Well said Don!
Vets Angry Over Film About Fraudster Posing as Fallen Soldier
By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES (@SusanDJames)
May 2, 2013
Sgt. 1st Class John H. Robertson was aboard a Vietnamese Air Force H-34 helicopter on a special operations mission over Laos when it was shot down by enemy ground fire and exploded on May 20, 1968. U.S. servicemen who witnessed the crash say there were no survivors, and his body was never recovered.
In 1976, a military review board changed Robertson's status from "missing in action" to officially deceased; his wife, who later remarried, and two young daughters moved on.
A new documentary, "Unclaimed," suggests that Robertson is still alive at 77, living in the jungle. But the U.S. government has said emphatically that the man -- a French-born, Vietnam citizen Dang Tan Ngoc -- is a well-investigated scammer.
The film premiered this week at Toronto's Hot Docs film festival, and will have its first American screening May 12 at the GI Film Festival in Washington, D.C.
Canadian director Michael Jorgensen's controversial documentary suggests the former Green Beret has for the past 44 years lived in poverty and is now married to a Vietnamese woman with four children. He speaks no English, according to the film, but in a reunion with his sister in Canada depicted in the documentary, she says he is for real.
The film is in English, but the director uses the services of a Vietnamese translator who immigrated to Canada when Saigon fell to the Communist government in the 1970s.
Jorgensen told ABCNews.com that what drew him to the story was his "highest regard" for those who serve in the military, who are "willing to sacrifice themselves for an ideal or just your brother. ...guys who go shoulder to shoulder with you on the battlefield."
Bendell, 66, who has been active in the P.O.W. Network and its Fake Warriors Project, which uncover cases of "stolen valor," said that in 2006 the Robertson imposter "admitted to the government that he was a con artist and part of a fake con game.
"We know this guy is a fake," he told ABCNews.com. "I don't know if it's fame or fortune or what it is. Some people want their 15 minutes."
Bendell said the notion that Robertson could not speak English is "stupid," especially because of his training in special operations.
"To make it you have to have an above average IQ and high language aptitude," he said. "The guy was no dummy...How can a person forget their native language?"
cont:
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/...4#.UYPbRrUslN1