IMHO, Serving in the military should be enough

Sad state of affairs when a Marine feels he needs to lie to get respect

There was an ex-marine on another forum, any time any military related topic came up he would cite his expertise and insight as a combat vet who had been through it all in Vietnam.
Unfortunately for him in an earlier "who here served" topic he had mentioned his unit and his specific job. His job was office based and his unit was in Okinawa.
It just reminded me of him when I read this bit......

spent nearly all of the next six years with a radio communications unit in Okinawa, Japan

[Dowly]

What a douche.

[Shearwater]

"The real guys typically don’t talk about it."

To me that sums it all up.

Their very prevalence exposes something else — a nation so eager to embrace its war fighters, especially the wounded, that it sometimes fails to discern between the real heroes and the fakes.

True enough. There has been such an inflation in the use of the word 'hero' that in my view it has practically lost all its value.
I just find it gross that he went so far as to fake post-traumatic stress disorder. It ridicules the people who really suffer from it.

[ETR3(SS)]

Here's to hoping he gets all 31 1/2 years and his justly deserved DD!

[Jimbuna]

How embarrassing

To be honest I don't know which is worse, the military with it's medals, pomp and posturing or the crooks who swindle people with the whole deal. IMHO it's a pretty tragi-comic situation.

I'm sure that guy will be crucified for what he did in some shady court-martial and when that happens there won't be any media covering it.

[UnderseaLcpl]

And it gets worse....

On a sultry day in July 2008, Marine Sgt. David W. Budwah strode in his battle fatigues to the front of a picnic pavilion

Cammies in public!? That's a no-no in the Marines.

There's actually quite a bit of this kind of stuff that goes on, though. Not on this scale, of course. I don't think I know a single marine who would be caught dead falsifying a war record (or at least I hope I don't), but a lot of people fudge medals and the like when they think they can get away with it.
Case-in-point, if you ever attend a Marine Corps Ball you'll notice that virtually everyone has a "rifle expert" badge. I guaran-freaking-tee you that probably less than half of them are actually rifle experts, and most of those are just marksmen (the lowest shooting badge you can attain). Nobody wants to wear the pizza-box to the ball, though. There are girls there.

Another one you'll see a lot of is the combat action ribbon, or CAR. Everybody wants a CAR, but not a lot of people get the chance to earn one in the Marines. To recieve it, you have to recieve and return fire. Mortars don't count. IEDs don't count. Rockets don't count.
Considering how few Marines are ever on actual patrol duty (most of them are in support MOSs back at the base), it can be difficult to get into a situation where you can obtain one. Nonetheless, every mf'er at the ball will have one on.

I don't usually get on to them about it, other than some teasing. The way I see it, they'd have one if they'd gotten the chance to earn one, and some of us who earn them didn't do much to get it. Now a purple heart or something would be a different story. Wearing an important medal that you didn't earn is an insult to the men and women that did earn them.