Rick Glen Strandlof, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and a marine captain, has an impressive background. He survived the September 11th attack on the Pentagon, served three tours in Iraq, was wounded during the battle for Fallujah, and received the Purple Heart.
That’s a powerful resume’. Unfortunately for Strandlof, none of it is true. Strandlof is a fraud. He never served in the military, did not fight in Fallujah, and never received the Purple Heart. He successfully carried off this charade in Colorado, appearing at fundraisers for politicians and charitable organizations.
He’s been described as “a former mental patient.” Maybe he’s crazy, but I would characterize him as hungry. Hungry for applause. Hungry for recognition. Hungry for a heroic fantasy image. Strandlof is a bargain basement hero. He is not alone. The FBI estimates there are a mind-boggling 2.2 million people pretending to be Navy SEALs. (That may be true, but I have a hard time believing that statistic.)
The army special forces has its share of wannabes. Joe Mauk has eleven Purple Hearts for wounds suffered in Viet Nam, where he was held prisoner for almost 2 ½ years. According to news reports, when Mauk spoke about his experiences, “he stirred awe in Colorado school children and brought tears to the eyes of adults.” But it was all snake oil. No medals, no military, no prisoner of war camps.
Perhaps the most surprising fraudulent war hero is historian Joseph Ellis, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his very fine book, “Founding Brothers.” Ellis repeatedly lied to his students at Mount Holyoke College, falsely claiming to have led a paratrooper division during the Viet Nam war. He also fabricated his role as an activist for peace and civil rights. Why would someone like Ellis, who has an abundance of recognition, wealth, notoriety, and literary success, hunger for more? Why do they do it? Why do they risk public shame? (Answers below)
These would be good questions for Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota and candidate for Vice President of the United States. Walz is the most recent example of heroism on the cheap, what we now call Stolen Valor.
What did Walz do? Since his elevation to VP candidate, Walzomania has been all over, everywhere, all at once, done to death.
WALZ IN HIS OWN WORDS
1. “We can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, are only carried in war.”
Actually, he didn’t carry anything in war; he was stationed in Italy.
According to his campaign, he “misspoke.” Actually, he misrepresented. His stolen valor is an insult to all the young men and women who died in combat, and others who will spend the rest of their lives without limbs.
2. "As Command Sergeant Major I have a responsibility not only to ready my battalion for Iraq, but also to serve if called on.”
Retired Command Sergeant Majors Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr claimed in 2018 that Walz retired a few months prior to his battalion being deployed to Iraq. Sounds like he shirked his stated responsibility. He did not ready his battalion. He did not “serve if called on.” Did not deploy to Iraq where men in his battalion were killed.
3. Walz was recorded several times saying he “retired as a Command Sergeant Major.” Wrong. I guess he misspoke. Again. He retired one rank below, as a Master Sergeant. Why the demotion? “Even though he was conditionally promoted to Command Sergeant Major less than eight months,” wrote Behrends and Herr, “he quit before his obligations were met, and was reduced to Master Sergeant for retirement. Yes, he served at that rank, but was never qualified at that rank, and will receive retirement benefits at one rank below. “
4. “I stood one night in the dark of night on the tarmac at Bagram Air Base in Iraq and watched a military ramp ceremony - a soldier’s body being loaded on to a plane to be returned home. And if you’ve seen it, you don’t leave the same. It makes you wonder, what are we doing?” (Thanks to Chris Bray at chrisbray@substack.com This is how is how this ends)
Oops. Bagram Air Base is in Afghanistan, not Iraq. Besides, Walz never deployed to either country. He wonders what we are doing. I wonder what he is doing.
Some frauds, like Jesse Smollet, are perpetrated for sympathy and notoriety. Some do it for money. For military phonies, the payoff is in psychological gratification. They aren’t satisfied with who they are, so they transform themselves into something better: Smollet became a victim; waltz, a hero.
The desire for heroism slumbers in all of us. Four-year-olds understand the pain of shame and the joy of redemption. Children will never tire of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, who transformed from outcast to honor through one heroic act. Clumsy Clyde the Cowboy became a laughingstock because he continuously fell off his horse. In this pre-school level book, after he captured two swarthy bank robbers, he was hailed as a hero. “As he rode away the people cheered. ‘Ride ‘em cowboy,’ and no one ever called him Clumsy Clyde again.”
When crippled news boy, Billie Batson uttered the magic word, “Shazam,” (Sampson, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury) he was magically transformed into muscle bound, superhero, Captain Marvel. ” What a great fantasy for kids,” said Bruce Goldstein, director of repertory theater in New York.
It may be a good fantasy for kids, but not so great for adults. Pulitzer-winning Psychologist, Ernest Becker, believes that the hunger for heroism can be “a blind drivenness that burns people up, a screaming for glory as uncritical and reflective as the howling dog.” Unfortunately screaming for glory can lead to all sorts of atrocities: suicide bombings, assassination attempts, revolutions, fabricating an enemy to justify one’s heroism, (think Don Quixote), self-promoting lies, and loyalty to destructive demagogues. “Fascism,” wrote Benito Mussolini, “believes in holiness and heroism.” The heroism of European fascism led to the deaths of around fifty million people.
Few of us are going to pad our resumes with Navy SEAL exploits. We are neither screaming, nor scheming, nor hungering for glory. Most of us are closer to Clumsy Clyde the Cowboy than to Tampon Tim. (See appendix #2 below). We get our fix of heroism by identifying with James Bond, Dirty Harry, Jason Bourn, John Wayne, superheroes, and endless remakes of Wyat Earp, Robin Hood, and King Arthur. We can’t seem to get enough of these heroes. I suspect many of us awaken at three in the morning, wondering what it would be like to be hailed for our heroic exploits.
Tim Walz knows that feeling. Now he knows the opposite feeling – shame, which is all he deserves.
Appendix
(1) Nero Fiddled, Walz Piddled, Fires Kindled, People died
In the summer of 2020, during the George Floyd riots, Minneapolis was torched. It burned for five days. The mayor asked for National Guard troops. Governor Walz did nothing for five days. General Jensen of the National Guard told reporters, "We never got such mission assignment. We never got such mission description.”
On the evening of May 27, shortly after he’d heard of a Target store being looted, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he called Walz to request the National Guard be sent in. “We expressed the seriousness of the situation. The urgency was clear,” Frey told the Star Tribune in August 2020. “He did not say yes,” Frey continued. “He said he would consider it.”
While he was considering it, the $500 million dollars in damage was reportedly the second costliest the civil disturbance in American history.
Meanwhile, First Lady Gwen Walz opened the windows of her home so,
“I could smell the burning tires. That was a very real thing, and I kept the
windows open as long as I could because I felt like that was such a
touchstone of what was happening." (Maybe she meant torchstone.)
Try explaining that orgasmic moment to many of the 1,500 damaged businesses in Minneapolis including mom and pop shops that never reopened. Try telling the police officers whose precinct building was breached and torched, who messaged home to say goodbye in case they didn’t survive the assault.
“ TORCHSTONE”
(2) Tampon Tom… In 2023, Governor Walz signed a bill mandating tampons be
placed in both girl’s and boy’s bathrooms for students in grades 4 – 12. Why?
Because it shows sensitivity to boys identifying as girls? Since they are only
identifying and retain their male genitalia, they won’t need tampons. If they have
surgically transgendered to girls, the 000000001% could get them in the girl’s
bathroom.
Try to imagine twelve-year old boys tossing tampons around like darts,
or tossing a bunch on an unsuspecting boy in a stall or writing other kids’ names
on them and then and dropping them in the girl’s bathroom, or walking around
school with one rakishly tucked in his ear like a pencil.
(Trust me on this; I taught seventh and eighth grade for a few years.)
David, thanks for your comment. I think that MICE might be subordinated by the powerful forces driving "The True Believer," Eric Hoffer's brilliant little book. (1951) His premise is that people attracted to causes, (and later to cults), are often self-perceived failures who join movements to alter their identities from losers to winners. Camaraderie, the power of the mob, a sense of transcendent purpose, susre beats being a nobody - at least in their eyes.
Michael Yon uses the acronym MICE to describe techniques for recruiting people to a cause. Money, ideology, coercion and ego. Our boy Tim probably supported burning down part of his state based on MICE coming from on high. It takes character to resist MICE.