Earning Medals The eBay Way

from the if-you-want-something-that-badly... dept

An already decorated Vietnam vet wanted a Distinguished Service Cross so badly that he bought one on eBay. He had applied twice (and was rejected both times) for the Army to award him a Medal of Honor, and so he went out and did the next best thing - and awarded himself the medal via eBay. He even convinced the local Congressional Representative to present him with the fake Distinguished Service Cross. After the fraud was discovered, the guy has agreed to perform community service and donate $5,000 to the Army Emergency Relief Fund. eBay - where you can buy the life you didn't earn.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    sbdwestpac, 24 Jul 2003 @ 5:20am

    not original

    This isn't really orginal. People have been going to their local Army-Navy store for years to do the same thing. One unfortunate truism today is that the more harrowing a supposed vet's combat tales (particularly Vietnam) the less likely they are true. Most of the "vets" you see in the newsbytes standing in front of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in tattered fatigues with medals and ribbons pinned to them and sporting biker hair and beards are by and large frauds who do it for the media attention, and sadly it's these phonies that the media wants to play up because they're the stereotypical maladjusted Vietnam vets. There are websites set up to expose men who fraudulently claim to be former Navy SEALs or Green Berets. Many people do it because of the instant respect it imparts. Unfortunately because of the internet you're far more likely to be caught lying about it today. Several politicians have had their careers end when their phony combat or service records were publicly exposed by these groups.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.