charade will almost invariably lead to an acceleration of effort. Details are researched and then added to the fantasy combat stories. Elements from actual news events are rolled into the mix. And whenever the masquerader is questioned by someone who is not totally devoid of critical thinking, the storyteller falls back on claims of those questioned details being officially considered ‘sensitive’ or ‘classified’… and thus unavailable for comment or verification. The ranks of imposters thin slightly as the work required to stay current and believable increases. Those who have declined to go the extra distance and make the extra effort continue to offer their false claims, but are more likely to be exposed under casual social questioning than those who have spent the time to refine, ‘trim’ and ‘glaze’ their fantasy stories. A surprising number of those who have created their ‘refined’ fantasy stories of military derring-do to include falsified government documents have taken their charade one step further and actually applied for VA benefits such as pension, medical, and schooling/retraining.

In the months and years since January 2002 when those initial unscientific statistics were gathered, the numbers have remained fairly consistent; rising and falling with the public acclaim for ‘heroics’. The general average seems to fall in the range of 320-350 SEAL imposters for every real Navy SEAL. There are currently about 2,200 Navy SEALs serving in uniform on active duty (that number includes reservists who have been recalled to active duty). If the statistical ratios are then applied, it would seem likely that there are close to 1,000,000 SEAL imposters running around in our society, offering their fantasy claims of combat heroics and ‘secret missions’.

If similar statistical ratios are applied to persons who are falsely claiming to have credentials or experience working for the US Army Special Forces (“Green Beret”), working as Scout Snipers in the Army or the US Marine Corps, working as US Army Rangers, working as US Army Operational Detachment DELTA, etc, then you can clearly begin to understand the truly monstrous magnitude of the problem.

With only a small fraction of our nation’s population serving in uniform (only about 1,100,000 at the present time), the rest of the population has a negligible understanding of current military technology, tactics, and specific unit assignments aside from what they see on TV on the evening news shows. The ability for that greater portion of the population to differentiate between the real veteran of current/past military operations and those who offer highly detailed false claims is likewise negligible.

The laws of our land are heavily directed to maintaining privacy, protecting personal identity, and hiding personal details from those who might misuse them. While there is a growing need to be able to verify claims and credentials, there is a decreasing ability for the average person to accomplish such a task. There have been propositions for publicly-viewable lists or databases to cover the topic of special military units, and military service of various sorts. Currently there is a legislative effort underway to create a database related to military VALOR AWARDS. These proposals have always encountered heated opposition, and that opposition continues even at the present moment.

Existing laws (Title 18 US Code) were originally intended to cover the unauthorized wearing of military uniforms, badges, patches, medals, ribbons, and the like. The small fraction of the population which were known or suspected to be violating those laws seemed to warrant only minimal punitive actions – minimal fines and jail time. The imposters found a way around those restrictions by the simple expedient of not WEARING the garb or the awards, but framing and displaying them instead. Those laws were amended to impose tighter restrictions, added stipulations against making false VERBAL claims, and added greater penalties. However, despite the laws being stiffened and expanded, no additional funds were designated for their enforcement. The stipulations of those amended laws are still rather easily circumvented by persons engaging in military charades, and federal law enforcement personnel are overwhelmed by the number of cases which they must pursue with their unchanged funding base.

Please accept my deepest apologies for taking so long to reach the answers to the questions you asked in your short two-sentence note; I do hope that you will ultimately understand why I did so. You asked…

(1) “If he has been doing this since 2001 why has no legal action been taken to date?”

(2) “…is anyone doing anything to stop this insult?”

The answers are…

(1) The laws of the land are so insufficiently detailed and so hugely under-funded as to severely restrict the abilities of designated and empowered law enforcement organizations to address the problem. Arguments and misunderstanding over which organizations or what levels of authority have responsibility and jurisdiction have only added to the problem.

(2) Unofficial ‘watchdog’ organizations such as the POW Network, the AuthentiSEALs, the VeriSEALs, and many others have been spontaneously created by concerned citizens in an effort to “DO SOMETHING” to solve what they see as a rapidly growing problem. While many of those organizations have become highly adept at accurately identifying and ‘outing’ such imposters, those organizations are not designated or empowered to enforce the laws of our land. If such a group turns over a case to the federal authorities for potential prosecution, it is only added to the growing pile which must be formally examined, investigated, and ultimately evaluated using the complicated criteria imposed by the existing bureaucracy and the limited funding available.  Additionally, being considered by some members of society as a ‘watchdog organization’ with the best of intentions and attempting to make a positive contribution to reaching a resolution to the problem, is also to be considered by another portion of society as a ‘vigilante organization’ with questionable methodologies, and pursuing a hidden agenda with hidden motivations.

We do the best we can under very difficult situations, by providing as much accurate information as we can to as many people as we can. When asked “how” or “why”, we do the best we can to explain the “need” which we have perceived, and to explain our personal dedication to the tasks. We all look forward with great anticipation to the day when we may ‘stand down’ and allow federal, state, and local law enforcement authorities to step in and enforce laws which clearly detail military charades and stipulate penalties which strongly deter such practices. I personally cannot recall a day in the last decade when I sat back with a morning cup of coffee and didn’t wonder how many military imposter inquires awaited me when I turned on my computer. Until that day arrives when the laws are distinctly and clearly written, until those laws are given ‘teeth’ sufficient to discourage the majority of those considering a military masquerade, and until law enforcement is sufficiently aggressive as to apprehend, prosecute, and incarcerate those few who do perpetrate military charades, we will continue to do our best in dealing with this rapidly-growing problem.

Respectfully,