On Aug 22, 1:31�pm, Ed Rasimus wrote:
One of the most egregious I saw was in Colorado where a Veteran's day
celebration had Sen. Ben Campbell on stage with a guy in USAF
Colonel's uniform wearing an AF Cross, several Silver Stars and a
number of DFC's. He professed to have been a POW and escapee from
Hanoi as well as a fighter pilot hero.

He was blissfully unaware that sharing the stage was retired Navy
Captain Mike McGrath, former POW and then president of the Nam-POWs
who had never seen the guy before and quickly outed him.

That's why I think it's pathological. If a con artist wanted to pass,
he'd make a vague allusion to service and then respond to questions
with "I don't want to/can't talk about it", as do many real vets, and
let people think what they want.
There's a very shrewd French movie, based on some real life cases, "A
Self-Made Hero",

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118020/

about a man who allows people to think he was in the Resistance,
without making any particular claims. In most cases they are eager to
believe it. He keeps up the sham until the climax, when he finds
himself in a position where he has to live up to his act.