Stolen Valor

[MemberLG]

Very disappointed reading about this forums actions during the whole investigation.

https://militaryphonies.wordpress.com/2015/02/28/tpg-tpgusmc-todd-patrick-golding-2/

FOIA doesn't apply to private entities. I don't buy the argument that since some moderators are likely government employees and possibly using government resources that this forum is like a government entity. Things mentioned could be possibly fall under administrative adverse actions at best (i.e. violation of IT usage policy).

Not defending what forum administrators did or did not do supposedly, but this is an internet forum, we are free to participate or not participate.

 

[LineInTheSand]

This is certainly not a government entity.

 

[TacticalNuke]

Good Morning,

This site exists to help candidates, parents, and others interested in Service Academies, ROTC, and similar programs.

As an organization, we have had other requests on privacy issues through the years and we remain committed to protecting the privacy of our users. In accordance with our privacy policy, we will never disclose the personal information of our members to an outside interest except as required by law or court order.

As with any website of this nature, the site cannot attest to or verify the accuracy of statements made by posters.

Thank you for your continued support of the forum.

 

[TASheehan]

TacticalNuke wrote: "This site exists to help candidates, parents, and others interested in Service Academies, ROTC, and similar programs."

Good policy and I support it.

The surviving veterans of Beirut and the family next-of-kin of the fallen servicemen of Beirut have dealt with tremendous loss and deep tragedy. This community of vets and family members take great exception to TPG's posts being allowed to remain on this forum. Their continued presence does not seem to be in alignment with your above stated mission. The continued existence of these statements on your forum allows them to be freely searched and referenced by not only forum members, but by non-members having results displayed on Google. Ironically, these searches are what lead many of us to your forum in the first place almost a year ago.

Due to ongoing work with Senators and several law firms on both legislation and litigation surrounding the tragedies of Beirut, there is a desire to tightly control the messaging. Thomas Fortune Fay has the lead for this effort.

http://www.faykaplanlaw.com/Terrorism/Beirut-Justice.shtml

Having said that, it is deeply offensive and hurtful to have individuals not associated with this community participate in "revisionist history" surrounding events in Lebanon in 1982-1984. Stated another way, accuracy is important to our community and we do not welcome or appreciate TPG being a spokesman for a community that he is neither a part of nor participates in.

You would not want to hire a clown with a shady past and a known pedophile to work your son's or daughter's birthday party would you? I don't see a difference here as you allow TPG's posts to remain here for all to see and reference, especially young impressionable minds that are awestruck by veterans with combat experience. This very thread stands as testimony that many members were not aware of the extreme skepticism surrounding his claims so understandably accepted them as truth. As the one Stolen Valor blog pointed out, you do not have to go beyond this forum to see that there are inconsistencies in his statements.

Based on his own statements posted here in this forum does he have one leg or no legs?

The truth is neither and it should come as a relief that he has both of his natural legs, but sad that this was a misrepresentation. Leading people astray points to an individual that needs help and there is no way to candy coat that fact. We may disagree on this point but offering him refuge and a place to operate freely is not the answer to getting him to see how his behavior harms others.

Again, as when we approached you almost a year ago, we respectfully request that you give strong consideration in removing all of TPG's posts or at least the ones pertaining to Beirut. No harm, no foul and lets all be good neighbors and get on with our lives. Is this request really that unreasonable?

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

 

[AF6872]

Easy to be a Troll but hard to serve your country as many families on this site have have done.

 

[Pima]

We will always support this site. I think all of us believe that the mods here are very attentive to trolls. It just happened to be that this guy had a lot of time on his hands to hone his background to a level nobody could expect or had enough time on their hands to cross reference his posts.

Honestly, he pm'd me a pic of what was supposedly his hummer hit by the IED. I believed him, because I could never fathom anyone wanting to join a forum like this for some kind of glory mongering.
~ Guess I was wrong...not uncommon for me, but this still stands at the WOW level.

OBTW, I have a funny feeling reading the posts on the link, somebody is going to out him in Winchester by Tuesday. He may want to take his "real" family on a vacation somewhere out of the area in the next few days. Than again, if he really is a Prof at either the CC or local college, he may need to make an appointment with the Dean 1st thing Monday a.m. to do some splaining! (Ricky to Lucy).

I can't imagine what life will be like for his kids if Winchester Star gets wind of this. He was interviewed for an article where he said negative things about the VA. Imagine now if they start a whole new story about posers. The area he lives in is small town. His wife, and kids will feel the pain because he needed something from strangers on the internet.
~ My heart goes out to his wife and kids.

This is also a great lesson to everyone here. This forum may appear to be anonymous, but it isn't. I highly doubt when TPG was a member here years ago he would have been found out that his name was Todd Paul Goulding.
~ Reason why many say don't use your name in your moniker.

 

[BeirutVet]

ATTN: Site Admins and/or Site owner: Does the fact that TPG is still a member here and that his old posts are still accessible by the public that the Owner and admins of this site believe that the information shared here from the Stolen Valor type sites is incorrect?

 

[fwp77]

I highly doubt when TPG was a member here years ago he would have been found out that his name was Todd Paul Goulding.

The stolen valor sites says it is Todd Patrick Golding (vs. Paul and vs. Goulding with a "u").

 

[Pima]

ATTN: Site Admins and/or Site owner: Does the fact that TPG is still a member here and that his old posts are still accessible by the public that the Owner and admins of this site believe that the information shared here from the Stolen Valor type sites is incorrect?

I am a long time member, and only recently has this site changed, but if you place usna69 in the search mode, his posts still show up. He was banned from this site, however, it doesn't show that when you read his posts.

Just saying don't jump to the conclusion that just because old posts are accessible that they are considered a member here.

Not trying to speak for the mods. I can pull up usna69 aka mombee in the search forums. Same person that was banned 2x. I know one more that was banned and his posts are still here.

It doesn't meant to me that SAF believes that Stolen Valor is incorrect. It just means to me that they are not going to start scrubbing every posters post once they made the decision to end their ability to post.

OMG, I have 11K posts, TN would have to hire a person to work full time to scrub all of my posts if I was banned permanently. Usna69 that may have also been mombee would have been @2000 posts. TPG had 2813 posts.

TN and mods,
JMPO, but the one thing that was great about the old system was it read under the posters name...BANNED in red letters. It no longer says that and probably why this question appeared.

 

[kato811]

Very disappointed reading about this forums actions during the whole investigation.

https://militaryphonies.wordpress.com/2015/02/28/tpg-tpgusmc-todd-patrick-golding-2/

As am I The info above is all from reliable sources

 

[kato811]

ATTN: Site Admins and/or Site owner: Does the fact that TPG is still a member here and that his old posts are still accessible by the public that the Owner and admins of this site believe that the information shared here from the Stolen Valor type sites is incorrect?

I am a long time member, and only recently has this site changed, but if you place usna69 in the search mode, his posts still show up. He was banned from this site, however, it doesn't show that when you read his posts.

Just saying don't jump to the conclusion that just because old posts are accessible that they are considered a member here.

Not trying to speak for the mods. I can pull up usna69 aka mombee in the search forums. Same person that was banned 2x. I know one more that was banned and his posts are still here.

It doesn't meant to me that SAF believes that Stolen Valor is incorrect. It just means to me that they are not going to start scrubbing every posters post once they made the decision to end their ability to post.

OMG, I have 11K posts, TN would have to hire a person to work full time to scrub all of my posts if I was banned permanently. Usna69 that may have also been mombee would have been @2000 posts. TPG had 2813 posts.

TN and mods,
JMPO, but the one thing that was great about the old system was it read under the posters name...BANNED in red letters. It no longer says that and probably why this question appeared.

If any one cares to do the leg work .You will find that Stolen Valor info is correct . They do there home work before they post on any one .

 

[MemberLG]

Good Morning,

This site exists to help candidates, parents, and others interested in Service Academies, ROTC, and similar programs.

As an organization, we have had other requests on privacy issues through the years and we remain committed to protecting the privacy of our users. In accordance with our privacy policy, we will never disclose the personal information of our members to an outside interest except as required by law or court order.

As with any website of this nature, the site cannot attest to or verify the accuracy of statements made by posters.

Would you care to share the policy? I am pretty sure I clicked some sort of agreement when joined, but can't remember what I clicked. I also scan the site quickly and found nothing. If a policy as not written or not readily available, it doesn't exist.

 

[TacticalNuke]

Good Morning,

This site exists to help candidates, parents, and others interested in Service Academies, ROTC, and similar programs.

As an organization, we have had other requests on privacy issues through the years and we remain committed to protecting the privacy of our users. In accordance with our privacy policy, we will never disclose the personal information of our members to an outside interest except as required by law or court order.

As with any website of this nature, the site cannot attest to or verify the accuracy of statements made by posters.

Would you care to share the policy? I am pretty sure I clicked some sort of agreement when joined, but can't remember what I clicked. I also scan the site quickly and found nothing. If a policy as not written or not readily available, it doesn't exist.

Thank you for your inquiry. Our privacy police and terms and conditions can be found at the following link: http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/index.php?help/terms.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Thank you for your time.

-TN

 

[flieger83]

Folks...I've been on this forum a long time; I was honored by TacticalNuke to be asked to serve as a moderator, and I've followed all the controversies, etc.

The thing to remember is this: TN setup this site to help people gain knowledge that they might otherwise miss. It's an amazing resource; I've heard from folks at USAFA and USNA about it, I have had literally hundreds of students access it (that I personally know and have referred) and the information is gold!!! There are times that some folks misuse the forums, and that's when the mod's come out and politely try to return things to the purpose at hand.

This is a great place; a Godsend for the Academy and ROTC applicant, and also OTS and others...it's just a wealth of information and the members are what continue to make it strong!!!!

So thank YOU all!!!

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83

 

[Freda'sMom]

There are times that some folks misuse the forums, and that's when the mod's come out and politely try to return things to the purpose at hand.

My disappointment was at the forum's official responses to the information. The Stolen Valor folks presented them with factual information about this poster's lies and they chose not to act upon it.

Yes, this is a great forum for candidates to gain valuable information about the process of applying and what they can expect.

But when egregious lies about participating in military combat action and false claims about being awarded medals of valor are posted, and then found to be fraudulent, the administration must take more action then responding with "“Any errors made by TPG are presumably unintentional and, based on our review, not harming or disparaging anyone.”

I disagree, they harmed every single person who was in real combat and was awarded real medals.

 

[LineInTheSand]

I don't believe anyone was harmed. I also don't believe it was anything close to unintentional.

I assume he's banned, right?

 

[bruno]

It is clear that some folks miss the point of an anonymous forum, as well as have little to no concept of the degree of difficulty in "taking action" of the sort that the Stolen Valor people are apparently suggesting. The term anonymous is apparently only to be honored unless we really want to know who that person is? But be careful what you wish for: doesn't the person behind the UserID "Freda's Mom" deserve to have their name withheld regardless of how much I really want to know who Freda is?
The upside of a forum like this is that it allows the freedom to speak to virtually anyone without concern for personal liability or consequences- the downside is that it allows the freedom to speak to virtually anyone without concern for personal liability or consequences- in otherwords if you are going to have an anonymous forum the costs and benefits are two sides of the same coin. The former member TPG apparently skillfully lied thru his teeth for quite a long time to all of us- (which certainly was disappointing to me personally as I have traded personal confidences with him that I would not do with the public at large). However, his false claims were made anonymously and the site had no more responsibility to publicly ferret out his real identity and background than it does to validate every other person and claim made on this site. If personal and public vetting of each member- were really the policy of this forum, then who would participate ? And who/ how would they do it? - should we be putting a a full disclosure form out to sign before joining, publicly available upon request along with a waiting period while it is verified? So if there is a Freda or not a Freda- it is not my business or responsibility to verify- AND you wouldn't want the administrator to be doing so.

As for the logistics of eradicating every trace of his presence- the sheer enormity of that task is daunting- either every thread that he has participated in would have to be manually edited to ensure that every other comment in every thread he participated in still makes sense- or else blanket deleted- meaning that everyone elses comments are also erased. You have no idea what a time consuming effort you are calling for- but having moderated (for free!) for a number of years- from my experience it would be a gargantuan effort.

Like PIMA- I wish that we still had the function that shows the word "Banned" where former members have received that punishment- if the administrator has the ability to have that function reinstituted that it would probably be a good thing as it effectively and publicly identifies those who have been disciplined.

This is a disappointing turn of events that should remind everyone aboard that the Latin phrase "Caveat Emptor" holds particularly true in the internet age- but it is just that and folks ought to just let it rest. The forum's business is helping candidates to find information useful in applying to Service Academies, ROTC and Senior Military colleges- the rest is just gravy and all of it should just be a supplement to the prospective Cadets/ Midshipmen's own research . It's an anonymous forum - so don't take what is posted on here and be confused and think it is the Gospel. TPG whoever/ wherever he is, is really not a big deal- just another fraud in the internet age.

 

[TASheehan]

I don't believe anyone was harmed.

Out of curiosity, how were you able to come to this conclusion?

John Tully, a Beirut veteran, a friend, and someone I checked with frequently to verify stolen valor claims having to do with Beirut, took his own life this past February. He suffered from PTS. Many of these stories trigger episodes with veterans and they are especially upset with stolen valor claims.

http://www.legacy.com/ns/john-tully-obituary/174054678

Perhaps you have not lost a buddy in combat or suicide related to PTS? Have you ever heard of duty of care responsibilities? The emphasis is on vets that have suffered. What about the parents whose children were exposed to this nutcase's ramblings? He glorified combat and I feel that this is wrong to do. The people that have truly experienced combat do not talk about it much. Several of them are broken men, a shell of what they once were. I ask that you consider this side of it.

Many may have felt that TPG's posts were entertaining, and his exposure as a buffoon added to this entertainment. I concede this. However, to others it takes on a much deeper and sinister meaning. Again, please consider.

I agree with Freda'sMom and it took a lot of courage for her to say what she said.

 

[TASheehan]

So if there is a Freda or not a Freda- it is not my business or responsibility to verify- AND you wouldn't want the administrator to be doing so.

Why would Freda be brought into question? Because she (I assume) has an opinion that differs from yours?

I was close to this investigation and I will share some facts with you. At NO time were the owner/administrators asked to identify somebody. They were provided proof of the findings of fact and provided unsolicited details on a member in an effort to demonstrate that the user was misrepresenting himself.

Coming back to a user and anonymity... my guess here is you are referring to sock puppeting? The forum owner/admin was asked about a policy on sock puppeting since it was suggested that TPG exhibited this behavior on other forums to bolster his position so it was possible he did so here. In fact, because you ('bruno') oddly took up for him when doubt was cast it was reasonable to assume he had sock puppets here. Our team found out your identify in about 10-15 minutes. You checked out so the opinions were attributed to just you and the influence TPG had on you, which is understandable.

I only say this because the point was also made to the administrators that identities are not secure on this forum due to several vulnerabilities. Legally, the owner and moderators are probably covered as long as they take reasonable, prudent steps to protect people's identity.

However, and I believe someone made this point... the anonymity is a false sense of security and users should be aware of this.

We were here for one reason and one reason only -- TPG. He came on our radar screen and we did what we had to do to correct his behavior. There is no effort that I know of beyond his case, although there is a possibility that he has other accounts on this forum.

 

[LineInTheSand]

Because people aren't harmed by a voluntary anonymous forum. Tpg was a buffoon, absolutely. And I'm all for stamping this out where ever it occurs. But come on, folks. We all know people who have been broken (or strengthened) but their experiences. While I think the actions are tpg are that of a coward, I don't think anyone I know in or out of uniform would find them hurtful. You underestimate those who have served.


And news flash, there are PLENTY of veterans who have been in combat who glorify combat (and plenty who don't).

Finally, nothing said in an anonymous forum is courageous. So please, don't diminish the meaning of that word anymore than has already been done. I don't entirely disagree with Feda'sMom's comments, but I'm sure she wouldn't claim they took any kind of courage. It reminds me of a time when students in Nashville were called "heroes" for increasing their test scores. That's not heroic.