A question for fellow Vets for Trump.
Recently I had a situation happen which caused me to ponder the question: “Is someone who lies on their application to enter the VFW a fraud or a felon?” I was a quartermaster in a VFW in Michigan. While I had only been in the position a month or so, I had been an adjutant as well as quartermaster in another post. I had befriended many of my fellow officers there and all went well until the commander wanted to vote in 2 people whom I knew were NOT war vets and did not qualify under eligibility. I explained this was illegal to him, yet he said, “the VFW don’t care about that anymore”. I was aghast at his saying this, never had I seen this situation before anywhere in the VFW.
I could clearly see that no matter what I said, he was adamant that the 2 persons shall be inducted. I soon resigned of course but I did email all members as to what was going on as well as the district, state, and national levels. While it doesn’t seem to be important to the VFW, I wanted to get some feedback from others. My question to you is this: Does this, in fact, meet the bar for a violation of the Stolen Valor Act of 2013? The SVA is stated in part “The Stolen Valor Act of 2013 (Pub.L. 113–12; H.R. 258) is a United States federal law that was passed by the 113th United States Congress. The law amends the federal criminal code to make it a crime for a person to claim they have served in the military, embellish their rank or fraudulently claim having received a valor award specified in the Act, with the intention of obtaining money, property, or other tangible benefit by convincing another that he or she received the award”.
In order for someone to be inducted (per VFW manual) they need to show a dd214 or evidence of an accepted medal by the VFW. This means they would have to have LIED on the application. I happen to know neither served anywhere outside the CONUS. Further, they automatically were awarded a 1000$ insurance policy for being members. To all my veteran legal eagles: Does this, in fact, meet the bar?
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