This is the part of the story that I don't understand. Does the Army just take your word for it when you say, "I was a Green Beret, give me more retirement money"? When I was a government employee they didn't take my word for anything. They wanted receipts, records, requisitions, blah blah blah. Any aspect of his service would be in their records and I'd think they'd check them before forking over the dough.
Same here, USN, 1954.
I lost all my high frequency hearing when the guys on the bow planes lost control and dived too deep for the snorkel to breathe (high-speed snorkeling run). The diesels sucked out all the air until the safety kicked in and shut the engines down. By then three of us who had colds and couldn't equalize fast enough had screwed up eardrums.
I wanted out so bad, I didn't want anything to slow my discharge and so I didn't make a claim. 50 years later the VA doc suggested I put in a claim so I could get a hearing aid. I wasn't looking for any money, but the govt wanted chapter, verse and page on how it happened. It was all hearsay (most of the crew were dead by then) so naturally I was disallowed.
How these phonies do it is beyond me.