Battleland

79 Battle Stars? That’s a Lot of B.S.’ing

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Sure, guys claiming to have earned war medals but never served in combat are scum. So what do you call guys who never served in combat, claim war-hero status, claim they were disabled because of their service — and use those fake wounds to plunder $6.8 million from the Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business Program? Well, in Missouri you call him Warren Parker and his ill-named Silver Star Construction. According to an indictment unsealed Thursday, Parker, 69, claimed

to have reached the rank of major in the U.S. Army, completed three tours in Vietnam, to have been awarded three Silver Stars, the Legion of Merit, four Bronze Stars with Valor, eleven Air Medals with Valor (claiming 300 hours of combat air time), three Purple Heart Medals, a Presidential Citation, a U.S. Army Citation, Combat Infantryman’s Badge, Vietnam Service Medal with (79) Battle Stars and to have been Awarded over (32) Citations for Heroism.

Actually, Parker served five years in the Missouri National Guard, never left the state of Missouri on active duty. and was honorably discharged in 1968 as an enlisted mechanic. His lone decoration: an expert shooting badge. Facing decades of prison time, Parker won’t have much to brag about with fellow prisoners.