Bizarre, Criminal law, Society

Brooklyn Man Claims To Be Green Beret: Can You Spot The Flaw?

downloadWe have another stolen valor controversy this week, a subject that I have written a great deal about in prior postings and columns.  Frauds will often go to extraordinary lengths to construct a false record and appearance. Many are pathetically transparent.  Papotia Reginald Wright is one of the latter group.  He pretended to be a green beret but did not have the energy apparently to get an actually green beret.


I have previously criticized past prosecutions for stolen valor (here and here) as a threat to the first amendment. Such cases are deterred through social stigma and simple research, as it was here. This case may be more serious in that Wright is accused of gaining special entry into sporting events like Giants games and using his fraudulent record for personal advancement.

He was never a Green Beret, though he did serve in the Army. While he claimed 25 years of service, he was in the Army only from 1982 to 1990.  He served as a military driver. He created an organization called the 8th Special Forces Regiment New York Honor Guard.

Notably, Wright’s wife, Tammy Feliciano, is also accused of lying about being an ex-Army “major’’ while serving as an “executive officer’’ with him.  She never served at all in the military.

Wright is quoted as saying he never pretended to be a Green Beret and was wearing Green Beret insignia because “that was the uniform of the day.”  That still does not address the purple heart medal which is the most serious matter in my view.

Wright has an arrest record from 2015 in South Carolina for obtaining property by false pretense.

 

Here is the report from the Guardians of the Green Beret.

29 thoughts on “Brooklyn Man Claims To Be Green Beret: Can You Spot The Flaw?”

  1. Just today a similar situation arose, one that had taken place in Africa. The three who were ambushed and killed. The photo of one of the soldier was said to be of a Special Forces Soldier but the uniform was a mass of contractictions if you were thinking that mean fully qualified and experienced team member. So it was either a very old photo or it was someone assigned to be some kind of support for that operation.

    Either way the media once again failed to do their due diligence and write a believable article. Which does that soldier and his family no good at all.

    Better too print a blank page than prove incompetence. But a fine example why intelligent people do not believe 90% of what they see in the news and with hold judgement on 9 point 9% I left a point 1% for the weather forecaster.

    1. ) – your weather forecaster must be better than ours, but it is usually hard to get “It will be sunny and hot today” wrong. Still, we have storms blow up out of seemly nowhere. Our haboobs (as they are now called) are a complete source of mystery, except we know the direction they come from and the time of day. When I first moved here they were called big f**king dust storms. If they say it is going to rain you have a 50/50 chance they are right. You have to decide how to dress for the day. 🙂 All of our weather people are meteorologists, so they have a decent shot at getting it right.

    1. Paul it is a crime to wear any part of the Class A uniform of the armed forces. At least it used to be. It also used to be a crime not to be in possession of a military ID including retired OR a Draft Card. Most today when they sign at age 18 to change their draft status from eligble to be drafted to volunteered for military duty at a time of the governments choosing have not a clue it’s not a draft at that point but just an order to appear. for duty. Most have no idea the draft is still in force…. sss.gov read it and weep.

  3. With such a small percentage of the population having served in the military, it is easy to confuse others with this type of ruse.

  5. itShay detectors are needed everywhere we go. This guy needs to be dropped into a 90 ft deep outhouse.

  6. The media takes no pride in being exact. For example. referring to Seals who are charged with killing a Special Forces then a comment appears of disbelief one Special Fores would kill another. Special Forces,an Army unit is Special Forces. SEALS are a navy unit. Both may be assigned to duty with what is commonly called Special Operations. Same applies to Marine SniperRecon or Force Recon, Rangers and a number of others. if only Airborne or Airmobile like the 82nd and 101st they are not normally Special Operations as parachutes and helicopters are only a mode of transportation. (I sported master jump wings and served with both the 82nd and 101st. Once on the ground it was straight leg infantry time.

    1. You are entirely wrong, I’m sorry to say. Each branch of the US military has several special forces teams. In the Army, these are mainly airborne units; in the Navy, mostly SEAL teams. Joint special ops groups are also part of the special forces.

      1. By definition only the US Army “Green Berets” can be properly called Special Forces. Other units, whether in the Army or other branches are called Special Operations. I.e. They are all special operations, but only “green berets” are SF. Everything else is a misunderstanding by media and civilians.

  7. Let’s see if any one did spot the obvious error. However That is the color of the All Army Beret and if assigned to another Army unit other than Special Forces it would not be out of place providing the others were correct. SF is Green, Airborne is Red, Rangers changed to tan like the SAS when the army decided to instantly create elite soldiers with a beret – Black. Most of them should be wearing baseball caps

    1. Argentina dismisses navy chief amid submarine investigation is the one i forgot. The news lists the firing of a Navy Chief….that is an enlisted rank. Then says it was the Argentine Navy Commanding Officer.

      No need to be accurate with the media just slop anything that sounds good.

      1. Fiction, other than what is published in the news, is certainly not immune from inaccuracy. One of my peeves is when TV shows and movies show a person drawing a Glock pistol and we hear a clicking sound such as releasing the safety or cocking the hammer. Someone needs to better train foley artists

        1. Add to that calling a revolver a pistol or vice versa, calling a semiautomatic pistol an automatic, caling a magazine a clip and vice versa and calling a pesonal or individual weapon such as a rifle or pistol (non crew served) a gun.

          Lazy mistakes like this are far to common in the illiterate media the latest calling a win before all the votes are counted and a 1.5 or less percent difference a big deal landslide large or whatever win

          When the media starts correcting itself and deals with fact not fiction (using several when the amount was ‘a few’ I’ll believe them. Until then I automatically assume they are illiterate, stupid, or lying,

          Such as Fox’s headlines and lead ins which too often are misleading at best.

          Are the others that way? Who knows I quit listening to propaganda 20 years ago

          2. More stupid and badly educated than lazy, barely able to write a coherent sentence much less a paragraph. Many “readers” wouldn’t even notice…

  9. I am more worried about “stolen virtue”, where people steal virtue by merely being Democrats. They don’t actually do anything virtuous, and what they do accomplish, often ends up hurting more than it helps.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

    1. Is that related to “stolen shame,” by those who claim bigotry and perversion by merely being Republicans? Oh, wait a minute – Republicans are never ashamed of anything. (see, Trump, Donald J.)

      1. Thank you for so easily proving our points. As usual your programmer failed in his mission The Party. And Yoda Lykoffs manual is once more proved ineffective. Your progammers reframing didn’t work.

  10. Nobody seems to want to impersonate an Air Force radio operator or LTJG serving on a destroyer. It’s all about glory.

    No list of Valor thieves would be complete without mentioning Nick Androsky. Someone at the Ranger Training Brigade sent us his photo when he showed up at his step-father’s basic training graduation at Fort Benning and began to berate drill sergeants for their treatment of said step-father. The drills marched him to the battalion headquarters where they took pictures of him – the pictures went viral that day. Unfortunately, Mr Androsky passed from this life last year. His actual record showed that he was discharged as a private after his court martial for substance abuse. He is probably the poster face for Stolen Valor due to his popularity.

      1. I’ve never been in the military but seeing a man of his age awarded the Army’s Combat Infantry Badge three times might be slightly suspicious I guess. But to also sport an Air Force Combat Action ribbon and a Silver Star is just embarrassing.

  11. One can buy most things in the clothing sales store if in the military or a dependent. About the only one that is or was monitored is The Medal or Congressional Medal of Honor. Then the balance between left and right sides as to medals. Only one unit citation for all that other lettuce?

    Too bad it didnt’ show the shoulders. The right side would have had a combat unit patch and the left the current unit patch above with and Airborne an SF and possibly a Ranger tab. the lower part of the right sleeve and left sleeves the longevity (one per three years) and the time in combat zones (one per six months) to accompany the left breast array

    Because of that attention is automatically drawn to the imbalance….No one gets 25 years without a tour of combat duty.

    We used to catch this kind and cut their jump boots down into low quarters (shoes)

    1. The uniform he is pictured wearing is the Army Service Uniform, the current dress uniform for the Army. The ASU does not have shoulder patches for the unit. A pin is worn on the right breast pocket for a combat deployment. Also, he has modified the standard black beret by removing the blue starred shield that should either show an officer’s rank or the regimental crest for enlisted.

  12. One only has to look at how the beret is worn to spot the first visual clue.It’s always parallel to the ground and the flash is always exactly over and centered on the left eye. it was always a point of pride not to look slovenly. The flash colors are no where near the colors for the 8th SFG. From there you go to the missing items and as someone did the actual military records.

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