Our age sees much fraud being committed at the civilian level, given the anonymity and possibility of fakery on the internet. In military service, fraud is often a part of counterintelligence movements that establish propaganda as a destabilization tool.
Often, it is not easy to distinguish between theft and foreign propaganda masquerading as a homegrown movement.
However, what about fraud and impersonation efforts that happen in one’s own backyard? How about fraud committed by your best friend whom you’ve known since elementary? Or a sibling, and perhaps even a son or daughter?
When the line is crossed into family, impersonation and fraud are often dealt with behind closed doors. And the parties involved almost never have a recovery plan or often misidentify what is actually taking place.
Since fraud is common among civilians but not as clear in military circles and against individuals with a valid history of service, one must identify the most common form of fraud in such a case, and that is stolen valor.
Although stolen valor can happen against regular service members, special forces, previously classified forces, and navy combatants often experience the brunt of such theft.
Furthermore, in recent years, the term “stolen valor” has been bandied about to include common theft or even simply lying.
This basic article seeks to then:
- Define what stolen valor, fraud against a military service member, actually is.
- What is not stolen valor based on the above definition?
- Consistent and modern approaches to deal with stolen valor perpetrators.
Let’s therefore define STOLEN VALOR accurately by defining the two words that comprise the term first, then combine the words in a unified definition.
1
STOLEN = Past tense of TO STEAL…
TO STEAL = To take something that is not yours, which may belong to someone else, without permission…
VALOR = Courage attributed to an individual. Typically represented by actions in public and military service.
STOLEN VALOR = To take actions/acts of courage from an individual that has earned them, often sacrificing their lives, and attribute those actions as your own, typically for your own personal and financial gain.
2
What STOLEN VALOR is not:
A. Blatant lies about your own performance in public service.
B. Fraud in forging your own records of service with false information, not identifying another member.
C. Lying about your association with other units of service other than your own.
D. Spreading lies about yourself outside the context of your service or any performance related to your service.
3
Dealing with individuals that have committed stolen valor implies:
i. Calling out their impersonation publicly.
ii. Making them face their fraud before involving the law.
iii. Making them recount through conversation the details of their lies.
iv. Recycling them back into the system by making the simple suggestion: “You may not serve in the SF anymore, on account of your age, but I am sure we can find you something to do.”
Typically most fraudsters are past service age, but converting them from liars to assets would be the most strategically smart move for all parties involved. Unless they have impersonated a posthumous MOH, Silver Star, or any seriously wounded service member.
This next article describes rehabilitation and recovery within Praesidium’s autonomous system in more depth.
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