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 Author  Topic: Gunman at Holocost Museum sats he was a PT Boat Captain
Gary Szot

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Gary Szot   Send Email To Gary Szot Posted on: Jun 10, 2009 - 1:39pm
Officials say the gunman walked into the museum Wednesday with a rifle and began shooting, prompting security guards to return fire. The gunman and a security guard were shot. A law enforcement source said the gunman was shot in the face, and authorities say he is in critical condition.

In 1983, Von Brunn was convicted of attempting to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve Board. He was arrested two years earlier outside the room where the board was meeting, carrying a revolver, knife and sawed-off shotgun.

At the time, police said Von Brunn wanted to take the members hostage because of high interest rates and the nation's economic difficulties.

On his Web site, Von Brunn says he was a PT boat captain in the U.S. Navy Reserves during World War II



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Gary Szot

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Gary Szot   Send Email To Gary Szot Posted on: Jun 10, 2009 - 2:23pm
Can anyone verify if James Von Brunn, 88, actually served on a PT?


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Gary Szot

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Gary Szot   Send Email To Gary Szot Posted on: Jun 10, 2009 - 2:28pm
He claims to have served on pt 159 and pt 559, as co of the first and exec officer of the second.




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Russ Blaise

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message   Posted on: Jun 10, 2009 - 2:36pm
...or he could just be a PT boat captain wannabee! I have documented over 100 Alamo Scout wannabee's since 1999. Most of the claims come from family members saying that their dad said they were a Alamo Scout during the war.

I read somewhere that over 400 people were documented to claim to have been on PT-109 during the crash. The Navy Seals have a big problem with people claiming to have been in their unit.

Russ Blaise
Executive Director
Alamo Scouts Association
asa at alamoscouts dot org

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Drew Cook

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Drew Cook  Posted on: Jun 10, 2009 - 2:53pm
This is very true (false claims of service in elite units by phony veterans).

There's an entire book ("Stolen Valor") written about phony Vietnam veterans -- some of whom have gone to incredible lengths in lying about and misrepresenting their military service for decades.

Recently, an elderly, well-known "82nd Airborne Division" veteran of WWII's Normandy Invasion, who has been claiming for many years to have been one of the 82nd's paratroopers who jumped into combat to kick off D-Day, even to the point of appearing on documentaries walking around in Normandy and showing where "landed," was found to be an almost complete fraud -- he was in a Chemical Decontamination unit, his military service fairly short and standard (undistinguished). The nearest to a parachute he ever got may have been the handkerchief in his hip pocket.

I sincerely hope this despicable militant racist and murderer of the security guard at the Holocaust Museum today wasn't a PT Boater -- although all the major news outlets are now reporting on the six o'clock news that he "was the commanding officer of PT 159..."


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Gary Szot

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Gary Szot   Send Email To Gary Szot Posted on: Jun 10, 2009 - 3:33pm
At Close Quarters lists Lt. Henry J. Brantingham as CO of the 159 boat.


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  TED WALTHER

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of TED WALTHER   Send Email To TED WALTHER Posted on: Jun 10, 2009 - 4:03pm
Guys;
Hank Brantingham was skipper of 159(and of 35, RON 3). he was also XO of RON 9, then he went on to command Destroyers. But 159 continued til 1945 and Samar.
This guy at the holocaust musuem is probably just another crack pot.
As Russ says, there are tons of wannabes out there, so much so that the SEALs and retired SEALs actually hunt these guys and expose them publically, many have lost jobs because they claimed to be something they were not on their job applications. They used to have there own website that had all the names of these fakers, where they lived, what they said they did, and how they were exposed. One of the newest cases I have read was a Lieutanant on the Los Angeles County Lifeguard service.
Hell we even had one at my unit back in 1991, and he was caught on CNN coming off a commercial jet in Naples, Italy wearing a trident. He gave a full interview, then went home to Wisconsin and did a elementary school tour. Then He walked across our quarterdeck and met our Master Chief Chuck Steffey, a SEAL who had seen service in UDT21, ST 4 and a plankowner of ST6. Chuck took this guy around to every Seal Team Quarterdeck on Little Creek for a "personal" introduction as the great Gulf war hero who chased sadam out into the Afican desert. He was Mashed at every unit for an hour, then Chuck sent him TAD to Puerto Rico, so he could meet the guys at Unit 4....more mashing!!
Take care,
TED


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Shaneo2

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Shaneo2  Posted on: Jun 10, 2009 - 5:48pm
I agree that the "poser" issue is often and everywhere- including law enforcement for instance (claiming to have served). The real shame about posers is they discredit the service branch. I talk to a lot of former Marines and almost all of us have a poser story or two to tell of someone we encountered in our past.

It is important to note if you see someone making claims like this- to bring to others attention.

Regards-


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Drew Cook

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Drew Cook  Posted on: Jun 10, 2009 - 5:50pm
Guys,

There IS a "James Von Brunn" listed in the "The P.T. Boaters Roster" section of the KNIGHTS OF THE SEA 50-year annual -- page 506.

Nothing in the "US P.T. Boaters, Then and Now" biographies, though...


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TED WALTHER

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of TED WALTHER   Send Email To TED WALTHER Posted on: Jun 10, 2009 - 7:43pm
Drew;
Navy records show von Brunn enlisted in 1942 as an apprentice seaman before accepting an appointment as a naval midshipmen in the volunteer reserves in March 1943. On his application for enlistment, the 21-year-old listed his reason for signing up as "patriotic." His records show he had language qualifications in both English and French after spending three years in college. He was discharged from the Navy in 1956.
TED


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