Stolen Valor Act

[EagleJCS]

If/when I wear military-issue garb, or stuff that looks military-issue (e.g. surplus), it's usually from the generation before I was eligible to serve (i.e. OD greens, not woodland camo, and I don't even have and wouldn't think of getting any current issue or desert/digital camo). I also usually don't wear those things out in public and don't wear them in a military style (i.e. I'll leave shirts unbuttoned/untucked, and p*nt legs unbloused), I don't wear them in combination (I'll wear just a shirt, or just the pants, or just a jacket, but none of them together) and most of the time they're not ironed, so they're even less obviously military.

I do have an O.D. M-65 Army field jacket of my uncle's that I put my Dad's unit patches and name tape on (the right shoulder has the 83rd "OHIO" Infantry Division and the left has the 5th Army, which I don't think match up for that era - Dad was in the regular Army reserves for 8 years then transferred to the KANG). That's the closest I come to looking even close to military. When people do ask or make a comment I'll explain that "this was my uncle's/father's".

Most of the time, I'm wearing the mil surplus stuff when I go camping or working around the house or in the yard. It's more durable than most of my other clothes, and I'm not as concerned about getting stains and stuff on most of it, since it's already stained/torn from when they wore it to do yard work, etc.

[Lallans]

Yeah, I don't think anyone would object to military surplus. It's when you go out with a fake Congressional Medal of Honor around your neck that a problem exists. I remember an interview with an author who had unmasked quite a number of people that had been living off, or feeding off of, fake medals for years.

I think real heroes should be given the right to gang up and take care of these customers with bars-of-soap-filled pillowcases. You know, as in Full Metal Jacket, only for good reasons.

[davedove]

I think real heroes should be given the right to gang up and take care of these customers with bars-of-soap-filled pillowcases. You know, as in Full Metal Jacket, only for good reasons.

I'm not one for violence, but i certainly think that forced community service at a veteran's hospital would be fitting punishment, after, of course, they pay back any ill-gotten monies.

For those who did not receive any monetary gain, public ridicule is my preferred punishment.

[Lallans]

I'm not one for violence, but i certainly think that forced community service at a veteran's hospital would be fitting punishment, after, of course, they pay back any ill-gotten monies.

For those who did not receive any monetary gain, public ridicule is my preferred punishment.

OK but I WAS joking in the bit about the pillowcases, and to enforce community service you first need a law in place to be broken.

[davedove]

OK but I WAS joking in the bit about the pillowcases, and to enforce community service you first need a law in place to be broken.

Which is where the public ridicule comes in. Most of them are in it for some kind of false recognition. Let's give them another kind of recognition.