How To Be A Successful 'Walt'
Quite a few people get away with being quite successful in the Walter Mitty Stakes. Some obvious ways to avoid 'detection' are:
Be plausible. don't try to claim things which are too far beyond your level of knowledge/experience.
Don't wear gallantry medals - these are always easily traced by anybody interested.
Don't claim to be SAS - when I helped with SSAFA, the branch sec said 'the SAS is the largest regiment in the British Army - if everbody who claimed to have served in it, actually had'.
Be understated and alude to your acts of 'daring do' rather than describe them in detail.
Suggest that you once had a rather serious bang on the head and that sometimes your memory is a bit flawed about all those people you served with. If you are close to being 'rumbled' this helps and it also allows you to collect the names of people whose identities are offered by the person asking you the questions - you can then use them yourself, next time.
Don't wear too many medals, get them in the right order and know the eligibility criteria, so that you match your own 'experience' with the gongs you are wearing.
That's my advice and its always worked for me.
Best wishes in you Walting.
Field Marshal Lord Fauntleroy KCVO, DSO OBE MC and bar, aged 23