Republican candidate David Oh claimed he was a Green Beret officer in 1988 before returning to Philly in the early 1990s and becoming a successful attorney. He leveraged his Army resume in politics, working for then-Mayor Ed Rendell and later Gov. Tom Ridge during a trade mission to South Korea.

But an online watchdog group that investigates claims of Special Forces qualifications uncovered evidence that Oh was never a tab-wearing Green Beret.
According to former SF Master Sgt. Jeff "JD" Hinton, Oh was authorized to wear a Green Beret while his unit supported the Special Forces, but that hardly makes him a Green Beret.

"During that time [Oh was in], everyone in the unit wore the Green Beret," Hinton said. "It was organizational headgear. That included cooks, truck drivers, lawyers, supply guys. ... That, however, did not make them SF cooks, SF truck drivers, SF lawyers, SF supply guys, or SF officers."

Oh is "parsing words for political gain," said Hinton, who runs the Web site ProfessionalSoldiers.com.

Oh's campaign office did not return Military.com's calls, but the candidate has been posting apologies on his campaign Facebook page to Hinton and other SF veterans, and on SOCNET, another special operations-oriented website that challenged his claims.

In many of his postings, he maintains that while he wore the Green Beret, he never wore the tab that only SF-qualified Soldiers may wear.

A 20-year-old woman from Cass Lake, Minn., who claimed to have just returned from being wounded in Afghanistan with the U.S. Army but actually was in school in Cloquet, Minn., pleaded guilty on Monday to impersonating an officer.

Wearing combat fatigues, Elizabeth McKenzie had been feted in February in a special ceremony in Cass Lake in which the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Honor Guard gave her a blanket and eagle feather to honor her as a female warrior, even though she isn't a tribal member. The gathering included a tribal drum ceremony and a reception line.

Accepting the town's gratitude, the 2009 graduate of Cass Lake High School talked about the close calls she'd had and a war injury that brought her home. She led the march in the high school gym, carrying the American flag.

Police became suspicious after a college recruiter heard of her story and told police McKenzie had been attending classes in Cloquet during the period she claimed to have been deployed. In fact, McKenzie had never been injured, had never been to Afghanistan and had never even been in the Army.

McKenzie was scheduled to go on trial this week in Cass County before she entered her plea. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 21. She could not be reached for comment.

McKenzie said in an earlier interview that she wore the uniform of a relative during the ceremony to honor his service. She said at the time that she still hoped to join the military some day.

When it was revealed that McKenzie was an imposter, the little town felt duped.

"Overall, there was a lot of disappointment," said Pike Bay Township Police Chief Zeb Hemsworth, who charged McKenzie with impersonating an officer, a misdemeanor. "But basically, you can't blame anybody in the community for trusting somebody. The bottom line is that she lied and the community as a whole didn't question it -- and shouldn't have to question it."

ORLANDO -- For a U.S. Senate candidate campaigning against truth-stretching politicians, Republican Mike McCalister is facing questions about whether he padded his resume and misrepresented his military service.

The retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel has fashioned himself on the campaign trail as an "in the trenches" candidate who participated in "black ops" and even testified before Congress on national security.

But McCalister now admits he never spoke before Congress. He denies ever saying "I testified." However, he did say the phrase on at least two occasions at campaign events, according to witnesses and videos posted on YouTube.com that stretch back to his 2010 unsuccessful bid for governor.

"If there was any misrepresentation, I accept responsibility," McCalister, a 59-year-old from Plant City, said Saturday in his first public statements about the issue.
Also, McCalister's website used to describe him as "retired Special Operations Colonel." It was changed after retired military officers with a group called "Stolen Valor" began contacting the campaign and the press with complaints about the way McCalister represented his service.

After McCalister failed to respond to repeated questions from Stolen Valor, its main spokesman Chuck Winn forwarded these questions to reporters and made Facebook posts suggesting McCalister was needlessly puffing up his resume. McCalister refused to talk to a reporter about it Wednesday, claiming he had bad cell service.