The actor Brian Dennehy died yesterday of heart failure due to sepsis. He was 81.
The star of Rambo: First Blood, Gorky Park and Cocoon among more than 50 feature films and countless television work often played the role of the likeable tough guy. He was cut from the same rough thespian cloth as Jason Robards and George C. Scott.
There are gushing eulogies for Dennehy today. It is predictable in that way we have of airbrushing clean any hint of scandal the moment someone falls off the branch. But Dennehy was a high-profile member of a shadowy group of fraudsters, fantasists and con-artists guilty of what the Americans call stolen valour.
In a 1989 interview with the New York Times, Dennehy claimed to have suffered concussion and shrapnel wounds while on combat duty in Vietnam. Four years later in a short interview with Playboy magazine, Dennehy said he served a five-year tour of Vietnam and suffered minor injuries.
In that interview, Dennehy was asked if he’d ever taken a life in combat. He offered a reply which in retrospect can only be seen as a florid evasion:
“Anyone in combat would agree that it’s pretty much accidental. It’s not what you’re thinking about. You spend a considerable amount of time just trying not to be in a combat situation. You’re trying to avoid coming face-to-face with anything. So, when something bad happens, it’s usually accidental.”
Public deception
None of it happened. Dennehy had served in the US Marine Corps between 1958 and 1963 but did not set foot in Vietnam. The closest he came to combat was playing inter-service American football in Okinawa.
Dennehy publicly apologised for his deception in 1999. But there are reports that he continued telling embellished stories of courage under fire to anyone silly enough to listen. Once an actor …
False anecdotes
Pulitzer Prize winner and history professor, Joseph Ellis was known to lace his lectures with anecdotes of his wartime service in Vietnam. Praised for this meticulous attention to detail in biographies of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, Ellis told the Boston Globe he was a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division, had served in General Westmoreland’s staff and then added some other salty stories of life as a heroic non-combatant in promoting civil rights and attending anti-war protests.
In truth, Ellis had been a reservist but had never left the comfortable confines of academia. He had no association with the civil rights or anti-war movements. His books continue to sell with many reviewers choosing to ignore his deceptions.
False gallantry exposed
Politicians trading on war time gallantry have been exposed. Mundane military service, laudable enough, has transcended into lurid legends, fearless acts of bravery that never actually took place.
Stolen valour has become so widespread it is thought that for every US Navy SEAL, there are at least 300 imposters.
It is a major problem in Australia, too, where the term military imposter is preferred. The exposure of Australian military cheats is left essentially to a group of volunteer ex-servicemen and women known collectively as the Australian and New Zealand Military Impostors Group to sort out.
Australian military imposters
ANZMI conducts investigations, obtains statutory declarations and examines military records. They rely on members of the public, often military veterans to bring these the charlatans to their attention.
The group’s website, an archaic walk down memory lane through an internet circa 1998 (guys, if you’re reading this get in touch and I’ll fix that up for you) presents a rogue’s gallery of liars and cheaters, embellishers and the terminally deluded.
The offences range from the wearing of tin medals (medals purchased rather than bestowed), wearing medals unearned, all the way to complete fabrications of military service. The numbers of these fraudsters who have inveigled themselves in RSL branches, often to become office bearers, is astonishing.
Equally amazing is the apparent ease in which the deceptions are accepted. Questions are rarely asked even when a fraudster appears to be selling a story that defies belief.
On ANZAC Day 2013, “Major-General” Neville Donohue addressed a dawn service at Clayton in Melbourne’s east, bearing a stack of medals on the left side of his chest so numerous and shiny North Korean generals would have been envious. Present at the service on that day were the current Speaker of the Parliament and member for Casey, Tony Smith and then Labor member for La Trobe, Laura Smyth.
No one present seemed to bat an eyelid.
But later in the day, Donohoe turned up at the traditional Collingwood v Essendon ANZAC Day clash at the MCG and was filmed entering the ground chest out, medals dazzling, to a television audience of millions, proving the rule that the only bad publicity is too much publicity. ANZMI was swamped with bemused correspondence from genuine veterans.
It transpired the budding Monash had been a mere corporal in the Royal Australian Corps of Signals between 1970 and 1976 and was never deployed overseas.
Four years later, Donohue was found guilty of 30 charges relating to deception, falsely purporting to be a returned service person, falsely purporting to be a Commonwealth official, to be wearing medals without entitlement, obtaining property by deception, using false documents, and driving while suspended. He received a four-month prison term.
Outright deceit
I have spent hours trawling through the ANZMI website. It’s a walk-through of terrible people, often engaged in criminal acts of fraud and outright deceit.
The psychology is fairly predictable. As a nation we hold our veterans in high esteem. They are our most honoured group. The imposters trade on that, lust after it and profit from it often monetarily and in desperate attempts to be admired. Often, they have become stuck having to perpetuate lies. Once a lie of that order is told, it is very difficult to undo. More likely it will be compounded with other lies, other deceptions. The ANZMI motto is “If you tell the truth, it becomes part of your past. If you tell a lie it becomes part of your future.”
A military imposter is so offensive to us because they undermine those who have shown courage and commitment in defence of their country.
We have a bit of time on our hands now, so I recommend the ANZMI website to you. There are hundreds of names there. Some you may know. You may know of others whose stories don’t quite check out or seem unfeasible. If so, drop ANZMI a line.
This is one problem we can fix.
This column was first published at The Australian on 17 April, 2020
I was intrigued by one of the photos on the ANZMI site. The guy claimed to be an RAAF pilot, who was seconded to the USAF (there were Aussies who did that) during the Vietnam War. He also claims to have flown off a USN aircraft carrier. He’s wearing a cap from the USS Carl Vinson. The Nimitz class carriers were first commissioned in ’75, a few years after Vietnam (I turned 18 in ’75 so still have my draft card). The Vinson was commissioned in ’80.
This guy is in his 80s, so yeah, was flying off a carrier in his ’50s? Don’t they know about Google?
I’ve driven past the Carl Vinson in Dubai Dwight (true story!) Talk about projection of power! It’s a massive, brutal piece of kit.
Question: Will there ever be a USS Trump? 🙂
Another Question: What do you think of the treatment of Captain Crozier?
Only Presidents who served get the ship named after them, so no. Next CVN is going to be JFK.
I think Crozier was rightfully transferred. But the acting SecNav went too far in his criticisms. Crozier shared his e-mail so widely that it was bound to hit the press. Anyone who compromises operational security as he did has no place in command.
Recall a Simpsons episode where a US Navy laundry ship was named the SS Walter Mondale. I know it is not true but it does make me laugh.
LOL
Yeah, well, over 850 cases from the ship’s complement currently. That compromises operational security just a tad too.
Just when you thought he couldn’t get any worse, today Trump cancels his daily press conference because ”it’s not worth the time or effort”……………….as his country’s virus toll nears one million he cannot even front his people with some words of hope .
For God’s sake how do they get rid of this clown?
I got a funny thing on FB today that went: “At this point I would feel safer if the coronavirus gave a press conference about how it’s going to save us from Trump”.
Well I’ve decided not to be huffy and puffy about privacy and just download the Coronavirus tracker app. Australia has done a fantastic job in showing the world how to do this – and after some thought I feel it would be churlish not to give us the best chance of getting life back to normal. I can always delete it – and if all else fails do a factory reset on my phone!! After all Google knows more about my life than I do – it seems to even know what I’m thinking at times.
A witty ditty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPDPzbLFeP4&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR12zY8ft1luY1O9L3EIn3j21jB9SRXCu3gZgvqViQMgkhGO5vpumgTyJDI
I see various vague opinions as to the state of Kim’s health continue to surface.
Some sort of virus perhaps, hmmmm?
Someone was telling us Kimmie was shooting many Coronavirus Victims, Carl dont know how true that is but it would be right up his alley imho. Cheers keep safe as we
The DPRK claim to have no C-19 infections which is a touch difficult to believe. They may have it a lot worse than their southern neighbours and it may have gone through the top echelons of the Korean Workers Party including fat boy himself. What is interesting is South Korea’s C-19 stats. With rigorous and widespread testing, social distancing lessons learned during the SARS outbreak, South Korea has recorded 10,728 cases with just ten new cases and 242 deaths in total. A month ago, South Korea was near the top of the global list of recorded cases now it is 32nd and 35th in terms of C-19 deaths.
No live ones perhaps. I reckon they would be shot and buried in a mass grave,
Headline in the NYPost: North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un rumored to be dead, brain dead or just fine
Guess they don’t want to have to issue a correction!
Kim Jong-undead.
Zombies in the DPRK
Carl, I saw an unfortunate online headline typo that read “Kim Jong-unDead”. Now we’ll never get rid of him.
A Truism at all times, Mr Insider but especially relevant in these uncertain Coronavirus times:
“There is a Future Day that will Begin Without You”
This is making us a little dark. I was talking to my Russian friend the other night about legacies–and he’s six months younger than me.
A wonderful uplifting ANZAC Day yesterday, Mr Insider and how well we Aussies made the changes due to the Virus Restrictions. Heartwarming to see so many Young People in their Driveways early all round Australia. What a wonderful Country it is we live in and I often say the 1st stroke of luck we ever had was to be Born here. Cheers
This might not turn out well. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is on SBS, and I have a case of Kiwi wine on hand. *laugh* Thank God I don’t have a merry widow and fishnets.
Whilst there may be good reason to encourage his supporters to demonstrate in nice close knit crowd s which would assist in reducing the number of voters who may still be supporting him, when the first of his supporters euthanases themselves by injecting hand sanitiser, could not the opportunity be seized to declare the POTUS insane and remove him from office?
Fantastic watching a replay of the Essendon/Collingwood 1995 Anzac Day match….fitting result too. I have enjoyed googling some of the players too….for example I’d forgotten Sav Rocca went on to play football in America.
Did they play harder in those days or is my memory failing me?
You could could get away with more