I am ashamed to say that I have an immediate family member who has been impersonating a decorated combat veteran.  This individual enlisted in the US Army in 2001 and received a "medical" discharge in 2003.  He lived in my home for 6 weeks after his discharge and abandoned his belongings in my home after he tried to re-enlist using forged and bogus military documentation.  The Recruiter called me to tell me that he had changed the eligibility codes on his Dd214 so that he would appear eligible for re-enlistment, and had been caught.  He left my home, the same day.

A week after he had left my home and his belongings, I was packing his belongings up to place into a storage facility (that I paid for 3 months, in advance) for him to collect.  As I was packing up his belongings, I came across physical evidence that made my blood run cold - military stamps, date stamps, ink pads, goldtone certificate seals, scanned military documents belonging to other soldiers, forged signatures (practiced, over and over), failed "prototype" service awards, and handwritten instructions on how to make service award certificates appear official ("must be smaller than date," "no shadow," "must say Schofield Barracks," etc.) He had also left behind his entire military medical records folder which was mainly filled with tens of dozens of pages of psychiatric notes.  He was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, Cluster Traits B (?), and had been documented to phsyically violent.  Copies of these records were placed on file with our State Trooper's Barracks after the family member had threatened to kill us.

Since 2003, this person has been passing himself off as a decorated combat veteran (Purple Heart, etcl) using these (and/OR other) forged documents to secure grants, veteran's benefits, etc.  I contacted the Army Recruitment Center and asked about this person's military record, providing his SSN, and my worst fears were confirmed:  this family member had never even been processed and had, instead, spent his entire enlistment at WRAMC for psychiatric treatment. 

Without going into even more detail, this family member attempted to kill his then-pregnant ex-wife, and is a full-blown abusive sociopath.  Does anyone feel that reporting such a heinous fraud would be appropriate?  If so, how would one go about making such a report, and to whom?  This has weighed heavily on my heart since 2003, and I feel that this person's actions are immoral, unethical, and utterly despotic, but I love this person and wish for them to take responsibility for what they did (and, continue to do).  Of course, I don't want this person imprisoned or harmed, but I honestly believe that this person (and, anyone else who engages in this activity) should be stopped if he cannot stop himself.  I believe that this person will continue their fraud and stop at nothing to take whatever he wants using whatever means he can, and whatever relation he is to me won't change the fact that he's committed a crime.

For those who have survived serving their Nation, for those whose lives will never be the same, and for those made the supreme sacrifice with their lives, I beg for their forgiveness for having a family member who would perpetrate such a crime.