Stolen Valor

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TA Sheehan, who is this "we" from your quote?

"Military Phonies", "POW Network", "Fake Warrior Project", "I Am My Brother's Keeper", "This Ain't Hell". I've done a case with "Guardian of Valor" but they're somewhat separate. There are a lot of people on the team, with a lot of different expertise and we all work together. Comprised of veterans, attorneys, investigators, researchers, ex-LEO, VA experts, etc.

I provide updates to team members often and they continue to encourage me to take lead on this one, so I'm not a rogue element. I'm mostly filling a communications role at this point. There is a lot of important work to do after the "outing", such as contacting local newspapers and television stations to encourage interest in the story. Unfortunately, if you don't keep a full court press on, the subject fights back in some fashion and digs a deeper hole by doubling down on the lies. If you hit them from all angles, they sometimes come clean which is best for everybody, including them.
 
So, go do your work. If you have questions, ask. If you just want to be a nudge, well, you're a star.
 
I have only been reading what has been said. I am still confused about a number of things.

Why is Justin Facta so important to you and who is "we" you keep mentioning? Is it you and this Justin Facts person? You'll probably avoid the question somehow, probably stating how it's none of my business. In which case, why should anyone in this forum care about what you have to say and your "demands"?

Clearly, people here are trying to help you out in some way. Or at least, tried to before you ticked people off. You must at least understand the curiosity surrounding people's questions and why, to really understand why you even have these list of demands, these things are important to you.

No one here is looking at you as a lesser individual because of your low message or point count. I don't believe anyone here cares. It may seem that people are looking down at you from your answers. You're trying to be professional, yet your answers are shrouded in a weird mystery that easily provokes people. Again, you're just ticking people off. Whether that's not your intention is irrelevant.

So I ask what many people have already asked before. Who's "we"? Why are you doing this? Why the mysterious answers? Why this crusade against a forum that's only trying to help people get through the college/commissioning process? Why is Justin Facts so important?

Stating that my questions are irrelevant would be similar to stating that everything you're saying is irrelevant and we should all just ignore your empty threats. Just as you're ignoring some of these questions.
 
TASheehan, you accuse LITS of fishing? OMG, you are the one with the rod and worm.

I have patiently answered several of your questions as well. There seems to be a philosophy with some of you that if you beat on me harder it's productive. Sorry, I cannot reinforce this behavior. If you'd like to be civil and engage in professional discourse, I'd be happy to oblige.
 
Why is Justin Facta so important to you and who is "we" you keep mentioning?

RE: Justin Facts - The account should have never been banned. I believe it was banned to discourage work on tpg. That is as frank as I can state it.
RE: "we" - I answered that but I'll offer a little more since you were respectful in your post. It was really to underscore that I'm not acting on my own.
 
Do you have any affiliation with Justin Facts or is your demand to unban him solely motivated in your belief that he was banned only to discourage further questioning of TPG's claims?

To add to that, I truthfully do not believe he was banned for that reason. You said he and other admins were privetly discussing the matter and then boom, he was banned. Do you know exactly what their conversations had? Are you absolutely sure that there isn't a slim possibility there was more depth to those conversations to justify him being banned? Without a doubt?
 
Folks, I haven’t been on here in a loooong while. But Pima keeps me up to speed on the latest “SAF Gossip” and news from the many friends we have made on these boards. So it was with great interest when Pima told me about this thread and the action of both TPG and the folks who exposed him.


My initial reaction? I remembered TPG well, and I remembered how much I admired him for the service and sacrifice he gave to our Country. So, to say I was angered when I found out this was all a lie? Indignant and disgusted that he basked in undeserving glory and praise from me and the others here who have served? You betcha. But then I calmed down a bit, and my feelings evolved more towards sadness and pity for this man who was so dissatisfied in his own life that he felt the need to make such whopping lies to make himself feel more worthy. A poor, poor man. But still, he deserves to be humiliated and punished for his actions, especially since the lies impacted so many here to include the young men and women who saw his stories as inspirational.


But now I’ve been watching how this thread has evolved, and the words from both sides, TASheehan and the folks on here upset with his not-to-veiled threats against this site.


Well, to quote TASheehan, GOOGLE IS our friend…


https://militaryphonies.wordpress.com/2015/02/


Here it is, the “we” TASheehan continues to reference. Scroll down a bit and you get to see their side of the story concerning this site and the mods. So, it seems a bit disingenuous to me when I read how they called out TacNuke (to include personally attacking him and slandering him), when I also see TASheehan talking about wanting to keep this professional and how he means no harm to this site. His words speak otherwise, LOUDLY and CLEARLY.

We get to see their side of the story, but it seems to me that there may be another side to this story. Allow me to provide MY perspective on both.


As LITS discusses earlier, it appears to me that some people and groups VERY passionate about Stolen Valor got wind on TPG’s posing on here, and decided to see if they needed to expose another “poser”. I applaud their efforts. Honestly I do. Their passion seems a little creepy to me, and their “ends justify the means” attitude frankly falls squarely into the category of “morally and ethically questionable”. But hey, they are protecting the truth (in a questionable manner), and a man’s gotta have a hobby.

Now, here’s how I see it. Justin Facts, an individual saying he’s a kid looking into the military, starts questioning TPG’s service record. Not really in the scope of what this site is intended for, and frankly coming off as confrontational, TACNuke, acting in his mod role to keep the conversations polite and civil, removes the post to avoid further conflict. Someone (name redacted on the “militaryphonies” site) PMs TAC requesting that Justin be allowed to continue to question TPG about his service record on the forum. Tac, again with the full intent first and foremost of avoiding conflict that plaques so many other internet forums (and which we are thankfully mostly free from thanks to his and the rest of the mods efforts), denies that request. And then all H-E-Double Hockey Sticks breaks loose on this thread and military phonies.


Personally, I have to ask, why was it necessary to question TPG about his service record publically on the forums and not in private? To me, it smacks of an attempt to catch TPG in a “GOTCHA!” moment and publically humiliate him. So think on this, TASheehan. Maybe, just maybe, TACNuke felt the same way I just mentioned, and didn’t want this site to be dragged into that mud-hole, especially with all the impressionable young men and women (and their parents) watching.

So your response? You threaten to contact the military press to “warn them about this site”. You threated to contact the sponsors who support this site as well. All because TacNuke didn’t want to play your games in the way YOU wanted to play them. And instead of being reasonable about it, you went even further with your “ends justify the means” attitude and threatened the Nuclear option on this entire sire unless you got your way. Of course TacNuke felt / feels threatened and wanted nothing more to do with you. Your attitude and words on THIS thread only make even more folks here feel the same way.

Now you’ve made some suggestions, and frankly they are reasonable and can be hopefully discussed in a reasonable manner. Perhaps we can reach mutual understanding without the need to threaten this invaluable site and the mods who run it.

TPG is banned, disgraced, and soon to be forgotten – this was your ultimate goal and it was accomplished. Is there anything beyond that worthy of punishing the innocent along with the guilty? Not really.

I applaud your efforts to expose the phonies and posers. I admire your passion. But you're causing friendly fire here in your attack on the mods and this site. I ask you to please think on that....
 
Am I reading this tread correctly in that this entire SA forum is in jeopardy of being shut down due to the false postings of some idiot and the demands of the person that exposed him?

I'm not sure of the origin of the information about the forum shutting down. Several have mentioned it here. This is my first post on this subject, but I don't know whether to label it a subject or a rumor. If the forum shuts down it certainly won't be because of me. I don't have the power to make a decision such as that. That said, I'm curious where this all came from?

I can say this -- information about this case can't be controlled at this point, not even by me. I've tried to and things are moving too fast. Stated another way -- the cat's out of the bag.

I know that some on here see this as simplistic as declaring "Let's move on.", "Yawn", "Shut down the thread", etc. There's a wider picture here and there is certainly more to come.

You have a 'community' of people that love advising prospective students. This community will always be there. Even if your forum shuts down (and I have no idea or inside knowledge), I'm sure this community will survive and find a way to do its valuable work. There are efforts on Facebook and other forums. It is the people that make the collective body so valuable.

I have no investment in continuing this thread, 'getting people to trust me' or getting acceptance from anybody here. I'm here to offer perspective on the tpg case if there is any curiosity. It sounds like most of you are tired of hearing about it. I think there are some interesting issues that have come to the surface and I'd be happy to comment on any of these topics, as long as these topics are not simply "Who are you?" as some seem to not be able to move beyond.

As far as 'demands' or whatever label seems to be attached. These would be prudent measures for anyone running an internet forum in support of the Department of Defense or subject to branding approval by the SA Alumni associations. I did not volunteer them here because I needed anyone's approval or I wanted to discuss whether I should or should not have the right to list the items. I think I can do shorthand on how these came about.

Why are you here? --> unfinished business --> which is what, exactly? --> answer to requests made to owner/admin/mods --> which is what, exactly? --> policy mods ---> please post, nothing should be secret --> posted

I don't suspect that ultimately any of you have the authority to make the changes so discussion here would not be fruitful, IMHO. The list was offered out of courtesy in answer to your questions. As I stated, I'm still awaiting an answer from the owner/admin/mods.

If the posters and the mods want to shut this thread down, I'm fine with it. I'm sensing that other than a few exceptions, each time I try to answer a question it is immediately meet with insistence for more information, not to mention an occasional stab at my motives.

Good post, sheriff3.
 
There is no need for approval from DOD or alumni associations. The images in the site banner are, I assume, public domain. This is a .com site that makes no effort to appear "official". The services are aware it exists (as are the academies).
 
I'm going to assume "Justin Facts" was you. And I'm going to assume you created a new user name after "Justin Facts" was banned. I'm going to stop asking why you came…. but I'll assume you were digging for information about TPG on other forums and that digging eventually brought you here. I'm going to assume that your feelings were hurt when the other veterans here didn't get out the pitch forks to join you, and that your "Justin Facts" being banned was the final straw.

Here's a little expert advice, TASheehan, in the event that you pull anything like this in the future, on another forum. If you're the person "communicating" don't also be the person doing the digging. There is a reason a FOIA official is not the same person that handles the Privacy Act. If you want us to trust you, don't be the person who previously deceived us. Make the deceiver someone else, and then you explain, openly, what has been done.

If you want to be the person communicating with a "community," either be transparent about it or don't try and start. Your language has been so confusing that, in discussing something that most people could typically rally around, you sufficiently alienated a majority of the active people here. Exposing possible "Stolen Valor" cases is better when you haven't angered a nice group of veterans who served honorably.

I think you'll find, if you contact each service's public affairs office, the public affairs offices of the service academies, or the comms folks from the alumni associations, you'll find 1. they know the site exists, 2. they regularly engage applicants on this site, and 3. they have no claims over this site because it is a .com that makes no claim to being an official site and uses public domain photos in its banner. You're welcome to try…. but I doubt it will (nor should it) go anywhere.

For other SAF posters, I think what we've seen here is one person with a worthy cause but horrible delivery. It's easy to get caught up in the "cloak and dagger" world of "gotcha" activities.
 
Bullet, I just read the post on the link you provided….. first, I hope that sight does an update soon, because it is painful to read, and second, what kind of lawyer FOIA's a private site? I honestly can't figure that one out. I kept seeing FOIA mentioned, but I didn't understand the context.
 
Wow! I have read through this thread today and though I have few posts I remember TPG's stories and especially his posts on his daughter.

First off, let me say that I'm glad he was exposed.
Secondly, do I think he was the first or will be the last? No, but that is not reason to add all these additional suggestions to this site.

+1 to Bullet and all the similar postings in support of the Mods and this website.

I did not need a disclaimer to know that this forum was a collection of individuals willing to help answer questions and provide guidance and were not officially associated with any government entities or the service academies. I just want to say Thank You for all those who continue to share the stories and insights to military training, colleges, and the service academies.

I enjoy reading even the threads that have differences of opinions and appreciate the Mods in keeping the civil and supportive tone that is widespread on this site. Thank you..thank you ...thank you for this site and your Time.

Take Care.
 
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