Published: April 19, 2006 10:12 am      

Veteran groups say local man was never prisoner of war

Veterans and organizations supporting prisoners of war took issue with a story which appeared in Sunday’s edition of the McAlester News-Capital.

“It appears James Murray was never a prisoner of war,” according to Larry Scott, who operates a Web site called VAwatchdog.org. “A number of my readers feel you may have been scammed.

“He is not listed on any POW database anywhere.”

Pownetwork.org, a Web site dedicated initially to preserving the stories of those who were held prisoner in Vietnam, doesn’t mince words: “He was not a prisoner of war,” said Mary Schantag, who works with the organization that runs that Web site. Over time, pownetwork.org has evolved into an organization that also investigates the stories of those who claim to be war veterans; especially if the claims also include statements about being prisoners of war.

“No man by that name was ever a MIA/POW for even a single day of the Vietnam War,” John M. McGrath wrote in an e-mail. McGrath is a retired Navy captain who spent almost six years in a Vietnamese POW camp and serves as the historian for nampows.com. Murray, McGrath wrote, “Was never with any one of us, the real 660 surviving POWs, nor is he known by the Department of Defense in this regard.”

“It makes me angry that someone would make these kind of claims,” said Travis Read, a military retiree, former police officer and McAlester Ward 3 city councilor-elect. “I feel it’s disrespectful to everyone who ever was a POW and I’m angry at the newspaper for printing the story.”

Murray could not be reached for comment.

“It doesn’t make you an idiot to fall for these stories,” Schantag said. “Many people do, including congressmen.” In fact, she said, “Fraudulent paperwork is the biggest problem within the Department of Defense.”

One false report on the west coast actually led to a congressman having a big public ceremony to award a person a medal that hadn’t been earned and “They even named a post office after this guy,” Schantag said.

Often people forge documents, including DOD documents, letters from congressional offices, the Social Security Administration or some other office in an effort to back up fraudulent claims, she said.

Many times people are able to go so far as to make false DD 214s, the forms that list much of the information about a person’s service. In other cases, people alter their DD 214s to show training, service or awards they didn’t actually receive or earn.

Either way, Schantag said, “It’s a felony. The problem is, prosecutors have bigger things to worry about in many cases.”

“They’re not going to worry about someone making a false claim like this when there are meth labs out there killing people.”

The James W. Murray interviewed for the newspaper may not even be a veteran, according to Schantag. At the newspaper’s request, she ran several types of checks available to her organization, but not available to the general public.

Then again, he might be. But he was NOT Special Forces, she said, as only one out of the 19 men with that name who served in Vietnam was a qualified paratrooper — a requirement for Special Forces.

That one was a black man.

“We’ve got hundreds and hundreds of guys out there saying they were prisoners, but they’ve never been able to prove anything,” Schantag said, adding, “What many civilians don’t understand, from the moment you’re reported missing there’s a record somewhere. Your commander has to make a report that goes in to the Department of Defense.

“There’s a record there, somewhere, every time.”

Soldiers have long been known to embellish their records when talking with others but “That’s bar talk,” Schantag said. “We’re not interested in bar talk.

“We’re interested in the people that make public claims that are patently false.”

“It would appear your veteran has some issues,” Scott said. “I think he might need some help.

“For people who’ve actually been in a POW camp, this is one of the worst things someone can do.”

Why would anyone?

“It can be a big business,” Schantag said, adding that someone who gets a 100 percent veteran’s disability receives $2,400 per month. Add to that the Social Security payments that come with the disability, free medications and health care, commissary privileges and “You can see where it would really add up.

“There is a monetary value to many of these claims.”

Former prisoners of war estimate that about half of the people who claim to have been POWs, and who are receiving treatment through Veterans Affairs hospitals, were never held by enemy combatants, Schantag said.

In 1998, pownetwork.org received a total of 22 possibly fraudulent claims about former POWs. “Now we get that every two days,” Schantag said.