Veteran Impostor Robs Real Veterans of Creditability

Veteran Impostor Robs Real Veterans of Creditability and that is exactly what Richard Strandlof did with his ocean of lies and deception.

Strandlof told everyone that he survived the 911 attacks on the Pentagon, that he survived an other incident when a roadside bomb went off in Iraq killing four fellow Marines. He would point to his head and tell people he had a metal plate, collateral damage from the explosion.

Everyone lapped up his lies. It seemed they wanted to believe him. He toured Colorado, appearing at the sides of politicians. His lies inspired and seemed very authentic when he spoke on behalf of veterans at the state Capitol.

Well, Baby Boomers and true veterans, it was all a lie. Delusions of grandeur, honor and bravery. The whole story was a web of lies. He wasn’t at the Pentagon. He was never a Marine. He never served his country. He never graduated from the Naval Academy. His fictitious persona was Rick Duncan.

He is now under scrutiny for a group he formed called the “Colorado Veterans Alliance,” and now the FBI is investigating if he embezzled money as a result of “Colorado Veterans Alliance.”

Here is what he told Anderson Cooper…

Q.Where was he on 9/11, the day he said he witnessed heroism firsthand?

A. “I was in San Jose, California, watching it in horror on TV with a few other people.”

Watch Anderson Cooper interview Iraq veteran imposter Rick Strandlof about his actions impersonating heroes.

He was at a homeless shelter at the time.

Strandlof denies being a pathological liar.

He says he suffered from “some severely under diagnosed mental illness” and that he got caught up in the moment around “people who are passionate and loved what they did.”

To quote him…He calls his lies a “production, which I’m sorry for.”

“Hopefully the people that I hurt can in some way gain closure from that, and I myself don’t know what I can do short of leaving them alone and not being in their lives, to make that happen,” Strandlof said.

Then he states, “he’s not sure exactly how he’s hurt people. It’s not for me to say, and time will tell.”

Veteran Impostor Robs Real Veterans of Creditability—Who Did He Hurt With His Lies?

Hal Bidlack, a former Air Force lieutenant colonel, is one of those people. He ran for Congress as a Democrat and had Strandlof appear with him. Bidlack isn’t too happy.

“Once one lie fell apart, the whole series of things … just cascaded into an ocean of lies,” Bidlack stated.

Bidlack WAS at the Pentagon when it came under attack on September 11, 2001 and he now realizes that Strandlof stole portions of his experiences of the attack on 911.

“Now that we know he’s a lying fraud. I think he was just parroting my own story back to me. “There are an awful lot of things that he kept straight to try to fool an awful lot of people for an awful long time,” Bidlack continued.

Doug Sterner has studied hundreds of people claiming to be military veterans. Those who never served in the military. He says it’s typical for those perpetuating the hoaxes to claim mental illness.

“I don’t buy that. What he was doing was looking for a cause to promote himself. I see this repeatedly. I’ve had a hundred cases just this year like Rick Strandlof’s…what they are doing is building a kingdom of self and feeding their own ego,” Sterner stated.

Sterner has been pushing for a federal database listing the names and citations of all decorated military veterans to help put an end to such cases. He says that “Strandlof has robbed true veterans of their veracity.”

“Doing good does not take away from the bad that he did,” he continued. “Because of Rick Strandlof, the next global war on terrorism veteran that speaks in a school or talks to the media or gets involved in politics is going to be questioned.”

Strandlof has hurt every veteran by taking away their creditability.

When Did The Dominoes Start To Fall Down?

Strandlof’s story started to hit the dirt about a month ago when he was arrested in Colorado Springs on a minor traffic charge. The Denver Post writes that Strandlof came to authorities’ attention first in 1997, when he was sentenced to five years on forgery and bad check charges…go figure…

Now with the FBI now investigating him for fraud he tells everyone he is innocent and that, “We did not take money to use on non-veterans projects. I did not enrich myself on this. I did not gain any money from this.”

That’s not the point, stated Sterner. “The one thing he robbed from every veteran that comes out now is credibility.”

For the full story of “Veteran Impostor Robs Real Veterans of Creditability,” go to CNN News. See what this Veteran Impersonator has done to real veterans every where.