‘He’s lying ? 100 percent.?
That was Patricia George’s response when informed about her estranged son Nicholas Anthony George’s claims to have had a lengthy and highly-decorated career in the United States Army.
‘He likes to tell stories. He likes to make up things,? said Patricia, who resides in Wiggins, Mississippi. ‘He told the woman he was married to, when they got together, he said that his parents were millionaires and wouldn’t give him his money . . . If I have a million dollars, I’d like to know where.?
His estranged older brother, Richard H. George, 46, also of Wiggins, Mississippi, made no bones about George’s claims being bogus.
‘To put it bluntly, he’s full of (crap). None of the things that I read (about George’s alleged military career) were factual,? he said. ‘I don’t know where he would come up with this plan or scam or con or whatever you want to call it.?
It’s quite the elaborate tapestry that George, who moved to Oxford in July 2014, weaves when he regales folks with the heroic story of his life. He showed up to this year’s Memorial Day ceremonies in Oxford, Addison and Orion townships wearing a dress uniform full of ribbons and stripes, topped off with a green beret.
George tells people he’s a retired sergeant major who spent 28 years in the service, 17 ? years of which were with Special Forces, commonly known as the Green Berets. He tells people he was awarded two Silver Stars, six Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star.
George tells people he’s been in every conflict from the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989 to the more recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and ‘did 14 tours straight without coming home.? He also tells people he’s been shot 31 times over the course of his military career and that now, he’s supposed to have his right leg amputated from the hip down and replaced with an expensive prosthetic limb.
But start pulling the threads and the tapestry depicting George as some sort of Hollywood super soldier unravels very quickly.
For example, George wears a sergeant major’s stripes, but he never attended classes at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy (USASMA), the senior noncommissioned officer school at Fort Bliss, Texas.
‘I don’t see his name in our roster,? said David Crozier, command communications specialist for the USASMA. ‘That’s looking at everybody who’s ever attended the course here in residence.?
The USASMA was founded in July 1972 and graduated its first students in 1973. Since then, the school has graduated more than 120,000 soldiers.
A non-resident course has been offered by the USASMA since the 1970s.
Perhaps, George took those classes?
‘He doesn’t show up in our non-resident ranks, either,? Crozier said.
If George was truly a sergeant major, Crozier said, ‘He would have come through the academy at one point in time.?
George claims to have devoted 28 years of his life to the army, yet his estranged son Chanc Nicholas George, a 24-year-old who lives in Westwego, Louisiana, has no memories of his father serving in the military.
In fact, Chanc said both Nicholas and his late mother, Kimberly Ann George, left him when he was a child. He said they went to live out-of-state while he stayed in Louisiana and was raised by relatives.
According to Chanc, his aunt claims George spent some time in the military before he met Kimberly, but she said he was dishonorably discharged.
This was confirmed by Patricia George.
‘He was in the army for about two years (in the late 1980s) and he got in some trouble and got busted out,? she said.
Richard said the same thing about his brother. ‘He did serve in the army,? he said. ‘He did not serve any longer than a two-year period.?
Richard is also of the understanding that George was dishonorably discharged.
All this is a far cry from the distinguished military career spanning three decades that George claims.
‘He might have thought that was what he was going to do, but he couldn’t keep his ass out of trouble,? Patricia said.
George claims his wife Kimberly died while he was serving in Afghanistan. In a May 29 conversation with this reporter at Oxford American Legion Post 108, George said his wife died in 2011, just before he sustained the severe wounds that supposedly led to his retirement from the military in 2014.
But Chanc said his mother passed away in December 2013 and George ‘was in Illinois the whole time? as far as he knows.
George’s vehicle, a white Ford Expedition Eddie Bauer Triton V8, has an Illinois license plate and a sticker on the back indicating it was purchased at a Toyota dealership in Peoria, Illinois that also sells used cars.
Records show George listed at two different addresses in Washington, Illinois. Although Patricia hasn’t seen her son or spoken to him in about 12 years, she recalled him living in Washington, Illinois.
Chanc said his mother left George in August 2013, just before her 50th birthday, and came to Louisiana to be with family. ‘He’s the reason my mom came back down here,? he said.
An obituary for Kimberly Ann George was published in The Times-Picayune, a New Orleans newspaper, from Dec. 18 to 20, 2013. It states that she died on Dec. 17, 2013 at the age of 50. There’s no mention of her husband in the obituary.
Both Chanc and Patricia confirmed George is not going to turn 55 on July 4 as he claims. Both said George’s birthdate is actually July 4, 1970, which means he’s going to turn 45.
This means that George could not possibly have been in the military when U.S. President Ronald Reagan gave his historic ‘Tear down this wall!? speech at the Brandenburg Gate near the Berlin Wall on June 12, 1987.
In the May 27 Leader story ‘A Green Beret in our midst,? George claimed he was present for the speech as a soldier.
‘That’s the moment that makes me glad I did what I did,? George told the Leader.
But when Reagan gave that speech, George was only 16 years old.
Patricia said her son was in West Germany at that time because his father, who was in the U.S. Air Force, was stationed there, so the family was living there. When asked if George attended the famous speech, Patricia replied, ‘Not to my knowledge, no.?
Incidentally, George claims to be a native of Bayou Gauche, Louisiana, but Richard said he was actually born in Peoria, Illinois. George is the second oldest of four brothers.
‘All of us were born in either Rockford, Illinois or Peoria, Illinois,? he said. ‘That’s where the whole family’s from, Illinois.?
George also claimed his father was in the Air Force for 39 years, but Patricia said it was ‘close to 26 (years), then he retired.?
Given his father served his country for so long and is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, how does Richard feel about his brother’s apparent masquerade as some sort of military hero?
‘I’m disgusted with it,? he said. ‘It’s kind of like (he) just stabbed my dad in the heart. He did his whole career in the military, so I kind of take it personally. Everything that I have read (about George’s military claims), it’s all false. I don’t know what he’s trying to pull.?
Although he’s upset about his brother’s apparently false claims, Richard said this is basically who George has always been.
‘Anyway he could get the upper hand, he would come up with some kind of con or a story to do so, even as kids,? he said. ‘He was the storyteller of the four of us.?
Special Forces Poser Patrol, a group that investigates and exposes people who falsely claim to have served in Special Forces, has filed an emergency request for George’s military service record.
The group has already discovered that George, who claims to have become a Green Beret in 1996, did not graduate the Special Forces Qualification Course, informally known as the Q Course, when he said he did.
In last week’s Leader, Bill Ole Senn, one of the administrators for the Special Forces Poser Patrol Facebook page, said, ‘If he claims to have become a Green Beret in 1996, that didn’t happen. There’s no record of him having graduated the Special Forces Qualification Course in 1996.?
Special Forces Poser Patrol learned this through a contact at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Special Forces training and education occurs there. In order to become a Green Beret, a soldier must complete the Q Course, a multi-phase training program.
It’s not just George’s military stories that don’t add up. During the May 29 conversation with this reporter at Post 108, George said he left the army for a few years in the early 1990s and worked as a chef in New Orleans.
He told this reporter he worked as a sous chef for famous chef/restaurant owner Emeril Lagasse, which led to him becoming the executive chef at Pat O’Brien’s, an institution in New Orleans since 1933.
A few phone calls revealed his brief culinary career is a complete fabrication.
‘I’ve checked our payroll records going back to the beginning of time and we have never employed a person by the name of Nicholas George in our company, ever at all, in any of our restaurants,? said Tom Pyburn, human resources manager at Emeril’s Homebase.
As for Pat O’Briens, company records don’t go back past 15 years, so this reporter was referred to Vice President of Operations Charlie Bateman, who’s been with the company for 39 years.
When asked about Nicholas George, Bateman replied, ‘Name don’t ring a bell.?
This reporter e-mailed Bateman a photo of George. Bateman responded, ‘Nope . . . don’t recognize him.?
Until last week, George had been serving as the adjutant for Legion Post 108. ‘He is resigning as the adjutant of Post 108, temporarily, until he provides documentation that everything he says he is, is true,? said Post 108 Commander Rick Moorhead. ‘I didn’t insist that he resign. He voluntarily resigned.?
Given all the questions surrounding the validity of George’s claims, Moorhead said he ‘confronted? George on Saturday and ‘banned? him from the post until he produces both copies of his DD Form 214 documents and ‘this issue is cleared up one way or another.?
‘Obviously, he denied everything,? Moorhead noted.
George has supposedly submitted a request to receive copies from the government.
A DD-214 is an official document issued by the Armed Forces to military personnel at the time of their discharge or separation from active duty. It contains information such as a service person’s military occupational specialty (MOS), service dates, awards and decorations, and personal information such as birthdate, Social Security number, etc.
According to Post 108 Senior Vice Commander Bill Vernier, George claims he has two DD-214s because his 28 years in the army were not consecutive. George had told this reporter the same thing.
When George applied to join the Legion, Vernier said he only saw one DD-214, which, to the best of his recollection, indicated George had been a private and served one-and-a-half to two years.
Neither he nor other Post 108 members, such as Moorhead and past commander Jim Parkhurst, have seen the other DD-214, which supposedly shows George was a member of Special Forces and lists all of his decorations.
When this reporter asked to see his DD-214 and a copy of his Q Course graduation certificate last week, George said those documents were packed away with all his furniture, which is supposedly in storage in New York.
Post 108 does not retain copies of its members? DD-214s.
Both Moorhead and Vernier told this reporter the American Legion directed its posts to not keep copies for security reasons because of the personal information listed on them.
But Ronald Runyan, adjutant for the American Legion Department of Michigan, said, ‘It was a recommendation (not a directive) for them not to keep them because of privacy act issues.?
He said it’s up to each post whether or not they choose to keep DD-214s on file.
‘There are posts in the state, that I know, that do keep them,? said Runyan, noting a lot of times they blackout Social Security numbers and other personal information.
For example, Lake Orion Post 233 does retain DD-214 copies, but it redacts personal information, according to Oxford Township Supervisor Bill Dunn, a Vietnam veteran who belongs to the post.
Runyan explained that when a prospective Legion member submits a copy of his or her DD-214, the only things post officers are looking for is to verify the dates of service make them eligible to join and that they were honorably discharged.
A veteran cannot join the Legion if he or she has been dishonorably discharged.
‘We don’t verify what a veteran does in the military or what kind of awards he has,? Runyan said.
That being said, Runyan made it clear the Legion does ‘want to stay on top of veterans that are wearing medals or insignias they haven’t properly received.?
‘It’s something the American Legion definitely doesn’t endorse ? members or veterans going around, (claiming) that they have awards or medals that they’ve never earned,? he said.
If a Legion member was doing this, Runyan said, ‘It would be the responsibility of the local post to verify that information and if needed, bring that member up on charges.?
According to the Legion’s national bylaws, ‘Members may be suspended or expelled from the Legion only upon a proper showing of cause. Charges shall be based upon disloyalty, neglect of duty, dishonesty and conduct unbecoming a member of The American Legion.?
Whether or not a Legion member is expelled from the organization is decided at the post level. ‘The post holds its own judgment over its own members,? Runyan explained. ‘It’s up to the post (as to) what they would like to do with that member since they’re the ones that voted him in.?
George did not return a phone message seeking comment.