Ex-SEALs Target False Claims of Wartime Valor

September 5, 1999

By MacDonald J. Daniel, Globe Staff
Boston Globe

STONEHAM - For a while, Wayne Higley was a hero, a Navy SEAL and Vietnam War veteran fond of wearing his three Purple Hearts, his Navy Cross, and showing off the battle scars on his now middle-aged legs. But his record was a lie. And when confronted once, Higley lied again. And again. That was too much for members of the Naval Special Warfare Archives, a group dedicated to exposing - and shaming - those who pretend to be military heroes.

So last month, they flew to Boston and knocked on the unemployed 52-year-old Higley's door, cameras in tow, prepared to conduct an interrogation.

Higley immediately tried to leave his apartment, but upon seeing three burly Navy SEALs and a documentary crew from the BBC, he retreated inside, only to be coaxed outside again by his wife.

''I raised my voice,'' said R.D. Russell, founder of the group, which checked out Higley's actual record. ''But I explained to him that he had hurt a lot of people. He had done a lot of damage to veterans and servicemen everywhere.''

The retired Navy SEALs struggled to control their tempers. ''Beforehand, we had to develop these rules of engagement because these guys were so keyed up. These guys, they were shaking when they finished talking to him. And they all felt that he's going to do this again. But if he continues this stuff, it's never going to end,'' said Don Tocci, a SEAL from Stoneham who snapped pictures of the berating.

Based in Colorado, the Naval Special Warfare Archives is a group of former Navy SEALs committed to exposing what they see as a growing number of men falsely claiming Vietnam War credentials. SEALs - the acronym stands for Sea, Air, and Land - are the Navy's elite special-operations force. They specialize in water-based clandestine operations.

Like so much about the Vietnam War, the group's response is heightened, their anger charged, and their words laced with moral outrage. ''We consider this the same as standing and desecrating one of the graves of the SEAL brothers and all the others that gave their lives - that's how bad these people are,'' said Russell. Higley says the shaming is bizarre and excessive. He admits he lied, a small fib that grew larger and larger over time.

''What I did was wrong, but when is it going to end?'' Higley asked, referring to the confrontation before the TV crew last month. ''I don't need any more of this.''

Higley is the latest of what the group states is 4,000 men who have falsely espoused Navy credentials and been caught. Believing that they have truth on their side - and with the cooperation of the Navy and a 9,300-name database - organizers said they are unapologetic about embarrassing men whom they consider military charlatans.

Members of the group posted Higley's story on the Internet, in which they called him a ''slimeball'' and a ''detestable specimen of patriotic American.'' There are pictures of the confrontation, with Higley staring at the ground, cane in hand, in every shot. The group asserts that most veterans back them, especially those who have come in contact with people who faked their credentials.

For Diane Carlson Evans, a Vietnam War nurse who in 1984 founded the Vietnam Women's Memorial in Washington, D.C., Higley was as good a fake as a fake vet gets. On a visit to the memorial, with Evans by his side, Higley cried, pointed to the statue of the wounded soldier in the arms of attending nurses, and said: ''That's me.''

''In a nutshell, I think Wayne Higley should have won the Academy Award last year for best actor,'' Evans said from her Montana home, ''because he certainly had many of us fooled and many of us are not easily fooled anymore. I can usually pick the wannabes out, but Wayne had us all fooled. He was a master actor and played his part passionately.''

When first confronted by a group of local veterans in 1998, Higley admitted his lie and promised not to lie again. But earlier this year he did, offering help to a Burlington veterans group. Before his story came to light, Higley readily talked to friends and veterans groups, accepted awards, and backed up his talk with impressive-sounding credentials. In recent years, he developed a nationwide reputation for his ability to bring an audience to tears with tales of bravery overseas.

But Higley was never in battle. He was never even overseas. He never won a single Purple Heart, let alone three. As for the Navy Cross, the second highest medal any Naval officer can receive, Higley never came close. The scars on his legs are from a non-military accident. Higley's real-life military career was lackluster, according to his military record obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by the Naval Special Warfare Archives. Higley served two years in southeastern Virginia. Upon completion of his two-year stint as a low-ranking ''beachmaster,'' he was never asked to reenlist.

Richard DelRossi, a Stoneham police officer, began working with Higley in 1997 to bring the Vietnam Veterans Moving Wall to Stoneham. The two became fast friends, visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington and leaning on each other from time to time.

''We were probably as tight as brothers get,'' said DelRossi. ''If I wasn't working, I'd be doing something with Wayne. Myself and everybody else was just taken in by the guy.''

After both men helped raise money to help pay off the debts of the Vietnam Women's Memorial, Higley and DelRossi were invited down a second time to speak as part of the monument's rededication. Before they went, however, DelRossi sent messages to various Navy SEAL Web sites to help reunite Higley with some of his old mates. A day later, DelRossi had messages from across the country. All said the same thing: Higley's a phony.

''I got home that night and my computer wasn't on, but it was smoking,'' DelRossi said. ''I still didn't believe.''

DelRossi did his own checking, and the truth came flooding in with every phone call. Higley was confronted by the Stoneham wall organizers, and promised never to do it again.

Tocci, a Burlington High School teacher, began shooting the breeze with Higley about his time in Vietnam in 1997 during Tocci's visit to the Stoneham wall. It was only later that DelRossi told Tocci that Higley had been using Tocci's Purple Heart story as his own.

''I don't think I'd ever told this story myself to a group of people,'' said Tocci, ''and he's using my story in front of audiences and these women were crying over it.''

The two later discovered that Higley was also using a story copied from a Medal of Honor citation for another veteran. Higley simply changed the award to the Navy Cross.

Higley is not the only Massachusetts resident to be exposed for faking military credentials. The Bay State has been rife with similar stories. Ken Smith, founder of the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans in Boston, was found to have boasted of battles he never fought and donned awards he never won. John Yandle, a convicted murderer, was released from prison after falsely claiming to be a Vietnam War hero but was sent back to jail after admitting he lied. Politicians John Lakian and Royall Switzler also said they had Vietnam experience that was later proved false.

For Dr. John Greene, a staff psychologist at the Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic in Boston, wannabe vets are a simple but heinous case of lies getting out of control.

''I think people would like to be heroes or would like to think they measure up, so they create this myth that gets better with age,'' Greene said. ''And as years go by, you tell a lie long enough, you believe it. I think it happens with all veterans. But for a few, it gets out of control.''

Higley acknowledges that he fell into this pattern, but wonders how much punishment fits this offense.

''I was wrong. I admitted it,'' he said. ''I don't know what I have to do. All I want to do is get it behind me.''

Asked why he lied, Higley said he did not know. ''If I could answer that,'' he said, ''I probably wouldn't have done it.''