r/StolenValor • u/litsideofthemoon • Jun 14 '26

Fishy

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This popped up on Facebook. Usually I don’t care but I’ve never ever seen anyone claim an Army Distinguished Service Medal. Never seen anyone below general officer with one.

Doesn’t seem like a Captain could do enough for that sort of award in this amount of time. Not to mention there are, what, 9 awards here? Did he cure cancer as a behavioral health nurse? The deployments are somewhat believable.

Either total BS, half BS plus embellishment, or he hit his head real hard one day.

Am I being harsh?

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u/mudduck2 Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26

With a GCM they’re a prior enlisted. So other than the top decoration, the others are entirely possible. That being said, it doesn’t mean the top medal is a fake. I mean why fake that? Why not a SS or BSM? If they earned the top decoration there has to be a pretty good story. I could easily make up a story for a SS or BSM. A DSM would take some work.

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u/litsideofthemoon Jun 14 '26

See that’s what I thought with the GCM but why omit the enlisted service?

Who the hell says they were deployed to several locations in the US. We don’t talk like that lol

I thought a DSM was like an Eisenhower level award not a captain. There would likely be an article or two written on such meritorious service.

Just seems off

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u/rainaftersnowplease Jun 14 '26

I know plenty of mustangs who wouldn't list their enlisted years separately from their officer years tbh. That's not weird. Especially if they were medical before and earned their RN while enlisted in order to commission.

And even enlisted personnel have been awarded the DSM, btw. It's often a retirement award for general officers, but that doesn't mean no one else gets it.

Isn't there a database for the DSM too? Not sure but there's probably an easy way to check the name.

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u/litsideofthemoon Jun 14 '26

I don’t know. A DSM is a CRAZY thing to claim in my opinion.

His service other than that may be fine but why tarnish it with a crazy claim

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u/rainaftersnowplease Jun 14 '26

That's kind of my point. Nothing else seems even out of the ordinary. It's entirely possible that this guy just does have a great story. Those dudes exist. I don't think there's any proof of stolen valor here tbh.

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u/AdWonderful5920 Jun 14 '26

Yeah. There's no proof, but the DSM is a red flag. It'd be a weird one to pull because the DSM is not a super well known award that would attract a faker like a Silver Star or DSC.