Fake Marine Hero

By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday May 27, 2009 17:23:41 EDT

The California Department of Veterans Affairs honored former Cpl. Eric Piotrowski in 2007, presenting him with a Silver Star for his actions 16 years earlier during Operation Desert Storm.

One problem: He never earned the medal, according to military documents and the FBI, which arrested and charged him May 8 with one misdemeanor count of violating the Stolen Valor Act and one felony count of lying to agents investigating the case.

The arrest comes more than five months after Marine Corps Times began investigating the case. It also has prompted the California Exposition & State Fair Police Department, where Piotrowski works as an officer, to suspend him with pay and launch an internal affairs investigation, said Cal Expo Police Chief Robert Craft.

Piotrowski, 41, received the medal for actions in Kuwait between Feb. 24 and Feb. 27, 1991, according to the citation that California VA Undersecretary Roger Brautigan read aloud during the 2007 award ceremony. The citation, purportedly signed by then-Navy Secretary Henry Garrett, said that Piotrowski put himself in harm’s way to allow “breaching units” to move forward, provided suppressive fire to cover an anti-tank team, and guided separated elements of his unit through enemy forces after an assault on Iraqi defenses near Kuwait International Airport.

The citation was posted until December on the California VA Web site with a press release and photograph of Brautigan and Piotrowski shaking hands during the ceremony, which took place in Piotrowski’s home. Brautigan, a retired two-star Army general, holds Piotrowski’s medal in the photo.

“I was honored to be able to present Cpl. Piotrowski with the Silver Star Medal for his courageous actions while serving our country in Kuwait,” Brautigan said in the press release, dated Dec. 11, 2007.

Conflicting details

But the citation is wrought with details inconsistent with history and Piotrowski’s own DD Form 214, a document that describes a service member’s assignments and awards upon military separation.

The citation said Piotrowski, of Elk Ridge, Calif., was with “3rd Platoon, 1st Force Reconnaissance Company, 1st Marine Division” during his time in Desert Storm. Because Marines in Desert Storm organized in task forces, it is unlikely a citation would not include additional unit details, current and former 1st Force Recon Marines said. During Desert Storm, 1st Force fell under what was known then as 2nd Surveillance Reconnaissance and Intelligence Group, but the designation is not listed on Piotrowski’s citation.

The citation also said Piotrowski served as the platoon sergeant and noncommissioned officer in charge of a “Universal Fire Support Vehicle” — a term that resulted in just three entries following a recent Internet search. The entries included Piotrowski’s citation, a page on a video game Web site and a 2002 Navy document, which instructs officers in writing citations and includes a fictitious Silver Star citation honoring 1st Lt. “John L. Doe.” The Navy document includes many of the exact same phrases and passages as Piotrowski’s citation.

Piotrowski’s service record shows he did not serve in 1st Force Recon and did not earn either version of the Kuwaiti Liberation Medal. The medals were awarded by the Saudi Arabian government to any service member with direct participation in Desert Storm and by the Kuwaiti government for participation in either Desert Storm or Desert Shield.

Piotrowski served from November 1986 to July 1991, according to his Military Report of Separation. His records show that he spent most of his career as a rifleman with infantry units at Camp Pendleton, Calif., but did not see combat.

Accusations denied

In a Dec. 3 phone interview, Piotrowski expressed surprise when the citation was questioned, saying he was first notified he rated the Silver Star in 2007 after he sought his military medical records. That prompted an audit of his service record, he said, adding that he later received the citation from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.

Pressed on the details of his purported actions in Kuwait, Piotrowski said he remembered the event, “but I don’t recall the specifics of it.”

“I remember being on a Humvee and providing fire support,” he said. “We were out there trying to provide fire support so that we could move the mission forward. That was it.”

Piotrowski also said that maybe the records center sending him a Silver Star “was a bogus joke.” He didn’t want the ceremony, he said, but was surprised by it on his birthday by his then-wife, who sought to honor him when she heard he hadn’t ever been recognized for his purported valor.

In a statement released May 8, federal authorities said Piotrowski did not see military action in Desert Storm and purchased the Silver Star citation and medal through the Internet.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released on $10,000 unsecured bond, said Lauren Horwood, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento.

FBI Special Agent Mark Gurgeson said in an affidavit filed inthe case that authorities interviewed Piotrowski about the Silver Star on March 17. According to the affidavit, Piotrowski told authorities that the medal arrived in the mail after he requested a copy of his military records, and that the citation was accurate.

Three days later, FBI agents interviewed him again. Piotrowski “confessed that he had lied to the investigating FBI agents” during his March 17 interview, ordering the Silver Star from eBay and the citation from another Web site, authorities said. Piotrowski did not return calls from Marine Corps Times after his arrest.

‘Looked legitimate’

Piotrowski’s arrest has caused others to do some soul-searching as well.

In December, Cal Expo officials said Piotrowski was hired as a part-time officer in July 2005 and that he left the force in December 2006. He was rehired in June 2007 — before the California VA ceremony, but after Piotrowski ordered a Silver Star certificate from a Tennessee-based Web site, expresscitations.com, on April 5, 2006, said Bob Neener, the Web site’s manager.

Craft, the Cal Expo police chief, said Piotrowski was placed on paid administrative leave after the May 8 arrest. He declined to say whether the internal investigation centered on Piotrowski lying about his military history to get a job.

At the California VA, Piotrowski’s case has made officials rethink how they research veterans whose families ask for them to be honored. J.P. Trembley, a California VA spokesman, said the department was first contacted by a smaller veterans organization about Piotrowski’s family. The group asked if there was any way he could be honored.

VA officials reviewed the citation before deciding to participate in a ceremony, and believe it “looked legitimate from what we had,” Trembley said.

“We won’t typically do these things all the time, but this was done as a favor, for a lack of a better way of putting it,” Trembley said. “It’s one of those kinds of things where if we could take it back, we would.”

Questions about the legitimacy of Piotrowski’s citation also rattled Neener, who said in December that his Web site is meant to provide memento certificates for veterans who lose their original documents.

A former sergeant who served in Vietnam, Neener said he lost his own Bronze Star and Purple Heart certificates in a tornado in 1992. When he petitioned the Navy Department for replacements, he was told the government replaced the medals, but not the documents, Neener said.

Neener said he decided to put his expertise as a graphic designer to work, creating “reasonable facsimiles” veterans could display on their walls or set aside as keepsakes. He has filled more 8,300 orders since 2005, he said, and creates Silver Star certificates for $34.95.

“My work as a graphic publisher has become too good, I think,” he said. “When a kid can fool a retired general with the VA, that’s a problem.”