The Price...

Sections from the U.S. Code

Counterfeiting and Forgery

  498. Military or naval discharge certificates
     Whoever forges, counterfeits or falsely alters any certificate of discharge from the military or naval service of the United States, or uses, unlawfully possesses or exhibits any such certificate, knowing such to be forged, counterfeited, or falsely altered, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more that one year or both. 

Emblems, Insignia, and Names

Title 18 United States Code

Sec. 702. Uniform of the armed services and Public Health Service

Whoever, in any place within the jurisdiction of the United States or in the Canal Zone, without authority, wears the uniform, or a distinctive part thereof or anything similar to a distinctive part of the uniform of any of the armed services of the United States, Public Health Service or any auxiliary of such, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

Sec. 704.  Military medals and decorations

(a)  In general - Whoever knowingly wears, manufactures or sells any decoration or medal authorized by Congress for the armed forces of the United States, or any of the service medals or badges awarded to the members of such forces, or the ribbon, button, or rosette of such badge, decoration or medal, or any colorable imitation thereof, except when authorized under regulations made pursuant to law, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

(b)  Congressional Medal of Honor **

(1)  In general - If a decoration or medal involved in an offense under sub-section (a) is a Congressional Medal of Honor, in lieu of the punishment provided in that sub-section, the offender shall be fined under this title, imprisonment not more than one year, or both.

(2)  Definitions - (A) As used in this sub-section (a) with respect to the Congressional Medal of Honor, "sells" includes trades, barters, or exchanges for anything of value.

(B)  As  used in this sub-section, "Congressional Medal of Honor" means a medal awarded under section 2741, 6241, or 8741 of Title 10.

Author's commentary:

Regarding 18 U.S.C. Sec. 702 and 704(a):

18 U.S.C. Sec. 3559(a)(7) provides that an offense having a maximum assessable term of confinement of more than 30 days and less than 6 months is a Class B misdemeanor.

18 U.S.C. Sec. 3571(b)(6) provides that the maximum fine for a Class B misdemeanor not resulting in death is $5,000 per count on which the Defendant is convicted.

Regarding 18 U.S.C. Sec. 704(b):

18 U.S.C. Sec. 3559(a)(6) provides that an offense having a maximum assessable term of confinement of more than six months and less than one year is a Class A misdemeanor.

18 U.S.C. Sec. 3571(b)(5) provides that the maximum fine for a Class A misdemeanor not resulting in death is $100,000 per count on which the Defendant is convicted.

Author's commentary is Copyright 1999, Charles F. Wilkins, III. Permission is hereby given to freely redistribute this document as part of an effort to discover and expose phony "war heroes" or to reduce the illegal trade in United States military medals and decorations provided that copies so reproduced or redistributed carry this copyright notice in its entirety without alteration. Reproduction or redistribution for any other purpose, whether in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Charles F. Wilkins, III, is prohibited. No copyright is asserted in the quoted text of original U.S. government works.

EDITORIAL COMMENT

Gary Lusterman passed away March 22, 2001. Our deepest sympathies to the Lusterman family.
Gary helped us immensely in our fight to identify wannabees and frauds. He will be deeply missed.

From: "Gary Lusterman"
Subject: SF-LIST: Awards and Ribbons
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 01:58:40 EDT

NOTE: The Bunch referred to here is retired MSG Sill Bunch who made numerous fallacious claims to awards, decorations and experience.

With all the flack on the awards position of Sill Bunch I've had cause for reflection on what our "salad bars" were and are.

Civilians see someone in military dress uniform and somehow expect anyone who is senior in rank to have a lot of pretty "things" on his chest. As a youngster, I did, but it took the comment of an ROTC instruction to give me an inkling of what they really meant. He stood in awe of another who wore the badge of a Master Parachutist.

Those "things" we so carefully place, adjust, and readjust on our dress uniforms is the equivalent of a field 201 file for a knowledgeable serviceman. There are badges to denote special qualifications, ribbons denoting overseas service and combat campaigns. There are ribbons denoting awards to units who engaged in exceptional combat service. There are the
ribbons, representing medals denoting distinguished or exceptional service by the individual serviceman and finally, the most prized of all, ribbons (representing medals) denoting bravery and valor in combat. Each had its carefully designated place and position when worn and seldom would one ever consider wearing something that was not rightfully earned and justified.

The Viet Nam era (not just Nam) changed that. I think it started with the National Defense ribbon. The WW's and Korean times were gone and the new soldiers didn't have all the pretty goodies to adorn their uniforms. Therein started the idea of having something to wear.

I remember back at Bragg in the mid-seventies, those of us who had time in 'Nam got tired of being inspected by Officers and even Team Sergeants who didn't have all the nice stuff to wear (and didn't know how things were worn) and started wearing only unit citations, CIB's and jump wings on our class A's. We knew who we were and didn't need these non-combat turkeys telling us (usually wrongly) how to wear our awards and decorations.

I CRS (maybe Kelly) but a new CG took over and mandated that for the next payday formation ALL awards and decorations would be worn. With all the losses that "Group" had taken with the 5th leaving VN and the cat fights for slots at Bragg, it was shocking to see how many of the experienced men had gotten tired of the pinecone details and left for senior leadership
positions in conventional units. His comments which drifted down to the teams afterwards amounted to "there's  your experience; let's use it to build Post-Vietnam Special Forces."

Since there were more men that didn't go to VN than did, the Army had to come up with something for the newbies to wear: didn't look like any new wars in the near future. They gave us "finished basic training" ribbons, NCO School level ribbons, served in peacetime ribbons; can't remember what else. We already had marksmanship badges with shingles for every weapon imaginable as well as hand grenades! What the whole thing did was degrade a
system whose real purpose was to recognize the combat and combat support soldier: the guys that actually fought the battles, got dirty and stank, got hurt and often died. I also think it created the mentality that pretty doodads were more important than real accomplishments.

That kind of mentality shows up with the wannabes who wear unauthorized decorations but worse, shows up in people like that navy captain who really doesn't seem bothered by a man misrepresenting himself as one who genuinely fought for his country.

I personally believe that everyone on this list, and off, who struggles to publicly identify and put down those who dishonor our uniforms by either wearing unearned accoutrements or ALLOWS the wearing of such, are doing a tremendous service to all who really have risked their all for our country.

Keep up the good work!

Lusterman - Maybe designing a ribbon for identifying wannabes - with campaign stars for each one.

~~~

© 2000 "Gary Lusterman" / <http://teamhouse.tni.net>