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Virginia Sherwood / NBC
Timothy Michael Poe talked about his military service on "America's Got Talent," but military bloggers and others soon realized his story didn't quite add up.
Timothy Michael Poe was an ideal “America’s Got Talent” contestant. The singer, 35, not only could belt out a great rendition of a Garth Brooks song, but he had the kind of story reality shows eat up.
In an episode that aired on NBC on June 5, Poe told the audience and judges that he was injured by a rocket-propelled grenade while trying to protect his fellow soldiers in Afghanistan in 2009. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)
The injury, Poe said, broke his back and gave him a traumatic brain injury, causing a stutter. It wasn’t until a therapist at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio suggested singing in the shower might help his stutter, Poe said, that he turned to music.
“I don't know what to say to a hero like you,” said “America’s Got Talent” judge Howard Stern.
But almost as soon as the standing ovations Poe received had died away, his story began to fall apart. A lieutenant colonel for the Minnesota National Guard issued a statement saying that Poe’s records didn’t show he was injured by a grenade. His fellow service members began posting online that Poe left Afghanistan due to an ear infection, and that he’d broken his back in an earlier incident back in the United States. Some questioned his stutter, which disappeared completely when he spoke excitedly to “America’s Got Talent” host Nick Cannon after his performance, and pointed out that he was hardly new to singing, as he’d fronted a Minnesota band for years. And it was revealed that Poe had previously claimed medals he didn’t earn, and had provided the talent show with a photo of another soldier from the Department of Defense website when they asked for one of him.
Courtesy Jonn Lilyea
Jonn Lilyea, left, and Mark Seavey blog at This Ain't Hell.
Fans of the show may have been shocked, but Poe's discrepancies didn't faze Jonn Lilyea and Mark Seavey. The two men, both veterans, run the military blog This Ain’t Hell, and they’ve been on the phony soldier beat since 2008.
Related: Supreme Court strikes down Stolen Valor Act
When the Poe story heated up, much of the breaking news was first reported by This Ain’t Hell, as its thousands of readers sent the editors tips and personal anecdotes about the singer.
First, a blog reader who’d met Poe at a golf tournament honoring veterans tipped them off that Poe’s story wasn’t quite adding up.
“She wrote us first thing in the morning (after the show aired) and said hey, you need to get on this,” Seavey told msnbc.com. Soon the blog had posted a blown-up photo of a poster from the tournament showing medals Poe wrongly claimed he earned, and as the story progressed, This Ain’t Hell consistently broke fresh angles on the story, thanks in part to their wide network of readers, as well as the editors’ own dogged research.
At one point, it was revealed that Poe had given the show a photo of another soldier taken in Afghanistan in 2006, when Poe himself was actually there briefly in 2009. A reader of This Ain’t Hell quickly posted a comment thoroughly dissecting the photo and explaining why it couldn’t have been taken in 2009.
“He was in A-stan in 2009 but the picture clearly shows the HMMWV in the patrol as being an M1114 without the Frag 5 kit (the Frag 5 became mandatory in 2007 when I was in Iraq),” the comment read. “He would have been riding in an M1151 which has a completely different configuration for the window on the door.” Few if any mainstream media outlets would have been able to delve into the military detail to that exacting level.
Poe, who was eliminated from the show June 26, was hardly the first to claim false honors and come into the sights of This Ain’t Hell, but he definitely earned them the most attention. “It had a lot to do with the fact that he tugged at (the public’s) heartstrings,” Lilyea said.
But others’ false claims may be even more outlandish. Seavey and Lilyea tell stories of men who Photoshopped their faces into military photos, who got tattoos of medals they didn’t earn, wore Army medals on an Air Force uniform, and who claimed service in Vietnam when they weren’t yet born when that conflict ended.
The blog focuses on varying issues that affect veterans, from post-traumatic stress to the defense budget, but false claims are becoming more and more a part of its coverage area.
“Having been in the military, we come out and everyone wants to tell their story,” Lilyea says. “And you just pick things out that just don’t sound right.” He estimates the blog receives as many as 10 tips a week about false claims, many of which take months to research.
Most of the fakers the blog has exposed do have some military experience, but for whatever reason feel a need to embellish it instead of letting a perfectly honorable, if not headline-making, military career speak for itself.
“To me, it just seems so foreign,” Seavey says of the psychology of those who claim false honors. “You are going to get caught. There is just no doubt.”
It’s obviously important to the men, who work closely together despite living in different states. Lilyea is now a government employee in West Virginia after a 20-year military career, and Seavey is an attorney and veteran based in Indianapolis who manages the American Legion blog The Burn Pit.
“(The fakers) present the public with a poor impression of soldiers,” Lilyea says. “If I can prove that they’re not part of our (military) community, then I’m doing my job.”
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like most of the stories of these aholes tell and really disgusts me the most is that they say they are force recon or a green beret,force recon as in usmc,not everyone in vietnam could be in these positions of death dealing if so we would have won very quickly,the soldiers we carried in vietnam were some of the finest human beings i could ever come in contact with,oh yeah and they were not politicians.they all had a pair.
I'm a retired GySgt of Marines. I served for 22 years in my beloved Corps. It truly upsets the Hell out of me when people claim to be some kind of hero, or wear medals they are not entitled to. Are they such cowards that they couldn't/wouldn't serve their time? The Supreme Court has knocked down the Solten Valor Act, citing First Amendment rights. I would like to exercise my rights of expression upon their faces, over and over again.
To see more of these losers, go to www.pownetwork.com (org??). They got hundrends of them.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court just struck down the Stolen Valor Act. Now you're going to have even more pussies coming out of the woodwork claiming medals and heroics, knowing that they cannot be prosecuted and/or held liable for it. At least we can still call them out on it and embarrase them publicly even if we can't prosecute.
Gentlemen and Ladies, these wannabes troll the Internet looking for ways to make their claims seem more legitimate. Do everyone a favor, do not post info that you believe could be used by them in their shenanigans. It makes it easier to spot them.
Yah, and that makes you the hero then?
Gerard, that's exactly the sort of story that labels someone as a "wannabe". Oh yeah, you left him bleeding in the parking lot. Riiight! In the real world, they call that "aggravated assault" and it gets you jail time. (if it had actually happened.)
When my father came back from viet nam he never talked about,instead he became an alcoholic and left my mother with 7 children and one on the way.I did not understand it at the time,but now I know it was probably ptsd.
I'm guessing it was Catholicism or some other insane religious belief, not PTSD.
Meh. Who cares? If Poe, or anybody else, wants to claim medals they didn't earn, so what?
The American people, at least the American people who stand at the gates to advancement and power in the United States, don't care whether you've won medals or not. Nor does anyone else for that matter.
I never once got a free lunch, nor a girl's phone number, nor a free or reduced admission to something I wanted to see or do, nor even special consideration for admission to a master's degree program or professional school I wanted to attend for the Bronze Star I've earned. That uncomfortable hunk of metal isn't worth the cost of stamping it out and attaching it to a ribbon! It and the people I defended are worth about the same.
No one cares. No one really gives a rat's a s s.
America is being lead and guided by left wing liberals ,socialist -(lie, cheat and steal), so what do you expect ?
I do.
I would like to thank you, shake your hand and buy you a cup of coffee.
US Marine Vietnam 69-70.
Captain Wigal:
When I lived in Washington, D.C. at the Old Soldiers' Home, I remember a couple of times when we were treated like long lost royalty by the Pentagon and by the Embassy of Korea.
Also, when I was on R&R in Japan and Australia, they really went all out to entertain us troops and see to our every comfort and convenience.
In Salt Lake City, Utah, I was part of a group of veterans (mostly Mormons) involved in helping war refugee families.
I remember meeting with a guy who was considering joining our group.
His question was, "What can your organization do for me?"
WRONG question!!!
As military veterans, we were FAR more interested in how we could help others, and what we could contribute to improving our organization.
By the way, that group no longer exists, because over time, we all got too old and disabled, with no qualified youthful replacements.
Captain Jack,
Medals are not earned, they are awarded. Paychecks are earned for a days work, medals are awarded because someone suggested you went above what was humanly expected of you. That's like saying " Oh yeh, I'm gonna go get get shot or run over an IED in A-stan so I can earn a Purple Heart".
And do you think you "EARNED" your Bronze star so that you could get into the movies at a discount or pick up women? If you were actually awarded it, I would expect you be more appreciative of it and respectful toward those that were awarded it but did not live to receive it.
Only once in my 26 years in the Army did I ever take advantage of my military career to get something reduced or free. That was when I came back from Iraq the first time,( Desert Storm ) and Busch Gardens Amusement Park in Tampa, Fla. was giving free admission to service members and their dependents. I just happened to be stationed at McDill AFB with SOC, so it was right there real close. At the time I was an E-6P and with 3 dependents and military pay being what is was at the time, I took full advantage of it. Nowadays, my retirement pay and retired military ID card getting me onto post for use of the PX and Commissary is just fine.
Americans have no idea what made it great , Honest men that were willing to risk their lives for freedom.
Valor
A flag draped coffin.
The wounded warrior.
The old Veteran that walks with dignity that was awarded the MOH and dosn't brag about his service.
It's odd that just today I received in the mail a certificate from the American Legion. It had a "Certificate of Nomination" for my "Honorable Service in the United States Armed Forces" Their records have me as a war veteran. I am not a veteran and have never served in the military. I have certainly never even implied that I have served. I have no idea how this came about and wonder if I should contact them? This was an application for membership in the American Legion.
I've been stealing valor since 2004. I wanna be an airborne ranger. I wanna live the life of danger. I just don't wanna get up off my couch. So I go down to the Px and buy my medals instead. I look cool for the wimmins. they all love me and make me sammichs and stuff.
Not even the least bit funny.
Not only do people lie for profit, they just plain can't stop. I talked to someone at my granddaughtr's b'day party. She was just amazing me about her accomplishments, but they just got bigger and bigger until I realized that she was lying. It's not just pretending to have been military heroes. Of course lying about being military heroes diminishes the actual heroism of those who have given so much to our country.
It is really sending the wrong message when vets claim to have honors they did not earn. As was pointed out in the story, so often these individuals do have honorable backgrounds, just not headline making careers. Because for those who give the best they have to our nation, they do deserve to have America appreciate and respect the great sacrifices freely given. Without which this country would not exist. Especially considering how many end up giving their final full measure of devotion. It is the trust and faith that the people of this nation place in the hands of our volunteer soldiers which makes those who betray it traitors to their comrades. Creating distrust and sowing seeds of doubt in the minds of fellow Americans concerning the integrity of those who are on the watch towers of Liberty. A noble selfless spirit cannot be faked but that character is revealed day by day, deed by deed and word by word.
We have a elderly man, who actually had the kahonies to dress and describe himself as a Marine Corps Colonel! That guy need to join the Seals...he could fool anyone, if he can get aboard base and makeit through every guard and boundry as a full bird!
Makes you wonder how pathetic ones life has to be to concoct a BS story. Amazes me.
That's really sad when you have to lye about military service. Glad he got busted.
_ABH-3 Air division USS Abraham Lincoln CVN-72 1988-1992
I guess that he figured he could lie since we have a DOJ and a president that lies like hell too.
Never having served is somewhat a guilt trip in itself. I think most feel that way. At least I certainly owe a debt of gratitude to those who have served. I can't imagine the lack of self respect it would take make false claims -- should take those guys and stick them on the front lines somewhere--where they couldn't run away.
The way the media tells it that if you served over there then you're all heroes. I sure as hell didn't hear that about the Vietnam Vets. I suppose we didn't matter. This thing is blown out of proportion, big time.
Well, it's illegal to impersonate a police officer, a doctor, whatever--should be illegal to impersonate a veteran or make false claims for financial gain. I gotta go cut grass
I love that these FRAUDS are being caught, but I worry that someone INNOCENT could be railroaded in something like this... I see that RECORDS are used to PROVE things. Well, RECORDS are not always right. The VA had me as an e-3 in the ARMY for 15 years... over and over and over again I sent them copies of my id, awards, etc with my rank and service as USMC... they also had me as only having served 13 months.. 16 years here ... so.. do you see where records can get SCREWED UP? found out later my ex had actually done what he had PROMISED to do ...screwed me over by hacking into the records... so you see, you need to be CAREFUL... someone could be saying they were a MARINE when someone hacked their va records and made them in the ARMY and changed their rank!!!!... removed all their AWARDS and medals... as my ex did... yup.. 100% true story guys... having to find people to verify each and every award, photos, copies of everything... its not possible going back to 1980 before everything was on paper and not in computers always... I know my rank and my branch of service... but some yahoo like my ex knowing what he did to my records could use you guys to screw me over... so please.. BE CAREFUL... Don't hurt someone who's already been hurt enough!
I read recently the number of people claiming to be Vietnam vets far exceeds the number who actually served. Must be a guilt trip. I served in the USAF from 1966 to 1974 and though having a volunteer statement in all of that time to go to South East Asia I never was selected. From 1966 to 1969 I was in the 4th TAC Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson AFB in NC working on F105's and F4's and still was not sent over. Go figure. Though I am a veteran of that era, I never claim to be a Viet Nam Vet out of respect for those who were in that theater.
When I am out at the mall food court or out to lunch somewhere, If I see a uniform with e4 or less, and sporting a sandwich (patches on both shoulders) I pay for their lunch.
My youngest is 20, he was 18 in IRAQ (yes 18's go to war) and people catch his lunch many times when he is in uniform.
If you are in an area where there are young soldiers, the appropriate thing to do is
1. tell them "thank you for your service"
2. offer to buy their lunch.
This is an unobtrusive way to show them the respect they are due.
Keep up the good work guys! Since SCOTUS won't make it a crime, then public humiliation/outing is the only method of making it stop!
It even goes on while soldiers are still on duty, I hear stories at officer promotion boards where they are wearing stuff they don't have...pitiful.
Served 26 years in the Army Reserve, and publicly state I NEVER SAW A SHOT FIRED IN ANGER. You won't see me claiming badges/awards I don't have!
One of my favorite movies is, "BABY BLUE MARINE", starring Jan Michael Vincent.
It's been years since I last saw it, and for some odd reason, you can't buy a DVD copy.
The story takes place in the Second World War when a Marine recruit washes out of Boot Camp.
If you haven't seen that movie, I don't reckon I'll ruin the plot for you by revealing any more details.
I wish I could buy the DVD, but I don't think it's for sale anywhere.
Anyway, it has a lot to do with this particular subject.
M. O'synn-
I only looked it up to see what he'd received the medal for. I asked to, and he let me, shake his hand. I hope he DID receive it. It was by no means a waste of time, by the way, because I read accounts of heroes that most Americans don't know about. What the media feed us are Kardasians and similar nobodies.