Restoring Valor: One Couple’s Mission to Expose Fraudulent War Heroes and Protect America’s Military Awards System

Married veterans’ advocates Doug and Pam Sterner worked tirelessly for years lobbying Congress to enact a bill making it illegal to lie about one’s military service and awards. That hard work paid off in December 2006 when the Stolen Valor Act was signed into law. After several legal challenges, however, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional in June 2012 on First Amendment grounds. Congress immediately took up a revised version of the statute, which President Obama signed into law on June 13, 2013. The new Stolen Valor Act narrows the law’s focus by making it a federal crime to misrepresent one’s military service only “with the intent to obtain anything of value.” In an accessible account filled with reconstructed dialogue, the authors detail how their work honoring Medal of Honor recipients morphed into a deep involvement in the “wannabe” issue in the late 1990s. The self-proclaimed “fraud busters” expose men who have falsely claimed they earned high military decorations, including the Medal of Honor. The authors also include appendices on how to ferret out fraudsters as well as navigate the potentially daunting maze of official records. (Feb.)