Iraq veteran imposter Rick Strandlof about his actions impersonating heroes.
Richard Strandlof said he survived the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon. He said he survived again when a roadside bomb went off in Iraq killing four fellow Marines. He'd point to his head and tell people he had a metal plate, collateral damage from the explosion.
Crowds ate up his story. He canvassed Colorado appearing at the sides of politicians. Inspiring and seemingly authentic, he spoke on behalf of veterans at the state Capitol.
It turns out the whole thing was a lie. He wasn't at the Pentagon. He was never a Marine. He never served his country. He never graduated from the Naval Academy. He claimed his name was Rick Duncan.
He formed a group called the Colorado Veterans Alliance, and the FBI is now investigating whether he embezzled money as a result.
Where was he on 9/11, the day he said he witnessed heroism firsthand?
"I was in San Jose, California, watching it in horror on TV with a few other people," Strandlof told CNN's Anderson Cooper.
He was at a homeless shelter at the time.
Strandlof denies being a pathological liar. He says he suffered from "some severely underdiagnosed mental illness" and that he got caught up in the moment around "people who are passionate and loved what they did."
He told CNN he had put on a "production, which I'm sorry for."
"Hopefully the people that I hurt can in some way gain closure from that, and I myself don't know what I can do short of leaving them alone and not being in their lives, to make that happen," Strandlof said.
He said he's not sure exactly how he's hurt people. "It's not for me to say, and time will tell," he said.
Hal Bidlack, a former Air Force lieutenant colonel, is one of those people. He ran for Congress as a Democrat and had Strandlof appear with him. Bidlack isn't too happy.
"Once one lie fell apart, the whole series of things ... just cascaded into an ocean of lies," he said.
Bidlack was at the Pentagon when it came under attack on September 11, 2001. He now realizes that Strandlof stole portions of his own story.
"Now that we know he's a lying fraud," Bidlack said, "I think he was just parroting my own story back to me."
"There are an awful lot of things that he kept straight to try to fool an awful lot of people for an awful long time."
Doug Sterner has catalogued hundreds of people claiming to be military veterans who never served in the military. He says it's typical for those perpetuating the hoaxes to claim mental illness.
"I don't buy that," Sterner said. "What he was doing was looking for a cause to promote himself. I see this repeatedly. I've had a hundred cases just this year like Rick Strandlof's. ... What they're doing is building a kingdom of self and feeding their own ego."
Sterner has pushed for a federal database listing the names and citations of all decorated military veterans to help put an end to such cases. He said Strandlof has robbed true veterans of their veracity.
"Doing good does not take away from the bad that he did," he said. "Because of Rick Strandlof, the next global war on terrorism veteran that speaks in a school or talks to the media or gets involved in politics is going to be questioned."
Strandlof's story began to unravel about a month ago when he was arrested in Colorado Springs on a minor traffic charge. According to the Denver Post, Strandlof came to authorities' attention first in 1997, when he was sentenced to five years on forgery and bad-check charges.
With the FBI now investigating him for fraud, he told CNN he's innocent. "We did not take money to use on non-veterans projects. I did not enrich myself on this. I did not gain any money from this," he said.
That's not the point, said Sterner. "The one thing he robbed from every veteran that comes out now is credibility."
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@TSNorm actually on the bottom of my DD214's it does say it's DoD214. And Marine Recon and Force Recon are kind of our equivalent in the fact that it's our special forces as the SEALs and i guess you can say that SWCC is kind of a special forces for the Navy, i saw SWCC training at Coronado when i was down there for Raiders course.
giovanniFresca 13 hours ago
i feel bad for him ughhhh i forgive him poor dude being humiliated in front of everyone
R0B0T1CxFILMAKER 1 day ago
Crazy fuck....
anthonyontherocks 2 days ago
This is why the fucking press needs to VERIFY these people BEFORE they put them on camera.
devildoc225 3 days ago
@joshualawhorn1 Exactly. USMC recruits have no time for the internet.
devildoc225 3 days ago
Cooper's vicious and carefully crafted attack of Rick is just simply another example of attacking people that have powerful effects against the psychopaths that have co-opted our great nation. They are deceiving people into believing Muslims are a threat to us to justify phoney wars that are really wars upon the Constitution of the United States and have lead to the theft of trillions from our treasury. Rick shouldn't have lied about who he was but his intent was honorable.
TruthInjector 6 days ago
@Stentor7
Whats your MOS?
When did you serve in the Marines?
a9653192 1 week ago
@USMCRecruitRockie how are you on the internet commenting on this video if you are in fact a recruit? You might be a poolee but recruit you are not.
joshualawhorn1 1 week ago
i turned back when i heard him speak
TheSuperfrickensexy 1 week ago
@Stentor7 What was your MOS in the Corps?
blkcpdconure 1 week ago