Updated at 3:00 p.m. ET on Friday -- Ryan Andresen had recently completed the requirements to earning his Eagle Scout award, including his final project of building a "tolerance wall" for victims of bullying like himself, but his Scoutmaster would not sign off on honoring him with the Boy Scouts’ highest ranking because he is gay, his mother said.

And late Thursday, the Boy Scouts of America said in a statement that because of Andresen's sexual orientation and that he did not agree to Scouting’s principle of "Duty to God," “he is no longer eligible for membership in Scouting.” But the family on Friday disputed that, saying the only reason Andresen was denied the rank is "because the Boy Scouts of America has a problem with Ryan being gay."

The Boy Scouts of America have a longstanding policy denying membership to gay leaders and Scouts, which they reaffirmed earlier this year after a two-year confidential review of the controversial ban. The Scoutmaster for Troop 212 in Moraga, Calif., told Andresen’s father, Eric, the troop's chief administrator, on Sunday that Ryan wouldn’t be able to get the award, his mother, Karen, and Eric Andresen, 52, told NBC News.

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“I want everyone to know that [the Eagle award] should be based on accomplishment, not your sexual orientation. Ryan entered Scouts when he was six years old and in no way knew what he was," said Karen Andresen, 49, a stay-at-home mother of three. "I think right now the Scoutmaster is sending Ryan the message that he’s not a valued human being and I want Ryan to know that he is valued … and that people care about him.”

Ryan, 17, came out in July. Andresen said the Scoutmaster knew about Ryan's sexual orientation and they had no idea he wouldn't sign off on the paperwork.

It was “a total shock," she said, adding that Ryan was led all along to believe he would be able to get the award.

The Scoutmaster did not immediately respond to a phone call and email seeking comment.

But a spokesman for the Boys Scouts, Deron Smith, told NBC News in a statement that Andresen recently "notified his unit leadership and Eagle Scout Counselor that he does not agree to Scouting’s principle of 'Duty to God' and does not meet Scouting’s membership standard on sexual orientation. While the BSA did not proactively ask for this information, based on his statements and after discussion with his family he is being informed that he is no longer eligible for membership in Scouting.”

The family responded Friday to the Boy Scouts' assertion in a statement:"The Boy Scouts of America's statement that Ryan does not agree to Scouting's principle of 'Duty to God' is inaccurate. Ryan has never said that he does not believe in a higher power, and the only reason he's being denied the rank of Eagle is because the Boy Scouts of America has a problem with Ryan being gay."

Karen, who had started an online petition calling for her son to receive his award, said some other troop leaders had supported Ryan's bid for the Eagle Scout ranking.

To earn the Eagle rank, which is in its 100th year, Scouts must progress through five lower ranks, earn 21 merit badges and serve six months in a leadership position, among completing other tasks. More than two million young men have earned the rank.

Dozens of Eagle Scouts said in online postings after the Boy Scouts, a private organization, reaffirmed its policy banning gays that they had returned their medals, badges or membership cards in protest. But many other Eagle Scouts said they agreed with the policy. At the time, BSA spokesman Deron Smith said there were no plans to revisit the membership guidelines.

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Activist groups stepped up their campaign to end the policy after Jennifer Tyrrell, den leader of her son’s Tiger Cub pack in Bridgeport, Ohio, was removed from her post in April because she is a lesbian.

A number of troops have said they don’t follow the policy, and some companies and charities have recently said they would not contribute to the Boy Scouts because of the ban.

Technology giant Intel Corporation recently told NBC News that since Jan. 1 it has required troops and councils to sign a document verifying that they comply with their non-discrimination policy in order to receive donations. The United Way of Greater Cleveland, which last year gave nearly $100,000 to the Boy Scouts of America, Greater Cleveland Council, recently said under its new diversity policy that the local chapter would no longer qualify to receive such funding.

If you are a current or former member of the Boy Scouts and would like to share your thoughts on the membership policy, you can email the reporter at miranda.leitsinger@msnbc.com.

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On Christmas Day in 2009, Vermont National Guard Capt. Zachariah Fike received a gift from his mother, Joyce — a Purple Heart medal that she found in an old antique store.

But instead of displaying the medal in his home, Zac, who collects antiques, immediately took to the Internet. He began researching the name engraved in the brass finish — Corrado Piccoli — in hopes of returning the medal to its rightful owner.

“[For] a lot of these families, it’s closure,” Fike says of the Purple Heart medal. “It’s the only tangible thing that the families received after their loved one died. It’s something you can touch, that you can hold, that you can look at. And that’s all they have of him. It’s probably the most important thing in their lives.”

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Using the Internet — along with documents found at a local high school and library, — Fike obtained information about the medal’s recipient, including his draft out of junior college and the mission liberating a French village during World War II, that would ultimately lead to his death.

The amateur investigator eventually found Piccoli’s surviving relatives — including his sister, Adeline Rockko of Watertown, N.Y., to whom he placed a call.

Through the research, Fike says, he got to know the family so well that upon making contact, he reminded Adeline of things she’d forgotten and was able to even share things about her brother she’d never known.

“I had the conversation with Zac and it was like opening a door in a closet that’s full of secrets — memories and everything just floats out,” Adeline said. “And the memories came back, they were very vivid.”

The connection has become the foundation for a close relationship between the two families, and set the groundwork for a first-ever Piccoli family reunion back in 2011, when dozens came together for a formal presentation of Corrado Piccoli’s Purple Heart.

“I felt throughout the process that [Piccoli] was communicating with me,” Fike said. I really felt like I was the messenger in the return, and in essence, it brought his family back together. So, I feel that I am a part of him and his family. And I do consider him a brother in arms again. I consider them a second family.”

A third-generation soldier, Fike is well aware of the sentimental significance of the Purple Heart medal. Since 1932, it has been presented to families of soldiers who lost their lives in combat, as well as to soldiers who have been wounded in action — as was the case with Zac, who was wounded in Afghanistan on Sept. 11, 2010.

“I’m just glad to be here,” Fike said. “I’m glad I can be on a wall of honor in my mom’s home. And I would hope one day, if my medal was lost, that somebody would do the same thing that I do.”

Since the return of Piccoli’s medal, Fike has returned five more. He acquires them in a variety of places, including Craigslist and nursing homes — he even was given one from a landfill. He’s working on returning half a dozen others — and says he comes across more every week. Through word of mouth, Fike has become the go-to resource for tracking and returning lost medals.  

“People from that generation ... are passing by the day, he said. “Unfortunately [the medals] are misplaced during moves over the years. They’re sold by family members that don’t either understand or appreciate the value of them…so they end up in antique shops and things of that nature.”

In fact, Fike’s mother originally picked up the valuable artifact at the antique shop because she thought her son would appreciate the addition to his collection. Fike, quite the antique aficionado, has been collecting memorabilia for years — including photographs and record players.

Joyce knew her son would appreciate the medal — but had no idea the extent to which he’d go to return it.

“I thought he was going to keep it in his collection, so it surprised me that he has done this and it’s taken off the way it has,” she said. “I’m very proud of him for doing it. When I met these families and heard their stories, he’s done the right thing instead of keeping them in his collection.”

As for Fike, he is committed to continuing to his own mission of restoring these lost medals.

“I’ve always had that passion … even before, you know, I was wounded. I just grew up in a military family and I learned to appreciate military service and sacrifice. I think it adds to the allure of the story, absolutely. But I don’t think it makes me any more inclined to do what I do.” 

Those who need help returning medals can email PurpleHeartsReunited@hotmail.com or call 315-523-3609.

Bill DeVos, a Scoutmaster in upstate New York, packed up his Eagle Scout medal, badge and knot, and mailed the awards to the Boy Scouts’ headquarters in Texas.

Though it was hard to part with the symbols of his Scouting achievements that harkened to his childhood, the 56-year-old father of two Eagle Scouts said he didn’t want them as long as the organization kept its ban on gay Scouts and leaders.

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“It is not an easy thing to give up your Eagle. It sounds silly, but it’s very emotional, you know, if you’ve been in Scouts as long as most of us guys have … it just means a lot,” DeVos, an architect from Rochester, told NBC News. “But it’s more important for it (the badge) to do something good for others … I can look at it and be sentimental about it, but it’s what it does for others that means more.”

In doing so, DeVos, joined dozens of other Eagle Scouts who said in online postings that they have sent back their medals, badges or membership cards following the Boy Scouts’ announcement on July 17 that it would keep the ban on gays in place after a confidential, two-year review. DeVos was hoping to remain part of the Scouts organization and push for change from within, but others who returned medals said they were done with the organization.

A spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America, Deron Smith, said 50,000 Scouts earn the Eagle rank every year, and that a “few” had returned their medals, badges or certificates since July 17. When asked for a precise number, Smith said it would be hard to say since there was no standard way to return the items.

“While a majority of our membership agrees with our policy, we fully understand no single policy will accommodate the many diverse views among our membership or society,” Smith said in an email. “Naturally, we’re disappointed when someone decides to return a medal, but we respect their right to express an opinion in whatever manner they feel is appropriate.”

To earn the Eagle rank, which is marking its 100^th year, Scouts must progress through five lower ranks, earn 21 merit badges and serve six months in a leadership position, among completing other tasks. More than two million young men have earned the rank.

Activist groups in recent months have stepped up their campaign to end the membership policy banning gays after Jennifer Tyrrell, den leader of her son’s Tiger Cub pack in Bridgeport, Ohio, was removed from her post in April because she is a lesbian.

Tyrrell started an online petition calling for an end to the ban. In May, Zach Wahls, an Eagle Scout who is the son of a lesbian couple, delivered some of the signatures to the Boy Scouts. Tyrrell did the same in early July.

Wahls, who has founded Scouts for Equality to campaign against the ban on gays, said that his group was working to keep track of the letters with pictures of returned medals and badges showing up online, such as this one on tumblr and another on tech website Boing Boing. The group, which doesn’t endorse returning the awards, had counted up to 60 names from a range of states. 

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Burke Stansbury, a 36-year-old communications specialist and former Eagle Scout in Seattle, Wash., started the tumblr page cataloguing the returned medals and badges. He has been in touch with some of those who have posted to the page.

“They’re passionate about this and taking that step, even as it’s something that’s difficult for them to do,” he said. “It’s a big part of their life … it was a big part of my life. It’s a big deal to make the decision to do that.” 

Though he knows some people have been fighting to change the Scouts’ policy from within the organization, he said that this wasn’t how he wanted to spend his time.

"It would be more painful to continue to be associated with the Boy Scouts than it is to send back a medal," he said. “The Scouts have taken their stand. They’re pretty clear that they are going to stick with this policy and I think we need to cut our ties and not associate with an organization that believes in discrimination and practices it." 

Smith, the BSA spokesman, said there were no plans to revisit the membership policy. He said while it was rare for medals or badges to be returned, it was not unprecedented. The items will be kept at the national office or the National Scouting Museum.

“Throughout the years, people involved in Scouting and others who are not related to the program have expressed their disagreement with this single policy, or other policies, in a variety of ways. It is important to remember they represent their personal opinion and not Scouting’s members as a whole,” he said.

Tom Sample, a 20-year-old computer engineering student from Cuyahoga Heights, Ohio, who earned his Eagle rank in 2010, said he is not anti-gay but understands why the Boy Scouts have the policy they do, noting that the “Boy Scouts and religion go hand in hand.” 

“It does make me upset that people are returning their badges because … you work hard for those badges, it takes a long time,” he said. “It’s sad to see all these people, especially how much time they’ve spent, have to leave the organization because they don’t feel the same about it anymore.” 

DeVos, who sent his medals back this past Tuesday, grew emotional as he listed off the Boy Scouts’ values, such as trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly and courteous.

“I consider Scouting to be a big part of me, and when you have to come to grips with the fact that the organization that you believe in so much is being so antithetical to the core beliefs, it’s really, really upsetting,” he said, noting that changing the policy “can’t happen fast enough.”

Though his Eagle awards are gone, DeVos said he had no intention of dropping out of Scouting. He said he got an outpouring of support from almost everyone in his troop, including some Scouts who said they’d do the same, though one adult did express concern about encouraging gay membership.

“I want very much to … continue as the Scoutmaster and try to influence as many people as I can, but to me, sending the badge back was something that I could do,” he said. “It was an emotional moment and an opportunity for me to use this badge for something better.”

If you are a current or former member of the Boy Scouts and would like to share your thoughts on the membership policy, you can email the reporter at miranda.leitsinger@msnbc.com

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The Department of Defense unveiled a new website Wednesday listing recent recipients of the Medal of Honor, the military's highest award for valor.

The site is aimed at verifying claims of meritorious service in the military, but reaches back only as far as awards earned on Sept. 11, 2001 and after. It will eventually include awards for service crosses and the Silver Star, also dating back to 2001.

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In June, the Supreme Court struck down the Stolen Valor Act, a federal law which prohibits a person from falsely claiming a military honor. Critics of the decision had called for a government-run database listing awards, and the Defense Department said earlier this month that it would establish a site.

Related: Pentagon to set up database for military medals

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, who appeared before a joint Congressional hearing on Wednesday morning to discuss transition programs for service members and veterans, told legislators that the department would possibly expand the information over time.

"This effort will raise public awareness about our nation's heroes and help deter those who might falsely claim military honors," Panetta said.

Joe Davis, national spokesperson for the VFW, told NBC News that the site "is a starting point that we hope will expand to the other valor medals, as well as the Purple Heart and combat awards like the Combat Infantryman's Badge."

Related: Lying about military service? Bloggers have you in their sights

The site will not take the place of proposed federal legislation to amend the Stolen Valor Act, which the Supreme Court found in violation of the First Amendment right of free speech.

Last year, after the law was first struck down as unconstitutional by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, Sen. Scott Brown, D-Mass., and Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., introduced new legislation making it illegal for individuals to benefit from lying about their military service or record. That bill has not yet passed Congress.

Related: Marines mark Medal of Honor anniversary with stories of valor

Douglas Sterner, who has posted honor awards as the curator of the Military Times Hall of Valor, told NBC News that the site is a "step in the right direction," though he hopes it will become comprehensive, not only in the scope of awards, but also in the details of meritorious service. 

"What these men and women have done, the details of their actions contained within their citations, is first and foremost American history," Sterner said. "Further, such a database should be able to answer the question decades from now, 'What did grandpa do to get the Silver Star in Iraq?' Any such effort is less about the men and women who did receive the awards ... and more about preserving history for future generations."

 Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter at NBC News. Follow her on Twitter here.

 

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In the Korean War, Cpl. Joseph Vittori manned a machine gun alone for more than 1,000 rounds, killing nearly 200 before succumbing to enemy fire. Maj. Pappy Boyington and Capt. Joseph Foss both shot down a record 26 enemy aircraft in World War II. After Gunnery Sgt. Robert G. Robinson was shot 13 times while flying during World War I, he helped land the aircraft safely.

These are just some of the incredible acts that earned 296 Marines a Medal of Honor, the military's highest award for bravery. On Tuesday, the 149th anniversary of the first medal, the Marine Corps blog published an infographic detailing some of the larger-than-life heroics.

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Sgt. Mark Fayloga, chief of social media for the Marines, told msnbc.com that the graphic was the result of a few weeks' work digging through records with two other Marines. Previously, the service did not have readily available statistics or stories about how each Marine earned his Medal of Honor.

Related: Pentagon to set up database for military medals

"We put a lot of pride in our history and our heritage," Fayloga said. "There are Marine names that every Marine knows. But I was coming across stories I’d never seen before that were inspiring, and I’d have to stop and think, 'Did I just read what I read?' "

The graphic resonated with the Marines' online audience as well. On Facebook, the post was seen by 420,000 people, Fayloga said.

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Though the graphic was created to mark the medal's anniversary, it also came in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling that struck down the Stolen Valor Act. The federal law prohibits a person from falsely claiming that he has been awarded a military honor.

"It's something that's on people's minds," Fayloga said. Someone might falsely wear a Medal of Honor, he said, "but you can’t take away from what these Marines accomplished."

Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter at msnbc.com. Follow her on Twitter here.

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The Pentagon said Tuesday that it would establish a database for military awards and medals so that claims of meritorious service could be verified in the future. 

The decision was announced in a briefing by Pentagon Press Secretary George Little.

“We are exploring options to stand up a database of valor awards and medals,” Little said. “We haven't arrived at a final conclusion yet, but that process is ongoing and the goal is to stand up such a database.”

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Last month, the Supreme Court struck down a federal law called the Stolen Valor Act which prohibits a person from falsely claiming that he has been awarded a military honor.

Related: High court strikes down Stolen Valor Act

That law had been considered by its supporters to be a deterrent to false claims.

The Supreme Court case involved Xavier Alvarez, who claimed in 2007 that he was a retired Marine, had been “wounded many times,” and had been “awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor” in 1987. In fact, he never served in the United States armed forces.

Alvarez pleaded guilty to violating the Stolen Valor Act, but claimed that his false statements were protected by the First Amendment right of free speech.

Related: Lying about military service? Bloggers have you in their sights

The majority Supreme Court opinion found the law's limit on free speech unconstitutional.

The Pentagon database does not have a launch date and details about which medals and range of years to include still need to be settled, Little said.

Veterans of Foreign Wars, which has advocated for such a database and criticized the Supreme Court decision, applauded the announcement in a statement to msnbc.com. 

“The cost is minimal compared to the verifiable proof it provides to honorable service members, veterans and all their families,” said national spokesman Joe Davis.

The Department of Defense had previously estimated the price of a database at $250,000, according to VFW, and declined to create one due to cost, privacy concerns and other factors.

Msnbc.com National Affairs Writer Tom Curry contributed to this report.

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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.

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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.

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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