MARINE CORPS TIMES A black eye for MCA « -THE "G" BLOGS ~ Gunny G Online -

MARINE CORPS TIMES A black eye for MCA « -THE "G" BLOGS ~ Gunny G Online -

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MARINE CORPS TIMES A black eye for MCA
June 29, 2009

MARINE CORPS TIMES

6 July 2009


[EDITORIALS ]

A black eye for MCA
The Marine Corps Association ought to be a pretty exclusive club. Turns out, it has a problem with fakers.
Not one or two or three, but pos sibly dozens. At least 40 member profiles published in the organiza tion’s most recent directory are flawed. There are 16 bogus Medals of Honor, for example, 16 fake Navy Crosses and at least eight phony Silver Stars listed, based on a Marine Corps Times analysis. There are also at least five members listed who claim to have been Marines, but who appear never to have even served in the Corps.


There are victims in this mess, as well. A handful of legitimate combat heroes are listed with incorrect medals because of data-entry errors made by the third-party firm hired by the MCA to update its 2009 mem bers directory.
Unfortunately, some of them were lumped in with the phonies after the directory’s quality prob lems were exposed by an astute member of the MCA and Legion of Valor, an organization for recip ients of the military’s highest combat decorations. A Navy Cross recipient, retired Marine Lt. Col.
Thomas Richards was looking for fellow Marines to recruit for the Legion of Valor when the number of highly decorated vets he was finding triggered his faker radar.
A nonprofit organization com prising some 80,000 current and former Marines and dependents, the MCA fills a vital role in the Marine Corps community. It relies on membership fees and donations from members to host professional military education series and annual awards cere monies, among other key initiatives.
To some, 40 bad apples in an association that large might not seem like a crisis. It is. It under mines the group’s integrity and flouts one of the Corps’ most basic, sacred principles: honor.
Moreover, it’s against the law to claim false military honors, and the MCA has inadvertently endorsed some of those false claims.