J.D. “Duke” Schechter busted for embellishing his military service record

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Wow. Investigative journalism in the Arizona Daily Star on the front page above the fold on a Sunday. Who would have thunk it?

Rep. Olivia Cajero Bedford, running for the senate seat in District 27, should send a bouqet of flowers to Star reporter Carol Ann Alaimo for delivering the death-blow to her opponent's campaign. AZ Senate hopeful accused of faking his military past:

[J.D. "Duke" Schechter, 63], a Vietnam veteran and state Senate hopeful from Tucson is being accused of embellishing his service record by a national group that exposes military fakes.

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He has been besieged for weeks on his Facebook page by critics who have dubbed him "the Milli Vanilli of the Marine Corps," a nod to the lip-synching 1990 Grammy winners.

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Schechter has so far not responded directly to his accusers.

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A copy of his military service record, obtained by the Star under the Freedom of Information Act, shows that Schechter, who calls himself a Marine sergeant, was in fact discharged as a lance corporal, two ranks lower.

Schechter, who served from 1966 to 1970, said he feels entitled to use the higher rank because he briefly was a sergeant before being demoted – twice – for misconduct.

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But the events that led the national P.O.W. Network to add Schechter to its online "Hall of Shame" go far beyond the issue of inflated rank.

They include claims that he posed as a recipient of the Silver Star – the nation's third-highest award for combat valor – and of five Purple Hearts. He didn't earn any of those honors, his service record shows.

A photograph of Schechter, which he posted on several Web sites including Classmates.com, a high school reunion site, shows him wearing a white waistcoat with several rows of medal ribbons on his chest.

Schechter said the photo was taken when he dressed for Halloween as a "Jewish-American prince." He acknowledged that the get-up included ribbons representing the Silver Star and Purple Hearts.

"Claiming, or wearing, medals you didn't earn is a federal crime," said Mary Schantag, co-founder of the P.O.W. Network. The network has worked with the FBI to prosecute people who make false claims about their military service.

The Missouri-based outfit, formed 20 years ago to document the history of U.S. prisoners of war in Vietnam, came across so many phony POWs that the group branched out into unearthing all types of military fakes, Schantag said.

Bogus medal claims are illegal under the 2007 Stolen Valor Act. But such cases seldom are prosecuted because the FBI has higher priorities and lacks resources to pursue them, she said.

Michael Davis a now-retired Marine first sergeant from Oklahoma, told the Star he reported Schechter to the Phoenix FBI office early last year, and hasn't heard a word since. Phoenix FBI spokesman Manuel Johnson wouldn't comment, said the agency doesn't disclose the status of complaints.

Davis, 39, an Iraq war veteran, also alerted the P.O.W. Network when Schechter started boasting in an online forum at www.gruntsmilitary.com

"At first he came across as this crusty old war hero," Davis recalled. "Then he started making all these outlandish claims and it didn't take long to see that things didn't add up."

In 2008 and early 2009 Schechter, writing under the screen name Hairy Eyeball, told one whopper after another, according to excerpts on the P.O.W. group's Web site.

He said he'd done three Vietnam tours, when, according to his military record, he'd only done one.

He said he'd served overseas as a flight engineer, a photojournalist, an infantry machine gunner. In fact, he was a helicopter electrician who sometimes worked in the chow hall.

He said he'd earned a Silver Star and a string of Purple Hearts by taking shrapnel in his hands and legs, breaking a cheekbone in hand-to-hand combat, and getting grazed by bullets in his thigh and stomach. He also claimed to have fought off a tiger with his bare hands, and said he'd once flown a helicopter full of wounded troops to safety after its pilot and co-pilot were killed. All those events were fictitious, Schechter told the Star.

Sometimes Schechter included links to his political Web site, www.electduke.com, which he set up during a failed bid for a state representative seat in District 27 in 2008.

Schechter told the Star he initially posted a disclaimer that his stories were fictional. Davis and other forum users said the opposite – that Schechter insisted his accounts were genuine, and became indignant when confronted.

"People were getting really upset with him," Davis said. Combat veterans take great offense to medal phonies, he said, "because we've seen what real war heroes do to earn these medals."

Outrage grew when Schechter requested an estimate for a custom set of medal ribbons from an Army soldier, another online forum member, who runs a sideline business selling hand-embroidered ribbon racks.

The soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Richard Hull, 47, now stationed at Fort Lewis, Wash., told the Star Schechter e-mailed him an illustration of the medal ribbons he wanted, including a Silver Star and Purple Hearts.

Schechter told the Star he considered ordering the custom-made ribbons to put them on the cover of his book, but dropped the idea when his attempts at writing it didn't work out.

Davis and other forum users started scouring the Internet to find out more about Schechter.

They turned up the photo of him wearing medals. And they recently learned he hopes to run again in November for a seat in District 27, this time for the Senate a post now held by Democrat Jorge Luis Garcia.

"That's what really got me," said Davis, the retired Marine, who said he's a registered Republican.

Schechter said he doesn't see what all the fuss is about.

Mr. Schechter, announce today that you are withdrawing as a candidate for political office and sulk away in disgrace, never to be heard from again. This is what duty and honor require. An investigation for possible prosecution of you should be opened.

For more information

• To see the national Web site that challenges J.D. Schechter's claims: www.pownetwork.org/phonies/phonies511.htm

• Details of Schechter's current bid for office: www.facebook.com/pages/Duke-Schechter-For-AZ-Senate/282130181306?v=wall

• Photo of Schechter wearing military medals: see the online version of this story at www.azstarnet.com