Stolen Valor; How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History

Dallas, TX: Verity Press Publishing Inc, 1998. Second Printing [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. George Fiala (Front Jacket photograph) and Marlon. xxvii, [1], 692 pages. Illustrations. Appendices Endnotes. Index. DJ has rear flap crease. B. G. Burkett is a retired Army officer and financial advisor. He is best known as co-author of Stolen Valor (1998), written with journalist Glenna Whitley. It received the Colby Award for military writers in 2000. Burkett says he decided to write the book now known as Stolen Valor after hearing too many news reports about Vietnam veterans characterized as mentally unstable. Burkett began fact-checking whether such identified people were veterans by applying for their military records through Freedom of information process. Burkett says he checked over 3,500 people's claims to have served in Vietnam, and found 1,700 of them had fabricated their stories. It has been credited for inspiring the Stolen Valor Act of 2005 passed by Congress, making it a crime for an individual to falsely claim to have been awarded military medals. In 2005, Burkett co-authored a paper with B.C. Frueh, J.D. Elhai, and J.D. Monnier that was published in the British Journal of Psychiatry. It focused on concerns "regarding the validity of combat exposure reports of veterans seeking treatment for combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder". Glenna Whitley is an An award-winning investigative reporter, Glenna Whitley specializes in writing about crime and the legal system. The subject of three segments for TV newsmagazine "20/20," including one that won a CINE Award, Stolen Valor received the 2000 William E. Colby Award for writing on military affairs at Norwich University. The subject of hundreds of stories in magazines and newspapers. Nicholas Warr wrote about Stolen Valor: I believe this book is the most important book written about the aftermath of the war, and the impact it had on "those who went." Author Burkett describes himself as a Vietnam Veteran, but one who served in an administrative capacity and seldom in harm's way. Upon returning home in 1969, he witnessed, first-hand, the disrespect given to those who went to war by those who stayed home. In 1996, Burkett was enlisted by a group of citizens who were trying to build a Vietnam Veterans Memorial Monument in Fair Park near downtown Dallas to help them raise the necessary funds. He first went directly to business decision-makers and asked for their support, only to be soundly rejected because of the extremely negative reputation placed on returning veterans by the media and others. Knowing that that terrible reputation (murderers, rapists, baby-killers, etc.) was not earned by most, he set about doing the research with the assistance of author Whitley. What he found and documented was a much different story, so he took his research and revisited those decision-makers; the result was the funds needed to build the memorial were realized and the monument was built. The second half of this book was one I did not want to read. It exposes those who did not go to war but claimed to be combat veterans. This book is used by law enforcement to expose those frauds.