I knew there had been pretenders to the “throne” of being a veteran, I had heard about it in terms of people representing themselves as veterans for benefits they had not earned and did not deserve.  I was amazed today to read that there are other reasons.

Obviously, many who are legitimately veterans occasionally embellish their careers to sound more interesting.  It is nicer to present as a big bad warrior than a truck driver or clerk.  And some of that might be generally harmless, but when you have someone who is very much “none of the above” who talks to school groups, persuades kids to enlist on the basis of bullshit, then it does need to be called.  And thank goodness, there are veterans dedicated to doing just that…. you can read about them elsewhere, of course. (http://tinyurl.com/6rndls )

There is something called the Stolen Valor Act of 2005 now, how sad that there must be something so official to rein in lies that harm the real people.

For the record, I was not a hero in any war.  I was a all too typical “Cold War” type of soldier—I was a linguist/analyst who served in Berlin, Germany.  I met my husband there; he had done more heroic things.  He is a Viet Nam vet who served for a while with the 101st in Viet Nam, but he also was an intel sort and did that in Germany and then stateside for two different Special Forces units.   He was a “candy bar” SF person, not an A-team guy.

He was  and is plenty of hero for me, neither of us needs to lie about our service.  I knew enough of the real heroes and the families that loved them that I could count my blessings that heroism of that level was never required of my home crew!  Heroism is costly, and the fantasy-spinners don’t have what it takes.  All you phony-assed liars out there?  Well, kiss this!