"Jug" Burkett in Soldier of Fortune (March 2004)

Captain Larry Bailey wrote a page on B.G. Burkett for the March 2004
issue of Soldier of Fortune Magazine (page 34) (http://www.sofmag.com).

The article, titled "'Jug' Burkett: Outter of Phoney 'Heroes'
Receives Army Award"; reports that "former President George H. W. Bush
presented" Burkett with "the U.S. Army's Distinguished Civilian
Service Award in a ceremony at the Bush Library on the campus
of Texas A&M University."

I gather that Burkett is not universally loved by Vietnam War vets
as reflected by some posts I've seen on alt.war.vietnam. There have
been angry claims that Burkett does not always pay attention to facts
and that an over zealous Burkett was not justified in exposing
certain vets as wannabes or phonies.

Be that as it may, Burkett succeeded in his crusade and was
recognized for his efforts along with his co-author Glenna Whitley,
because as Larry Bailey wrote, Burkett "sensitized the American
public... to the fact that uncounted thousands of 'wannabes' foist
their war hero fraud on any who will listen."

Besides mentioning Burkett's book at http://www.stolenvalor.com,
Captain Bailey's recommended other web sites involved in
exposing phony vets:

http://www.veriseal.org/
http://teamhouse.tni.net/
http://www.pownetwork.org

There are other phony veteran web sites worthy of mention,
including Steve Waterman's http://JustASailor.com/ and two
of my own: Phony Veterans - http://shorterlink.com/?L805FU
and the saga of Joseph Ellis, the Pulitzer Prize winning
Vietnam War wannabe historian - http://shorterlink.com/?XKK751

Steve Waterman took the lead in exposing David Silbergeld, a man
that falsified his Navy records and Army Reserve records, posing
first as a heroic SEAL and then as a Special Forces soldier.
Silbergeld even succeeded in deceiving other special operations
veterans as well as his college employers, until a dogged
newspaperman and Steve Waterman caught up with him.

Larry Bailey is a retired U.S. Navy Captain and former Navy SEAL,
and was once Jim Jano's commanding officer. Jim Janos = Jesse Ventura.

Cheers everybody!

Richard Rongstad
CWO2 USN (Ret.)
Republic of Vietnam 1969-1970
Phu Cat to Phu Quoc

------------------------------------------------------------
"Oh, the depths and lengths people will go to in order to
transpose themselves in history to a time in which they
heretofore wanted no part......."
Steven L. Waterman, 25 December 2003