SEAL faker pleads guilty in Stolen Valor case
MilitaryTimes Friday Jan 8, 2010
A retired Coast Guard chief warrant officer 2 who claimed to be a decorated and combat-hardened SEAL — and managed to get a disability rating from the government — has pleaded guilty to wearing combat awards he did not earn. Thomas Barnhart pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Roanoke, Va. to two counts of violating the Stolen Valor Act.
Barnhart served a combined 21 years in the Navy and the Coast Guard. He joined the Navy in 1969, then moved to the Coast Guard 10 years later, retiring in 1990. He entered the Coast Guard claiming to be a SEAL who had completed diving school and High Altitude-Low Opening parachutist school, according to court records.
He also claimed to have earned the Silver Star, Bronze Star with “V” for valor, Purple Heart with four stars, a Combat Action Ribbon and Vietnam War-era awards. The Coast Guard clerk bought the story and added the awards to Barnhart’s DD 214. Later DD 214 alterations would add a Navy Commendation with “V” device, Presidential Unit Citation with three stars, and Vietnamese Medal of Honor First and Second Class.
“Witnesses have stated that the defendant would spin yarns about his secret missions with the Navy SEALs and describe various combat situations in which he was wounded,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig “Jake” Jacobsen said in his comments to the court, which he provided to Navy Times. “As a result of what everyone believed, the defendant was promoted to warrant officer in the [Coast Guard] ahead of others, likely as a result of the defendant’s stellar ‘combat record.’ ”
Barnhart, who did serve off the coast of Vietnam in 1969 and 1970, retired Dec. 31, 1990, and applied for disability through the Department of Veterans Affairs less than a year later. By this time, he was passing himself off as a member of SEAL Team 1 with five Purple Hearts and a nomination for the Medal of Honor. He claimed a scar on his left forearm was the result of a gun shot, though VA medical records from 1987 said the injury was the result of his cutting himself on a piece of metal.
The VA claim was denied, but Barnhart was successful after giving it another try — this time with the help of his congressman — in 2005. This time, Barnhart claimed he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, and pointed to his altered DD 214 to support his claim.
During a subsequent medical exam in Virginia Beach, Va., Barnhart told the examining physician he was a SEAL in Vietnam assigned to an elite HALO parachute unit. He claimed to have engaged in multiple combat missions and received two Silver Stars, three Bronze Stars and five Purple Hearts. But an alleged rescue of a downed pilot, seeing a soldier being blown up by a rocket and having a pilot die in his arms after their helicopter had been shot down led to his PTSD, he told the doctor.
“The awards keep growing. Then he is a SEAL, then he has all the heroics,” Jacobsen told Navy Times. “I’ve seen this in similar pattern in other cases. The phonies can’t help themselves. The awards and accolades always grow.”
Still, the VA decided in 2006 to award Barnhart a 30 percent disability rating for PTSD.
The case against him began when Mary Schantag of the POW Network got wind of the bogus claims. She began an exhaustive investigation that ultimately led to the state’s attorney’s office looking into the matter. On Jan. 25, 2008, he admitted his DD 214 was altered, and that he was neither a SEAL nor a combat veteran. By that time, Barnhart had received $13,923 for his fraudulent PTSD claim.
“He was very quiet and ’fessed up when he was arrested,” said Jacobsen, who is an Iraq war veteran. “He seemed sincere in his apologies and didn’t deny that he had fabricated his history.”
Barnhart’s sentencing is set for April 8 in Roanoke. He faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the theft of government funds and one year in prison and a $5,000 fine for claiming medals he did not earn, which is a misdemeanor. He also is required to pay back the $13,923 received from the VA for disability.