Wednesday, March 14, 2012

The great pretender


"A former Returned Services' Association president has been ordered not to visit his local club after appearing in court this morning.
Former Otaki RSA president Don Moselen appeared in Levin District Court charged with wearing medals he is not entitled to after donning three medals at Anzac Day services.
The medals were the New Zealand Operational Service Medal, The Vietnam Medal and the New Zealand General Service Medal..."
Link:
Good.
Name and shame is the right punishment for wannabes!
Even if you were a REMF like me*, your lack of trigger-time is nothing to be ashamed of. Your service shows you stood up to be counted and if you did your job well- that is ALL that matters.
Don't try to be something you were not.


*Someone who was so far in the rear that if they tripped over a beer crate they would have to be evacuated FORWARD to a base hospital.

4 comments:

Andrei said...

I have a great book called "Stolen Valor" which is about this phenomena and other things besides.

One of the interesting anecdotes in that book is about a Vietnamese gentleman who was prominent in a Veterans association which allowed those who served in Vietnam in other nations forces to join including many Vietnamese who had fought for the Republic of Vietnam alongside Americans.

Turned out he had fought with distinction during the Vietnam War but for the North Vietnamese, So there was a bit of soul searching over this gentleman's eligibility for membership - they liked the guy so he was allowed to stay.

KG said...

I reckon a guy like that is preferable to those who wear medals they're not entitled to, Andrei.
How this clown thought he'd get away with something so damn stupid is a mystery.

Andrei said...

According to the book KG when they wrote up the rules for eligibility the wording was ambiguous because it never occurred to anybody an ex NVA soldier might join.

He was bona fide though

Anonymous said...

Here are more of them including NZers
http://www.anzmi.net/