"Sunrise to sunset, 365 days a year, I've got someone turning in a phony," Schantag said from the Skidmore, Mo., home where she and her spouse founded the POW Network in 1989. "It's a good day for me if I don't have anyone calling, but that hasn't happened in a long time."

Schantag and her Vietnam-veteran husband, Chuck, operates an organization that unmasks frauds who claim to have served in combat in Iraq or Vietnam, Korea or World War II. Some boast of service as Green Berets or Navy SEALs, of covert missions, being tortured as prisoners of war or winning medals they never earned in battles they never fought.

"It's an epidemic," she said. "You've got Iraqi War veterans coming home right now, and a lot of guys just feel inferior. Everybody wants to be the hero they weren't."

Complaints come from across the nation, she said.

Among them was Donald Nicholson, a former chief of police in Amelia, in southwestern Ohio, who claimed to be a member of the Army's Special Forces and a POW during the Vietnam War. Nicholson even purchased a Distinguished Service Cross in 1999 and persuaded a National Guard battalion commander to award it to him.

In 2000, Nicholson was sentenced to three years of probation after he pleaded guilty to "unlawful use of a false military-discharge certificate and unauthorized wearing of military medals and decorations."

Ken Andrews, an outreach coordinator for the Columbus Open Shelter, said his efforts to help the city's homeless frequently bring him into contact with men who fraudulently claim combat service.

"I had a guy recently who said he was a SEAL and a Green Beret at the same time," said Andrews, who is a Navy veteran of Vietnam. "It's kind of like fishing stories. A guy will say, 'I have nothing, and all these guys around me are talking about something proud.'"

Military service, particularly if it involves combat, carries with it a certain cachet. The people who call the POW Network to learn if an individual is entitled to that distinction sometimes are employers, neighbors of professed war heroes or lovers suspicious of a suitor's claims of honors for bravery in combat.

One of the complaints coming out of Ohio was leveled by a martial-arts student against an instructor who alleged to have served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

It troubles Schantag that the Internet has made it so convenient to obtain the blank military forms needed to reinvent oneself.

"It's easy to build a complete military record," she said.

She hopes Congress will pass the so-called Stolen Valor Act, a bill that would impose stiff penalties on military frauds claiming to have earned medals ranging from the Purple Heart up to the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Perhaps the most damning thing about the deceit of hoaxed combat service and misappropriated medals is not how infuriating the lie is to the combat veterans who decry it. Rather, it is the sin against the dead it represents.

War's truest heroes never lived to comb gray hair or march in parades.

Of all the things Congress owes them, nothing now is more important than justice.

Keep Up The Good Work

Submitted by Tom3 (not verified) on Thu, 11/16/2006 - 22:53.

Military History is an academic discipline that has been plagued by phonies. It has gotten to the point that Vietnam writers are now putting their DD-214 military record page in the appendixes of their books. Fakes should be exposed....including all the Chickenhawks in the Bush adminstration who swiftboated Vietnam vets like Gore, Kerry, Cleland and McCain.

yeah, f.W!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 11/17/2006 - 01:22.

yeah, f.W!

VETERARNS BRANDED WITH SECRET NUMBERS

Submitted by Edwin Crosby (not verified) on Sun, 11/19/2006 - 21:52.

All 26 million veterans now have a secret coded number placed upon their main employment reference document, the DD-214. Known as a SPN, SDN, or SPD code, it blacklists those with HONORABLE DISCHARGE from benefits, jobs, bank loans etc. I am the Vietnam Vet who took lawsuit to U.S. Sup. Ct about the codes, CROSBY v. USAF, U.S. Sup. Ct. Reporter 101, October 1980 Term, pgs. 199 & 797. Will FAX documents marked as EXHIBITS before the Courts to anyone who wants to see them. TYPE = SPN CODES & DD-214 into search area of internet and get an education on these codes which brand human beings with a false & stigmatizing coded number. BILLIONS ripped off from V.A. using false names with YOUR VA CLAIM NO: EHC 3

KERRY MIGHT HAVE SERVED IN

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 11/20/2006 - 10:06.

KERRY MIGHT HAVE SERVED IN VIETNAM BUT STILL REMAINS A PHONY. I DONT BELIEVE TO THIS DATE THAT HE RECIEVED THREE PURPLE HEARTS LEGALLY. IT WAS HIS WAY OF GETTING OUT OF VIETNAM WHILE REST OF US STAYED.

MARY SCHANTAG IS A FAKE HERSELF

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 01/14/2007 - 19:18.

Mary tell"s everyone that they are TRUTHFULL, but in reality they tell half truths and just outright LIES on some of the phonies they list, & they can"t do a damn thing about it!! Mary herself has never been in the Military but she wears a set of MILITARY Jumpwings that she has not rightly earned, and this is just some of the hippocrital things that she does and therefore she has becomes the Judge and Jury and Exacutioner!! Who & What gives them the AUTHORITY or RIGHT ??? Not US ! If You Have a problem with someone and just Call ole" Mary @ the POW Network and tell them a real whopper and she will do the rest, This is just BS, and it is not her or her Husbands place to do so. Let the REAL Authorities do their JOBS, Not these two Vigilanties. This is the Pot calling the Kettle Black , Huh !! What happened to real JUSTICE , Innocent until proven Guilty by a REAL Judge or Jury. and to know who has made charges against you ???

MARY SCHANTAG IS A FAKE HERSELF

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 01/14/2007 - 19:19.

http://surl.se/wid

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 02/16/2007 - 09:46.

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Couple works to unmask combat frauds

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Keep Up The Good Work

yeah, f.W!

VETERARNS BRANDED WITH SECRET NUMBERS

KERRY MIGHT HAVE SERVED IN

MARY SCHANTAG IS A FAKE HERSELF

MARY SCHANTAG IS A FAKE HERSELF

http://surl.se/wid

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