There is sort of a rub here. For a Marine to do this - and in front of other Marines specifically - well much worse than someone who didn't know any better. The problem is two-fold -
1. With the gaul it would take to do this in front of Marines, wounded Marines, combat veterans from the last several wars - well... it wouldn't be questioned right off because - who would do that?
2. It is difficult for officers to question each other; it flies directly in the face of "special trust and confidence" ... it is a professional courtesy to accept an Officer's word... kind of hard to explain...
Here is another article about him:
Marine officials are investigating the guest speaker at a Vietnam veterans’ recognition day who critics said never went to Vietnam.
Michael Hamilton, who says he’s a former Marine colonel, gave an emotional keynote speech at Saturday’s Vietnam Recognition Day, held at Jacksonville’s Vietnam Memorial. Each event attendee received a copy of Hamilton’s impressive biography, showing a rapid rise from the rank of private first class to colonel between 1961 and 1969 while also accumulating 80 medals and ribbons, including two Navy Crosses, four Silver Stars and eight Purple Hearts.
But, local Vietnam veterans say, none of it is true.
John Cooney, the adjutant of the Beirut Memorial Chapter of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, said veterans attending the ceremony had their doubts even before Hamilton began to speak.
“Nobody is decorated that much,” Cooney said. “We’re positive that everything is bogus that is in that bio.”
Hamilton’s name appears in the Phonies Index at the website
P.O.W. Network. According to the listing, “Claims that his records were redacted and that he has been trying for 24 years to prove that he was in the incident … Military records so far show NO OVERSEAS DUTY, NO COVERT OR TACTICAL COMBAT TRAINING.”
Where his name doesn’t appear is in the Hall of Valor database, maintained by
Military News, benefits, careers, photos, discussions - Military Times HOME. That site contains the names of all recipients of distinguished awards, including the Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross and Silver Star.
The creator of the database, Doug Sterner, said there is no chance whatsoever that Hamilton is who he claims to be. Only six service members have received eight Purple Hearts in a military career, he said, and no Marine has received more than six.
Hamilton, who spoke to The Daily News on Monday from his home in Richlands, said the reason for the dearth of evidence on his service was that he was engaged in covert operations in Laos and Cambodia and sworn to secrecy for political reasons for 25 years after his medical discharge from the Corps in 1969. He said that the operations were so secret that when a platoon he commanded was wiped out in combat, their names could not even be added to the wall of the Vietnam memorial.
“As far as every medal that I have been awarded, every ribbon, they’re mine; and I’d give them all back for the 286 men I lost,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton refused to share documents of proof, including a VA claim grant he said gave him 90 percent disability pay for combat wounds, with The Daily News, but held fast to his claims.
“Anybody that doesn’t believe me and wants to face me face-to-face, I’ll strip my blouse any day of the week and meet him outside,” he said. “The Marine Corps taught me 101 ways of blowing things up and killing people. I am not one to mess with.”
According to military records originally requested by Mary Schantag at the POW Network and reviewed by The Daily News on Monday, Michael Delos Hamilton entered the Marine Corps July 18, 1961, and left the Corps as a private first class at Camp Lejeune on April 30, 1962. His awards include rifle qualification badge, good conduct medal and national defense service medal.
There is nothing that indicates he ever served overseas.
The director of Camp Lejeune’s retired activities office, Randy Reichler, said he has dealt with Hamilton before.
“We turned him in about three years ago,” Reichler said. “He’d come in and he was angry because we wouldn’t submit a claim for him for VA benefits. Nobody gets two crosses, four Silver Stars — there’s no such thing.”
Reichler said he’d encountered Hamilton while in his former position as Jacksonville chapter commander of Disabled American Veterans. Hamilton applied to complete community service in 2007 in connection with a charge of impersonating a police officer; and once Reichler viewed his military records, he said, he refused the request.
According to a clerk at the Onslow County court house, Hamilton was charged with impersonating a police officer in Sept. 2007. He completed 50 hours of community service and charges were dismissed in Jan. 2008, officials said.
Hamilton said the charges were a result of a misunderstanding: He was employed by the Clark County, Nev., Sheriff’s Department and Metropolitan Police after leaving the Marine Corps, he said, and did not realize that it was illegal to carry his badge in North Carolina. A spokeswoman for Clark County said there is no record of Hamilton ever being employed by the Clark County Sheriff's Department and Metropolitan Police.
The president of Jacksonville’s chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America, Michael Carr, said the organization scheduled Hamilton to speak on Saturday in good faith, but now believes that he is a faker.
“This is the first time this has happened to us before,” Carr said. “There’s not too many people that impersonate a colonel.”
Carr said Hamilton sent the organization a copy of his bio, and when the scheduled speaker for Saturday’s event, a Navy nurse who served in Vietnam, had to cancel at the last minute, the timing seemed fortuitous. Reichler and Carr said Hamilton has also been known to impersonate a lieutenant general in Onslow County.
“You know how he got by with it, was the arrogance, the arrogance that he would do something like this in a military town,” Reichler, “There had to be a lot of questions when they looked at that bio; something like that couldn’t slide by.”
A spokesman for Marine Corps Installations East, Maj. Nat Fahy, said that Camp Lejeune’s Provost Marshal’s Office was investigating Hamilton as the event took place on land maintained by the base.
According to the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, unauthorized wear or claim of any military medals and decorations is a federal offense and punishable by fines and up to a year in prison.