Due Diligence: failed US navy man used fake army ID

There's an old joke: "my mother made me a homosexual." Response: "If I give her the wool, will she make me one?"

Joe Baca of Cabazon, California, wanted something made. He wanted a history that was the mirror image of his military career: he wanted to be a distinguished serviceman.

For Baca, it all fell apart when he was stopped by police and asked to produce his identity. When stopped, he was wearing an Army uniform with several medals and handed over an Army Identification document.

The identification was fake, the uniform and medals were not but he was not entitled to wear them.

Among the medals were the Silver Star and the Purple Heart, both high honours in the US military.

Baca was convicted of possession of false military identification. He was sentenced to the maximum of six months' jail plus three years probation. The severity of the sentence may reflect the aggravating circumstances.

Or not. Because Baca is not the only one claiming honours to which he is not entitled.

In 2006, the USA (with its propensity to create emotionally charged names for legislation) passed The Stolen Valor (sic) Act. But in August this year Xavier Alvarez, a fake soldier in California, won a case in the Federal Appeals Court arguing that the Stolen Valour Act was unconstitutional and breached the right to free speech.

But the Act hadn't stopped Raymond John Gauthier who has made a career in Florida out of conning people out of money by pretending to be an injured and honoured soldier: he, too, wore an unwarranted Purple Heart and he, too, was booted out of the forces (in his case the Army) for being unsuitable.He has a real uniform now: an orange overall issued by the prison.

John Galino was a mail clerk on the USS Sperry. Now 60, he has claimed benefits on the basis of the post-traumatic stress disorder he suffered as a result of his service in Vietnam where he undertook dangerous and distressing missions and activities. Except he didn't. Nor was he injured by enemy fire (or friendly fire, for that matter) in a village because he wasn't there. In particular, he had never been a Navy SEAL and had not been awarded the Purple Heart.

Are we sensing a pattern?

The Purple Heart is awarded to those who are injured or killed on active service. So there are a lot of them around and many are sold in the open market.

The problem is not confined to low level con men. Richard Blumenthal, the USA's Attorney General, has often mentioned his service in Vietnam. The New York Times has produced a list of his claims. They include, in 2008, "We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam."

What he has not learned is that there are no transient comments any more and that statements can come back to bite one on the bum. The NYT quotes several more instances where Blumenthal refers, directly or obliquely, to his Vietnam service. That would be fine - if he had ever served there. He did not. Indeed, somewhat like George W Bush, Blumenthal somehow managed to avoid being sent ther. The NYT says "he received five deferments that allowed him to avoid the war and, among other things, travel abroad to study and work in the White House. He joined the Marine Corps Reserve, a place considered a haven from the war, in early 1970, when deferments had come under review by the Nixon administration."

Rick Duncan, an activist for "veterans' rights" and a decorated marine who was at the Pentagon on 11 September 2001 and later injured in Iraq. Except that he was small-time con-man from Montana and his real name was Richard Glen Strandlof.

In addition to real medals used in fake situations, there are also fake medals: some have turned up on eBay, much to the website's chagrin.