Today the Denver Post reported that Rick Glen Strandlof, a former mental patient who posed as a wounded Marine captain and graduate of the US Naval Academy, is being prosecuted under the Stolen Valor Act for making claims he received a Purple Heart.
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13475253
On June 8th, an article appeared on page 10 of The New York Times about Richard G. Strandlof, who had for months taken on the identity of Rick Duncan, a gay Iraq war veteran who claimed to be a graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy. Has has made other appearances such as on CNN’s “AC360”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/08/us/08phony.html?ref=us
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/11/veteran.imposter/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
Some more basic facts as we knew them:
Today the Denver Post reported that Rick Glen Strandlof, a former mental patient who posed as a wounded Marine captain and graduate of the US Naval Academy, is being prosecuted under the Stolen Valor Act for making claims he received a Purple Heart.
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13475253
On June 8th, an article appeared on page 10 of The New York Times about Richard G. Strandlof, who had for months taken on the identity of Rick Duncan, a gay Iraq war veteran who claimed to be a graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy. Has has made other appearances such as on CNN’s “AC360”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/08/us/08phony.html?ref=us
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/11/veteran.imposter/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
Some more basic facts as we knew them:
During our continuing search to find more participants in the “Out of Annapolis” study and documentary film, USNA Out members first found the profile of Rick Duncan on a gay fitness website in January where he claimed to be former officer in the U. S. Marine Corps. On 16 January, we contacted him and asked him where he went to “college.” He responded to our message on 19 January with “USNA.”
We did not have an opportunity to respond to his reply until February 19, when we advised him of the “Out of Annapolis” project, and we invited him to join us here at USNA Out.
“Rick Duncan” then “joined” USNA Out, stating that he was a member of the Class of 1997. However, none of his five classmates here at USNA Out were able to recognize him. He additionally provided other information about himself which was quite inconsistent with the knowledge that any USNA Alumni would know about themselves. A verification of the USNA Register of Alumni also failed to list the name of any “Rick Duncan” who had ever attended the academy.
We then contacted him at his email address at coloradovets.org stating “we are having trouble correlating you to a graduate of the Naval Academy. Can you please let us know your name at the time of graduation? If you had a legal name change, it won’t show up in the register unless you change the register.” That message was never acknowledged.
Considering the facts, we concluded that he was possibly a mentally unstable fraud, and concluded our best plan of action would be to ignore him, keeping a low profile to preclude any retaliation towards our members.
For further questions about this incident, please contact us here at USNA Out.
Since this “Rick Duncan” incident, USNA Out has identified one additional fraud claiming to be a gay alumnus from the U. S. Naval Academy. The individual’s online profile included photos which he claimed to be him wearing certain medals which if fraudulent as in the Strandof case would also be a violation of the Stolen Valor Act of 2005. With this knowledge, USNA Out sent the individual a request to stop misrepresenting himself, to which he complied.
USNA Out does and will take seriously any false claims of being an alumni of the U. S. Naval Academy.