# Fake Marine in full uniform at his High School reunion is found out by classmate & arrested With pic

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-marine-in-full-uniform-at-his-high-school-reunion-is-found-out-by-classmate-arrested-with-pic/517292>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [November 12, 2009, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-marine-in-full-uniform-at-his-high-school-reunion-is-found-out-by-classmate-arrested-with-pic/517292 "2009-11-12T06:52:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 54

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**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-marine-in-full-uniform-at-his-high-school-reunion-is-found-out-by-classmate-arrested-with-pic/517292/54 "2009-11-13T01:12:20Z")

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> [@mhendo](#):
>
> That’s just the thing: i’m not even sure i want to. I really don’t care.
> 
> If they get found out, as this guy did, then the person who discovers the deception (like the woman at the reunion, in this case) can point and laugh. There are websites devoted to outing fake veterans. This sort of social opprobrium is completely fine. I just don’t think it needs to be criminalized.
> 
> There are plenty of things people do that i find offensive, inappropriate, and worthy of scorn, but that i don’t believe should be illegal.
> 
> …I’m not arguing against the laws that prohibit impersonating an officer of the law. That is, as i said in another recent thread on this subject, a completely different issue. Laws against impersonating the police have perfectly reasonable public safety justifications. There is no such justification for making it illegal to wear medals of valor.

> [@mhendo](#):
>
> Sigh.
> 
> I’ve already said that i support laws against impersonating a police officer, or some other public official in the performance of their duty. Their are immediate public safety concerns that make such laws necessary. Wearing a military uniform and medals to a party? Completely different.

There are two different federal offenses that are being conflated here: impersonating a member of the military and wearing unearned awards.

While I strongly think that both of these deceptions should be against the law (which is currently the case), if we are going to discuss the merits of the laws in question, it would be helpful to discuss the two issues separately.

Allowing people to impersonate members of our Armed Forces could have real national security implications. Just like we have laws prohibiting someone from impersonating a police officer, we have laws prohibiting people from impersonating members of the military. I would think it would be obvious why allowing this (which is what decriminalization equates to) is a bad idea. Marine Corps officer command Marines. U.S. Marines guard the President, military installations, embassies, nuclear weapons, etc. It is a really bad idea to allow fake Marine officers to be running around with impunity.

The other issue is that of wearing unearned medals. This is less of a case of having national security implications and more of a “stolen valor” issue. While I also think that this should be illegal, I will admit that this is somewhat of an emotional reaction. Allowing people to wear unearned medals debases the awards in question, just like counterfeit money debases currency.

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