Cracking down on military imitators

The legislation was largely inspired by a YouTube video.

In it, a heavyset man masquerading as a member of the elite Army Rangers was seen shopping at the Oxford Valley Mall in Langhorne last fall when he was called out by an Afghanistan veteran.

The impostor wore a Combat Infantryman Badge with two stars, indicating the unlikely feat - for his age - of having served in three wars. He also displayed a U.S. flag patch on the wrong part of the sleeve. And his answers to questions seemed confused.

"Stolen valor!" the vet shouted angrily. "Right here, stolen valor!"

Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo (D., Atlantic) watched the viral video, noticed a growing number of similar online confrontations, and introduced legislation to crack down on military impersonators.

The New Jersey Stolen Valor Act, which passed the Assembly in March and awaits Senate action, would impose a mandatory fine of $1,000 and possible prison time on anyone falsely claiming to have served and received decorations or medals in order to obtain money, property, or other benefits.

The fines would be placed in the Military Dependents Scholarship Fund, which would be established by separate Mazzeo legislation approved by the General Assembly in July and also pending in the Senate.

The impersonations "demean those who have served in the military and those who have sacrificed and lost their lives in defense of our nation," Mazzeo said. "It's disgraceful."

Federal law - the Stolen Valor Act of 2013 - already prohibits misrepresentation as a current or former service member and recipient of decorations or medals such as the Medal of Honor, Navy Cross, Purple Heart, or combat badge "with intent to obtain money, property, or other tangible benefit."

The act, which also imposes fines and prison of six months to a year, doesn't make lying about service a crime, and instead focuses on profiting from misrepresentation. An earlier version of the law was rejected by the Supreme Court as an infringement on free speech.

But few if any prosecutions have been pursued under the federal law, so states have been stepping in to discourage impostors.

"While we need Congress to sit down and pass legislation that can pass Supreme Court muster, I'm all for states' getting involved," said Doug Sterner, a Vietnam veteran who pushed for the federal Stolen Valor Act and who is curator of the Military Times Hall of Valor (valor.militarytimes.com), an online database providing information on service members who legitimately received honors.

"We need states to pass their enhanced versions because they have broader reach than the federal law and can be prosecuted on a state level," said Sterner, 65, of Pueblo, Colo., who is also author of HomeofHeroes.com, a website that tells the stories of "legitimate heroes." "I like what New Jersey is doing."

Some level of state stolen valor law now exists in about a dozen states, including California, where enforcement is directed at panhandlers who pretend to be veterans while soliciting donations.

"There's almost a vigilante atmosphere with veterans going after the fakers," Sterner said. "The government isn't going after them, so the veterans community is policing its own.

"It can be real nasty and lead to serious problems," he said. "A real veteran can get trashed."

New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island are among the latest to address the impostor issue.

In Pennsylvania, the Senate this month passed Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams' bill, which is similar to the federal law, and which was sent to the House for consideration. Violators can receive up to a year in prison and a fine of $2,500.

"Throughout the United States, we have watched as men and women walk around professing to be the heroes they are not," Williams said in a statement. "Not only are the people who do this lying, they are hurting soldiers and veterans who risked it all to protect our freedoms."

The problem "is definitely widespread and gets worse on a daily basis," said Army Staff Sgt. Anthony Anderson, an Afghanistan veteran who outs fakers on his website GuardianofValor.com and on his Guardian of Valor Facebook page. "I get 100 to 200 new inquiries every week.

"Right now, I have 2,000 unread messages on the website and 5,000 on Facebook," he said. "We can't keep up with them; it's impossible."

Anderson, an infantryman who "ran missions every day" in 2009 and 2010 in Afghanistan, volunteers his time along with a retired Army veteran to update the website and Facebook page.

"I'm thinking about hiring people," said Anderson, 36, of Columbia, S.C. "We don't charge for investigations.

"Some of them can take six months," he said. "If I'm not 110 percent sure, we won't post the case. I've never called out a real veteran."

In New Jersey - where former Atlantic City Mayor Bob Levy admitted lying in 2006 about serving in the U.S. Special Forces and receiving a Combat Infantryman Badge and pleading guilty in 2007 to defrauding the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs of benefits - the new stolen valor legislation is seen as overdue.

"Every soldier earns each and every stripe or promotion with hard work and dedication to their country," said New Jersey Assemblyman Bob Andrzejczak (D., Cape May), an Iraq War veteran who cosponsored the stolen valor bill with Mazzeo. "To impersonate a veteran and benefit from the service and sacrifice of real military men and women is disgraceful. It deserves punishment to the fullest extent of the law."