Marine charged with faking war wounds for gain
By DAVID DISHNEAU (AP) see http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?id=353531
SABILLASVILLE, Md. — On a sultry day in July 2008, Marine Sgt. David W. Budwah strode in his battle fatigues to the front of a picnic pavilion to tell three dozen young boys what he did during the war.
With his clear gaze, rigid posture and muscled, tattooed arms, Budwah looked every inch the hero he claimed to be. He said he was on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan when a homemade grenade exploded, wounding his face and arm when he dove to shield a buddy from the blast.
“We’re here to make sure of the freedom you have every day,” Budwah told his audience at Camp West Mar, a wooded American Legion compound about 60 miles northwest of Washington.
But the Marines say Budwah is a liar, a fraud and a thief. They are court-martialing the 34-year-old Springhill, La., native, alleging he was never in Afghanistan, wasn’t wounded and didn’t earn the combat medals he wore — or the many privileges he enjoyed.
Budwah joined the Marines in October 1999 and spent nearly all of the next six years with a radio communications unit in Okinawa, Japan, according to the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Va., where Budwah has been stationed since February 2006.
Phony heroes aren’t unusual. Thousands of complaints pour in annually to the FBI and civilian groups about impostors flaunting store-bought medals.
Their very prevalence exposes something else — a nation so eager to embrace its war fighters, especially the wounded, that it sometimes fails to discern between the real heroes and the fakes.
“In every society in history, the warrior is glorified,” said phony-hero debunker B.G. “Jug” Burkett of Plano, Texas. “The second you say you’re a warrior who has performed heroically in combat, everybody perceives you differently.”
Burkett, 65, a Vietnam veteran and author of the 1998 book, “Stolen Valor,” said the urge to honor the wounded can cloud a person’s judgment.
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Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States.
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