Category Archives: Commando

Albert BRUM – it’s never too late…

Mr Albert Brum, a serial embellisher of long standing was exposed by our friends at “This Ain’t Hell” in 2017 and he has recently resurfaced. Although, SVC was not involved in the original expose, we have been advised that Mr Brum has articulated a desire to leave the trinkets that support his military themed fairy tale as a lasting legacy of his service to a Canadian military museum located near his hometown.

This has prompted us to ask a couple of questions.

Will his donation include the three World War 2 Campaign Stars that he wore without lawful authority and the Legion of Honour that he was awarded by the French government for his supposed service in the liberation of France? 

Can we expect that the US medals and insignia including the Bronze Star and Combat Infantry Badge (second award) will be included in the package? 

Brum would have believe he was a member of First Special Service Force (The Devil’s Brigade) with service in Italy and participated in the liberation of Rome.  He then claims to have transferred to 1 Can Para and made a jump into France on D +1 (7 June 1944) as a reinforcement. However, Brum is not listed on the nominal roll of the FSSF nor has any documented overseas service in Continental Europe! His story changes to suit the circumstances, the event and the audience and of course, he claims to have been a sniper! 

http://www.firstspecialserviceforce.net/fssf-roster-of-men.html

In fact, he has actual WW2 service in the RCAF (April-Nov 1944) and transferred to the CA (Jan 45-Apr 1946) where he eventually became a jump qualified RCE Sapper who volunteered to serve in the Pacific theatre. But, he has absolutely no service in an operational theatre. 

Brum is not a graduate of Royal Military College of Canada. RMC didn’t reopen until Sept 1948 making it somewhat difficult for him to complete his studies, graduate, train as a gunner officer and deploy to Korea in 1949 and again in 1951. In 1949, he joined the Militia where he eventually became a Major in the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry serving until 1969.

Once again simple arithmetic and recorded history proves that his claims of post war operational service in Korea and South East Asia are a complete fabrication! 

He never achieved the rank of Colonel in the CA, he was never a “CANLOAN” officer with the US Army in Vietnam or Cambodia in 1963 and 1965 nor, does he have any service with the US military as a Green Beret.

Major AE Brum CD should have been proud of his military service, there was no need for him to embellish his accomplishments over the course of several decades yet, he did. 

That will be his legacy…

https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=71382

Never pass a fault – A bogus RCR Sergeant Major!

So, back in December 2020, Mike Blais wrote this piece.
We have now ID’d the individual who claimed to be a CSM in the Royal Canadian Regiment and a former member of the Canadian Airborne Regiment.It now appears that Mr MacKenzie has a long history of impersonating an infantryman that dates back several decades and in fact, continues to so based on images pulled from multiple social media platforms.

There is likely much more to his story as stolen valour is often just the tip of the iceberg…

Brent A HABETLER – Sir Lies-a-lot.

Stolen Valour Canada was advised by a number of parties that there was a potential issue with the medal that HABETLER was photographed wearing at the Royal Canadian Legion branch in Lloydminster, Sk.

Prior to investing any research effort into what has the potential to become a wild goose chase, we contact named individuals in order to provide them with an opportunity to sort out the reported situation. SVC does not act upon unsubstantiated intelligence or malicious tips, and we hoped that Sir Brent would take advantage of this offer to assist in protecting his reputation.

SVC asked him via his email using his verified email account on 17 October 2019 to contact us over a sensitive situation.

His one word response – NO!

 

Sir Knight appears to have some sort of royal access to CLAWR that accompanied his “knighthood”

Our brave knight produced the following documents as proof of service, not exactly convincing….

 

Mr HABETLER, do everyone a favour, put your military themed trinkets back into your tickle trunk and stop telling fairy tales of make believe army career! Your foolishness is nothing but an insult to our wounded and fallen.

UPDATED

Video of “Sir Brent” has now surfaced documenting his antics at the Alberta Legislature (16 Oct 2021). In his latest scam, our brave knight claims to be the “Queen’s Representative” and will negotiate on behalf of First Nations with his third cousin, Queen Elizabeth II…

He must have left his fancy gold rope, his bogus documentation and the fake Canadian Forces Decoration in his tickle trunk of military fairy tales.

Ken “Not a Ranger” POITRAS

We were asked to review a number of photographic images of former Master Corporal Kenneth (AKA”Ranger Ken”) Arthur POITRAS CD who resides in the Winnipeg, Manitoba area.

Our review identified a number of inconsistencies in his medallic display and, when combined with his confusing claims of service, that gave us cause to question his entire military narrative.

Our team conducted a thorough review of all available records, this included websites, newspaper articles, photographic images, regimental tour books, searchable data bases of medal recipients and extracts from military documents in Canada and in the United States in order to determine the legitimacy of his claims.

When recently questioned by a retired senior PPCLI Officer who is actually a US Army RANGER, this was Poitras’ response…

Poitras wearing a maroon beret next to the mural dedicated to a true PPCLI hero!

SV-C then reached out to the regimental associations, their museums and other organizations in which Poitras has claimed to have served. The publicly accessible records, that we have had the opportunity to review, did not support his claims. That being said, the absence of verifiable records alone does not conclusively prove that an individual is a fake or embellisher, it just indicates that there are no records…

Our next step, we contacted Mr Poitras on 5 May 2019 and provided him the opportunity to sort out the reported situation.

In this image, sent to SVC by Mr Poitras on 7 May 2019, shows the medal group and jump wings he routinely wore at military themed events.

*Special Service Medal (NATO/OTAN),

*Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal,

*U.N. service medals (6) – India/Pakistan, Cyprus, Golan Heights, Lebanon, Namibia, and Angola,

*International Commission of Control Supervision (Vietnam),

*Multinational Force of Observers (Sinai), and

*Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal (1977).

He separated the Canadian Forces Decoration (CD), his sole legitimate medal from this group on our request.

Recorded history and simple arithmetic caused us to raise a number of red flags in regards to Mr Poitras’ medal group.

India/Pakistan- UNMOGIP (1948-1979) and UNIPOM (1965-1966). These two missions used the identical medal ribbon. CF participation was limited to military observers, all officers, and RCAF aircrew.

Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal (1977) The names of PPCLI recipients of this medal are recorded in the regimental journal. There are no 21 year old Private soldiers with broken service listed…

Lebanon-UNIFIL (1978) only 117 CF members received this medal and their names are known to SVC. Of note, this medal was also worn fraudulently by a convicted valour thief / senior officer.

Angola-UNAVEM II (1991-95) Canadian participation in this mission was limited to a total of 60 military observers, all officers.

Vietnam-International Commission of Control Supervision (1973) – 14 PPCLI Officers served on this mission that predates Poitras’ enrolment by almost 2 years!

SO, what we do know…

Former Master Corporal Kenneth Arthur POITRAS was an Infantryman in the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. He served in both the 2nd & 3rd Battalions of PPCLI between 1975 and 1983. Poitras was selected for and attended basic parachutist training at the Canadian Airborne Centre in Edmonton in the Spring of 1977, he failed to complete the course.

There is absolutely no record of him attending the US Army’s RANGER qualification course although he claimed to have been a trainee on Class 2 of 1976.

Was he honouring a friend by wearing the RANGER garb?

He continued to serve in the 3rd Bn PPCLI at Work Point Barracks until he applied remuster to Mobile Support Equipment Operator. Poitras then served at a number of Air Force bases until he retired from the CF in 1991.

By surrendering the bogus medals and wings,  former Master Corporal Kenneth A Poitras CD confirms that he didn’t serve overseas in any capacity and had had no lawful entitlement to the wear the items.

Lest We Forget.

Hubert Meyers (aka Meijers) – Never a Commando, not a Vietnam Vet!

Stolen Valour Canada was advised by a number of parties that there was a potential issue with the medals and insignia that Mr Hubert Meyers had been photographed wearing along with his claims of serving alongside the US military during the Vietnam War.

SVC does not act upon unsubstantiated intelligence or malicious tips that are often initiated as a result of petty jealousy, marital misadventure or, sheer vindictiveness.

We will not waste any staff effort on someone’s “gut feel” nor do we do participate in witch hunts. Tipsters must provide evidence (pictures, news articles, social media links) of their concerns before we can move forward.

Prior to investing any research effort into what could become an unfounded wild goose chase; we contact named individuals in order to provide them with an opportunity to sort out the reported situation. Our hope, they would take advantage of our offer to protect their reputation and silence the issue once and for all by providing proof of the medallic entitlements.

To that end, we asked that Meyers, back in July 2018, to provide us with the documentation that would prove his entitlement to wear the Green Beret / hat badge of the Korps Commandotroepen of the Netherlands Army.

We also requested that he prove his lawful right to wear what can only be described as a bizarre group of official and commemorative US military medals including the Purple Heart x 3 and third awards of Air Force Commendation Medal & the National Defense Service Medal.

 

 

The Purple Heart recognizes being wounded in action. Meyers wearing this medal is essentially claiming that he was awarded this medal after being wounded three times during the Vietnam War. However, only members of the US Armed Forces are eligible to receive the Purple Heart and Meyers was never one.

Meyers wears the US Air Force Commendation Medal with 2 x stars (on the  miniature medal), presumably indicating a third award. Unfortunately, Meyers didn’t pay attention to detail, as the USAF used oak leaf clusters to indicate subsequent awards….

 

The National Defense Service Medal that Meyers wears has 2 x stars. This indicates that the wearer has/had served on active duty during 3 of the 4 designated eligibility periods. (1) The Korean War, (2) the Vietnam War, (3) Gulf War and (4) the post 9/11 period. He’s not old enough to have served during the Korean War and he emigrated to Canada prior to GW1…

 

Meyers also wore the Vietnam Service Medal with “Arrowhead” device to denote participation in an amphibious assault landing, combat parachute jump, helicopter assault landing, or combat glider landing by a service member of the US Army or USAF and 2 x campaign stars.

 

The result of initial inquiry – Meyers immediately scrubbed his Facebook page of any evidence of his claimed military service. This sort of behaviour is quite familiar to our researchers and warrants further investigation of the individual.

So, we contacted our friends in the Netherland’s Commando Association to solicit their assistance in determining whether Mr Meyers (aka Meijers) was ever a badged member of their organization.

Their response – Who?

The brass KCT beret emblem displays a Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife, hand grenade and a ribbon with the unit’s Nunc aut Nunquam (now or never) motto on it. The background of the emblem consist of a gothic typeface “W”, indicating the name Wilhelmina, Queen of the Netherlands from 1898-1948. The beret emblem is worn on a black background with a green border.

Mr Meyers eventually contacted SVC with the goal of sorting out this situation. Long story, made short, he has now apologized for his actions and surrendered the items in question.

 

Mr Meyers has surrendered the pictured items, SVC will now coordinate their return to the authorities for appropriate disposal action.

 

Lest We Forget.

 

 

Herne STEELGRAVE – Green Beret or a newt?

Stolen Valour Canada was advised by a number of parties that there was a potential issue with the claims made by Gallowsglass who was regular participant in events and ceremonies in the Manitoulin area hosted by various veterans support organizations. 

https://www.manitoulin.ca/war-pensioners-plan-shutter-organization/?fbclid=IwAR1kqK2trdXAHkCkycnlGnGznlzvqzUTo04a2_0kvi-Sdpl0JTpCLtE3Sc0

Prior to investing any research effort into what has the potential to become a wild goose chase, we attempt to contact named individuals in order to provide them with an opportunity to sort out the reported situation. SVC does not act upon unsubstantiated intelligence or malicious tips, and we hoped that the “Green Beret” would take advantage of this offer to assist in protecting his reputation.

Unfortunately, Steelgrave immediately went silent, not surprisingly images were deleted from social media sites and then the inevitable occurred, we were contacted by an enabler (Spouse/partner/spiritual advisor?) asking that we remove the content from our media platforms and making threats of legal actions against someone for something…

Of course, we responded.

SVC has had no further communication from the “Green Beret’s“ witchy-woman so, we can only surmise he’s on a deep undercover mission for the CIA or he’s been turned into a newt.

Franck Gervais – Canada’s most brazen valour thief.

Franck GERVAIS

Cantley, Quebec.

Gervais pleaded guilty to charges of unlawful use of military uniforms and unlawful use of military decoration while dressed as a sergeant while attending Remembrance Day services at the National War Memorial in 2014.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/remembrance-day-sergeant-franck-gervais-not-in-the-military-dnd-says-1.2833025

Two charges of impersonating a public officer were withdrawn.

He received one year of probation and ordered to perform 50 hours of community service through a restorative justice program.

https://youtu.be/mCfyvivYxLg

Of course, he has nice wedding pictures too…

Unfinished Business!

 

 

Remember this poser who self identified as a war criminal? 

 

 

Daniel Howard WHITESELL
Windsor, Ontario

 

Whitesell said that “his team would enter the villages in the middle of the night, and that if a teenager or child, the same age as the students he was speaking to had seen him, that he had to silence them by any means necessary to avoid giving up their position, alluding to the fact that he had killed innocent children during his service.”

http://stolenvalour.ca/index.php/2018/12/16/daniel-howard-whitesell-is-he-a-special-forces-cwo-rsm-or-a-navy-reserve-bin-rat/  

In a series of  emails, which we have not responded to, Whitesell has demanded that we remove the posts which detailed his medallic fuckery™ while portraying himself to be a highly decorated special forces operator. He has also threatened SVC with legal action and he’s now engaged a lawyer and will initiate a 400 Thousand dollar lawsuit against us. Apparently, Whitesell holds the belief that we are harassing him by not removing the documentary evidence of his bogus military service from our social media platforms…

So, how did we become aware of his shameful tales of murdering innocent children in the performance of his duties?

*Where did he believe the photographic evidence of his military themed fairytales that are showcased on our platforms originated?

*Did he think that his bogus persec / persec demands directed at 600 school kids would be followed?

SVC has supporters in every region of the country and they share our approach of separating posers, fakes and embellishers from their their bogus medals, uniforms, insignia and lies. 

The “RSM’s” shadow box of shameful stories…Who’s picture has he used to pump his tires?

Although the plaque is difficult to read in the image; the “RSM” makes a number of interesting claims!

What we do know, Whitesell was never member of the former Canadian Forces Medical Service now Royal Canadian Medical Service or the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. He has never served in Canadian Special Operations Force Command and he certainly wasn’t a member of the Clan of the Big Badges! 

 

Whitesell attempted to purchase a replica medals group from a reputable medal mounting service claiming that he had sent his originals to the National War Museum. The company declined his business…

However, Whitesell’s limited service in the Navy Reserves should have taught him that honesty & integrity are critical personal attributes of a professional service member. However, his willingness to stand in the blood of our wounded and fallen for personal financial gain indicates that he knows absolutely nothing of what it takes to be soldier!

Perhaps, Whitesell should provide proof that the 150 dollar honorarium he received for his Remembrance Day performance was donated to “the children’s hospital” as he has claimed?

His reprehensible conduct has insulted the dedicated service and incredible sacrifices made by every member of the CAF and their families. 

And, for that there is a consequence…

SVC will provide former Ordinary Seaman Daniel Howard WHITESELL of Windsor, Ontario an opportunity to take full ownership of this situation and publicly apologize, via our platforms, for his reprehensible actions. He knows how to contact us…

SVC 

Lest We Forget