Larry Porter, supposedly was tossed into 18 feet of water at boot camp when it was known he couldn't swim. He served in the Navy for 15 months in the 1970s. He obtained $134,000 in VA disability benefits and $40,000 from the Social Security Administration from 1999 to 2006. It all turned out to be false. Porter is in a jail cell serving a three-year sentence, and was forced to repay all money he accepted from VA and Social Security.

Jesse MacBeth, a former soldier who served in the Army only 44 days and didn't finish basic training at Fort Benning, Ga. He pleaded guilty to making false statements about his service and was expected to be sentenced. He filed discharge documents with VA stating that he served three years. He also claimed to have earned a Purple Heart and a Ranger tab. MacBeth's VA claim was denied.

Merrick Hersey, a fugitive after a warrant for his arrest was issued in Washington, accused of filing a false military discharge document. He claimed to have earned two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star as a rifleman

In the case of Xavier Alvarez of Pomona, Calif (the case was moved to Oregon), the accused was elected a water district board member in 2007 and claimed at a meeting that he was a retired Marine and recipient of the Medal of Honor. A pretty stupid claim given the small number of MoH recipients and easy confirmation of such claims. Alvarez, however, seemed unwilling to go with a simple Silver Star and a Purple Heart. Turns out that Alvarez never even served in the military unless he could claim the water board made him some type of Seabee.

An Army captain at Fort Monroe accused of wearing unearned combat medals will retire and not be court-martialed on charges of fraud and conduct unbecoming an officer.

Fort Monroe's commanding officer Col. Anthony Reyes has dismissed all charges against Capt. Jose J. Huertas, who agreed to retire as a staff sergeant, base spokesman Mike Hodson said Tuesday.

A veteran of 21 years in the military, Huertas did not have enough time in grade to retire as an officer, said Greg McCormack, Huertas' attorney.

Huertas was charged in December with unauthorized wearing of multiple medals, including the 3rd Infantry Division combat patch and two Kuwait Liberation Medals. Huertas had served in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Skyler Smith is accused of wearing two Purple Hearts and several other military insignias. Smith initially pleaded not guilty to the charges.

A law passed in 2005 makes that a federal crime, if you didn't earn the medals.

Tuesday he entered a guilty plea five counts of military medals fraud for wearing, without authorization, the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantry Badge, the Senior Parachutist Badge, the Air Assault Badge and the Bronze Star, as well as others to U.S. District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn.

"There is no limit to what this defendant would lie about," Vance said. "Not only did he fake documents in order to sell a worthless ring for tens of thousands of dollars, but he also was willing to claim the honor and sacrifice of a soldier in battle in order to make a buck. This cries for prosecution and punishment," she said.

He pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud for advertising and selling a diamond worth $350,800, on Ebay. Smith advertised the diamond for $140,000; sold it for $70,000 and provided fake appraisal and auction records to support his claims of ownership and the stone's worth, according to his plea agreement. The stone was a cubic zirconia worth about $13.

He pleaded guilty to claiming to be a military veteran disabled in service in order to bid on an Army contract to provide ballistic vests. Smith submitted a bid on behalf of NBC Tactical and won a $168,643 contract to supply the vests, the plea agreement says. The Army terminated the contract for the company's failure to deliver the vests, court records show.

Army investigators found Smith received an Other Than Honorable Discharge from the Army and that he never was classified with any disability, although he claimed in writing to have received Purple Hearts for wounds he suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the Bronze Star Medal, according to his plea agreement.

Smith had applied to become a member of the Military Order of the Purple Heart and rode in the organization's Veteran's Day parade last year wearing a uniform and the Purple Heart medal. A photo of Smith wearing the Combat Infantry Badge, the Senior Parachutist Badge and the Air Assault Badge was included on a Web site for NBC Tactical.

Smith has admitted that he never deployed overseas, was never in combat and has not earned combat medals. He also acknowledged he was discharged from the Army, in lieu of court martial, for being absent without leave, according to his plea agreement.

Count 1, wire fraud, carries a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison, and Count 2, false statement to a federal agency, carries maximum punishment of five years in prison. Each charge carries a $250,000 fine. On the medals fraud charges, Count 3, fraudulently claiming to have been awarded a Purple Heart, carries a maximum punishment of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine. Counts 4 through 7, unauthorized wearing of other medals, carry a maximum punishment of six months in prison and fines up to $5,000 each.

A former soldier charged with felony bank fraud and two misdemeanor counts of falsely claiming military awards or decorations is set to plead guilty Thursday to two of the three charges against him, according to the prosecutor handling the case.

Richard David McClanahan, 29, has agreed to plead guilty to bank fraud and falsely claiming a Medal of Honor, said Christy Drake, the assistant U.S. attorney in Amarillo, Texas. As part of the plea agreement, she said, the prosecution will drop the other charge against McClanahan -- that he falselyclaimed he had three Silver Stars, three Purple Hearts and the Legion of Merit.

The bank fraud charge carries up to 30 years in prison, and the maximum sentence for the Medal of Honor charge is one year in prison. McClanahan will appear in U.S. District Court in Amarillo in front of federal district judge Mary Lou Robinson. When the plea is accepted, a different date will be set for sentencing, probably a couple months from now, Drake said. Robinson has sole discretion in determining how much time McClanahan should spend behind bars, Drake said.

If McClanahan changes his mind about pleading guilty, the case against him is still set to go to trial Aug. 14.

Army records for McClanahan, a former medic, show he never received an award for valor, and his only overseas assignment, Army officials said, was a year-long tour in South Korea from 2003 to 2004. McClanahan was kicked out of the Army for similar charges, spending time in prison and taking a reduction in rank and an other-than-honorable discharge on his way out, Army officials said. He was in the Army from 2001 to 2005 after a short stint in the Navy.

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill.-- An Army veteran who prosecutors say bilked the U.S. government by faking paralysis to get disability benefits and avoid being deployed to Iraq was sentenced Friday to 6-1/2 years in prison and ordered to repay more than $300,000.

Jeffrey Rush, 27, apologized at times tearfully to U.S. District Judge William Stiehl, who handed down the prison term prosecutors had requested.

"I hope you will use the time in prison to learn to conduct yourself in an honest way once you are out," Stiehl, 84, told Rush, who stood straight in his cream-colored suit, yellow shirt and striped tie.

Stiehl-- a federal judge for nearly a quarter century-- never told the man who dodged being dispatched to Iraq that he was a Navy veteran of World War II and the Korean War.

Afterward, Stiehl told The Associated Press that his own military past had no bearing on how he punished Rush, who pleaded guilty in November to two fraud conspiracy counts and one count apiece of mail fraud and making false statements to the Social Security Administration.

Rush asked Stiehl for lenience for his ex-wife, who has pleaded guilty in the scheme and is scheduled to be sentenced on Monday.

Authorities say the Rushes stuck to his bogus story that he had lost the use of his legs after a 2004 rollover crash, just weeks before his Army company from Kansas shipped off to Iraq without him.

As part of the scheme, court records show, Rush received $107,857 in benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs and $28,730 from the Social Security Administration. Court documents and discussions offered no details on how Rush perpetuated the scheme.

The scam unraveled after the Rushes in 2005 sued Ford and the maker of the seat belts used in Rush's sport utility vehicle, blaming both companies for his purported paralysis and his wife's resulting "loss of consortium and conjugal relations." The Rushes went on to have a child in July 2006.

Stiehl agreed to a defense request that Rush, who now lives in Nashville, be allowed to remain free on bond until ordered to report to federal prison.

SAN ANTONIO - An Army veteran sentenced to probation for fabricating a dazzling military career will not face additional felony charges for the benefits he allegedly received based on false claims, according to a newspaper report.

Brian Culp, 38, was sentenced to three years' probation Dec. 30 after falsely claiming a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star Medal with valor along with creating a fake military identification that gave him access to bases. He also was being investigated over allegations he received $11,000 in benefits fraudulently.

Culp told detectives he was receiving 60 percent disability payments from the Veterans Administration based on false claims about seeing mass war graves in Bosnia and being wounded there, according to the investigative file. However, Culp was never in Bosnia.

A decision not to prosecute was made this week after a review of the case that was prepared jointly by the Office of Inspector General for Veterans Affairs and detectives at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

Investigators at the Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General and a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Antonio declined to comment Thursday on the decision not to prosecute Culp, or even confirm it, the San Antonio Express-News reported Friday in its online edition.

"I am disappointed they chose not to pursue that. Culp confessed to me to lying about his war experiences and getting VA benefits for it," Detective Steven Vaughan said.

During his sentencing last week, a federal judge said Culp, who served two tours in the Army, had served his country honorably and didn't deserve prison. Culp showed none of the bravado or pretense he used to feign a fictional military career and was instead contrite and apologetic.

While serving in the Army, Culp was disciplined at least twice for making false claims about his record. He continued to do so after being honorably discharged, passing himself off as an elite Ranger.

SAN ANTONIO - An Army veteran who falsely said he received awards for heroism could be sent to prison after all.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Pamela Mathy on Thursday declined to set bond for Brian Culp, 39, and set a July 15 probation revocation hearing.

Culp pleaded guilty in December 2008 and was sentenced to three years of probation for his military deception.

Culp, who served two tours in the Army, had faced six months in prison on charges of falsely claiming a Purple Heart, falsely claiming a Bronze Star with valor, and creating a fake ID that gave him access to military installations.

The San Antonio Express-News reported Friday that Culp was kicked out of a halfway house in late June amid allegations of insolence, lying and intimidation of staff.

DALLAS — A Colorado congressman wants Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to provide answers on how a Texas man apparently tricked the Army into allowing him to enter the reserves as a noncommissioned officer.

Mike Coffman, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, delivered a letter to Gates' office on Monday asking him to address issues raised by an Associated Press story last Friday detailing the case of Jesse Bernard Johnston III.

The AP reported that Johnston, 26, was given the rank of sergeant when he enlisted in the reserves in February despite no military experience other than spending six weeks in a 12-week Marine officer candidate course while he was in college in 2004. Because Johnston didn't complete the course, he never became a Marine.

The Army has declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation.

Coffman, a Republican who served with the Marines in Iraq and the first Gulf War, wrote that he wants to know whether the Johnston case is an isolated incident or indicative of "a larger systematic failure" in vetting enlistees.

Coffman wrote that his office has obtained a copy of a phony Marine discharge document portraying Johnston as a veteran of campaigns in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He said the document, known in the military as a DD-214, may have been used by Johnston when he joined the Army Reserve.

"The fact that the Department of the Army does not immediately verify that someone has or has not previously served is both stunning and frightening," he wrote.

If someone without prior military experience could convince the Army to enlist him as a sergeant based on phony paperwork, it raises the possibility of a terrorist doing the same thing, Coffman said in his letter.

A Pentagon spokeswoman said a response will be provided to Coffman "as appropriate."

Johnston joined the Army's Corps Support Airplane Company based at the Fort Worth Naval Air Station. Although he never went overseas, members of his unit have been deployed to Iraq as part of an aviation battalion set up to destroy improvised explosive devices.

Since March, Johnston has been stationed at Fort Rucker in Alabama, the primary training base for Army aviation. He did not respond to phone and e-mail messages from the AP. A base spokeswoman has said she cannot comment on Johnston's status because of the ongoing investigation.

Johnston's ex-wife, also an Army reservist, has stated in an affidavit that Johnston obtained his rank in the reserves by falsifying documents that made it appear that he'd served in the Marines. Melanie Rolfing's sworn statement was filed in Fort Worth family court as part of a petition in which she sought to have her two-year-old marriage to Johnston annulled on grounds of fraud.

In the affidavit, Rolfing said Johnston led her to believe he'd served as a Marine in Iraq and Afghanistan and earned a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts. She also said he would attend military functions in a Marine dress uniform that included the medals.

A judge issued a decree granting the annulment on May 4 when Johnston declined to contest it.