How mayor of A.C. was exposed as impostor [Democrat Mayor Was Phony Green Beret]

James Simmons was suspicious.

The Vietnam veteran had read a newspaper article referring to Atlantic City Mayor Bob Levy as a former Green Beret and wanted to recruit him for a veterans' group.

But when Simmons sent the mayor a letter more than a year ago seeking proof of his service in the Army's Special Forces during the Vietnam War, he received no reply and began checking for himself.

He used Internet military databases such as homeofheroes.com, enlisted a professional researcher, and contacted the Special Forces Association in Fayetteville, N.C., to determine whether Levy had been a member.

His search was bolstered by others, with a nationwide network of veterans and the Press of Atlantic City also pressing hard. Military files were obtained, and the weight of the evidence ultimately prompted the mayor to concede last year that he was not a Green Beret, and to resign Wednesday amid a federal probe into whether he embellished his service record to collect a larger pension.

"I felt like this had to be done, but I took no pleasure in it," said Simmons, 70, commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2389 in Pleasantville, N.J. "It not only degrades the Special Forces but makes the military retirement community look bad. . . . More of these guys are getting caught now because of the Internet."

Across the country, veterans and federal authorities are exposing people of all professions and backgrounds who have exaggerated their military records and worn decorations they did not earn. Military impostors have been arrested at their homes, shortly before speeches at patriotic events, or at military memorabilia shows.

"Most of the time, these guys turn themselves in," said Simmons, of Egg Harbor Township, N.J. "They don't have their medals in the right sequence, or they talk about themselves too much."

In Delaware County, a prominent veteran, James Anthony Alleva, former commandant of the Marine Corps League's Gen. Smedley D. Butler Detachment 741 in Newtown Square, was charged Aug. 28 with altering his military discharge certificate and illegally wearing the Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals as well as Parachute Jump Wings and a Scuba badge. He was ordered to surrender his passport and was released, pending a trial, after posting $10,000 bail.

In Roanoke, Va., 43-year-old Army veteran Randall Moneymaker was indicted this month by a federal grand jury on seven counts of fraud after claiming military records that included tours in Iraq and Afghanistan during which, he said, he was wounded and saw comrades killed. He also claimed to have received medals and decorations and received more than $18,000 in benefits.

And in Washington state, eight people were accused of, pleaded guilty to, or were already convicted of being military frauds, Justice Department officials announced Oct. 5 at a news conference there.

The effort to expose the phonies gained new impetus after the last presidential election as reporters scrutinized the military records of President Bush and Democratic nominee John Kerry.

"In the past, somebody could have been a hero locally and it would have been bogus, but the Internet makes it easier to smoke them out," said Doug Sterner, a veteran in Pueblo, Colo., who has assembled what is believed to be the nation's most definitive database on those who earned the Medal of Honor, service crosses and Silver Star.

Sterner, an adjunct professor at Pueblo Community College and a Vietnam vet who received two Bronze Stars and an Army commendation for valor, is pushing Congress to pass a measure introduced by U.S. Reps. John Salazar (D., Colo.) and Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.) that would create a government database. The database would contain the names and citations of those who have been awarded the Medal of Honor or other medals authorized by Congress.

Salazar sponsored the Stolen Valor Act - signed into law by Bush last year - which made it a felony to falsely claim to be a decorated military veteran. Violators can receive up to a year in prison and a $10,000 fine. The measure was largely based on work by Sterner's wife, Pam.

"Many of the people who make false claims are doing it for financial reasons, for political gain and bragging rights," Sterner said. "Guys often talk about their heroics while they get into the cup - and they begin embellishing. 'I'll see you a Budweiser and raise you a Bronze Star.'

"Men have been doing it since the beginning of time. Adam probably told Eve he planted the Garden of Eden. . . . The real heroes never talk about what they did. They're often in the shadows and forgotten while the phony heroes come out by the scores."

Even the Library of Congress was taken in by brazen fakers who were interviewed for its seven-year, multimillion-dollar Veterans History Project. Unfortunately for the wannabe heroes, Sterner was checking the record, and found scores of exaggerated and false claims.

Though only one of countless cases he has worked on, Mayor Levy's stood out in Sterner's mind. He remembers receiving an e-mail in September 2006 from James Simmons, who was seeking information about Levy's military record.

Sterner turned to his "go-to guy in matters involving Green Berets," former Special Forces Capt. Don Bendell, 60, of Florence, Colo., who spearheaded the checks on Levy's claims.

As part of his research, Bendell contacted Mary Schantag of the P.O.W. Network in Skidmore, Mo., which has another military database, pownetwork.org. Schantag obtained Levy's military record from the National Personnel Record Center in St. Louis.

"I contacted his [Levy's] office personally and in writing," said Bendell, who has written 25 books, including westerns and novels focusing on the global war on terror.

"I told him I had his military record and he did not serve in the Green Berets. I told him he was going to apologize to all the men in the U.S. Army's Special Forces. He said, 'Like hell I am,' and a month later he was apologizing."

Bendell said he had "called him out publicly - on the radio, the Internet and in the newspaper. I was a Green Beret officer and served in four Special Forces groups and have two sons that are sergeants in the Special Forces.

"I told him he would have been wiser to mess with the Bloods or the Crips. I told him he was messing with the baddest gang in all the world. Our colors are forest green and olive drab. We are the men of the U.S. Army's Special Forces."

Bendell e-mailed the mayor and copied the e-mail to other members of the Special Forces, as well as Medal of Honor recipients.

The odd thing, he said, was that the mayor didn't have to embellish his military record. "I said to Levy, 'You served honorably as a Vietnam veteran,' " Bendell said.

Levy served in the Army during two tours of duty in Vietnam and earned two Bronze Stars, the military's fourth-highest combat award. But federal investigators are checking whether he earned the Combat Infantry Badge and Paratrooper Wings he claimed.

"Since the Stolen Valor Act was passed and signed, it's been like an epidemic," Bendell said, describing the number of exaggerated claims uncovered.

Simmons said his efforts to expose Levy were "not personal. I did it for the people of Atlantic City and the Special Forces guys, and I've gotten a lot of thank yous. . . . If you don't have honor, you don't have anything."

Contact staff writer Edward Colimore at 856-779-3833 or ecolimore@phillynews.com.

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How mayor of A.C. was exposed as impostor

Increased national scrutiny led Bob Levy to admit he was no Green Beret.