WWII Vetaran busted for wearing unearned Medal of Honour!!!

[Cloud Cover]

From Yahoo News [AP]- Monday, June 27, 2005

Yahoo credits Canadian Press for this story.


Michigan war vet probed for wearing unearned Medal of Honour

CASEVILLE, Mich. (AP) - A Second World War veteran photographed wearing a Medal of Honour at a Memorial Day event could face federal charges because it was purchased, not earned, authorities said.

William Kovick, 76, surrendered the medal and four other military honours last week.

FBI investigators say Kovick acknowledged that he bought the Medal of Honour - the country's highest military decoration - in 1977 for $500. He also said he ordered a Navy Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart by mail.

Ordering and owning unearned medals is legal, but wearing or selling them is a misdemeanour punishable by up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

"The intent of the federal law . . . is to maintain the integrity of all the military awards and medals," said FBI Agent Thomas Cottone Jr.

The Justice Department will decide whether to bring charges.

Kovick came under investigation after his photo appeared May 31 on the front page of the Huron Daily Tribune of Bad Axe, Mich., showing him wearing the Medal of Honour at a Memorial Day event.

Vietnam veteran Doug Sterner of Pueblo, Colo., who operates a website dedicated to Medal of Honour recipients, contacted Cottone.

Kovick told the newspaper that he served in the navy in 1944-46 and 1950-53. He said the only medals he earned were ones for service in the Asiatic-Pacific campaign in the Second World War and the Korean War.

The Medal of Honour is given "for conspicuous gallantry" in combat. There are fewer than 125 living recipients.

Copyright © 2005 Canadian Press

 

[wotan]

  Very sad to see a man with honourable service debase himself and become a walt.  However, it seems to be more and more common for folks to wear medals they haven't earned or to wear non-governmental commemorative medals as the real deal.  Give him a break for his honourable service, but hit him good and hard with a sizeable fine and a few weeks in the clink.

 

[shokuten]

thats rough,

i didn't think a vet would do something like that, but who knows right? i mean he could of had some reason for it...maybe waring it for a fallen friend or something, but i doubt it as it didn't say it in the article...

as for the Vietnam vets that are fakers, I'd call them crazies, i had this one guy at my school who was 20 claiming he had his legs blown of in Nam...no one believed him of course because he still had his legs...but yeah, its bad when people claim that they were part of a historic event and they weren't, i wonder how the vets that were actually there feel about stuff like that : /

 

[Gunner98]

in 1999, Blue Jays Manager Tim Johnson, who lost all credibility after lying about military service in Vietnam, was let go in a rare spring training dismissal.

 

[Vigilant]

Can you post a link to the website? It would be interesting to take a look. I wonder how many companies check military references?

 

[Gunner98]

Vigilant,

Take a look at:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05126/500262.stm
http://authentiseal.org/
http://veriseal.org/
http://pownetwork.org/
http://homeofheroes.com/

 

[Vigilant]

Thanks!