US Army 'War Hero' Outed as Fraud

Man poses as Vietnam war hero, Dupes New York for 40 years, gets caught 

A New Yorker who for 40 years passed himself off as Vietnam war hero who had been decorated for extreme gallantry was sentenced to community service Wednesday after being outed as a fraud.

According to prosecutors, Louis Lowell McGuinn claimed to have been a lieutenant colonel in the US special forces and had used his fake military history since 1968 to get work or to win kudos at social functions.

His military records showed that McGuinn had indeed been in the US Army and served in Vietnam, but was discharged as a private without being decorated.

In 2006, McGuinn, who is now in his 60s, attended a ball in New York’s glitzy Pierre Hotel wearing the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts, awarded for being wounded in action…

The Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest military decoration of the US Army, is awarded for acts of extraordinary heroism.

A real lieutenant colonel and West Point graduate, Mark Kimey, instantly spotted there was something not quite right about McGuinn and reported him.

"They’re always (Navy) SEALs or special forces," Kimey told the New York Daily News last year. "Nobody ever masquerades as a cook."

McGuinn pleaded guilty last December under a recently passed law known as the Stolen Valor Act, and was on Wednesday sentenced in a New York court to one year of probation and 100 hours of community service.

Prosecutors accused McGuinn of insulting soldiers who had been decorated for genuine acts of selfless heroism, some of whom were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously.

"Fraudulently wearing these medals is an affront to their memory, and an affront to the heroism of the surviving service men and women who were legitimately awarded them," prosecutors said.

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