Rating: 
Summary: A Good Read, But Full Of Mistakes
Review: I've read this book three times since buying it. I like the stories about the phony vets. I'm mentioned in the book under the PTSD section because since 1994 I've helped over 600 combat vets get service-connected for PTSD. I believe they were trying to discredit what I do because of their views on PTSD, but many combat vets have contacted me for help after reading the book.
One vet I helped had been shot in the face and was so disfigured he couldn't get a job anywhere and was at the point of suicide. The VA had given him a 10% rating for the wound. I knew each time he looked in the mirror, the war and PTSD faced him. No one would help him. I told him what to do, and within two months, he received 100% rating for PTSD. He told me I had saved his life. PTSD has been around forever: shell shock, combat fatigue, war neurosis. It's not something made up to increase a VA budget. A statement like that is ridiculous.
According to Stolen Valor, I am helping to promote a sterotype because I helped a combat veteran receive benefits for something that completely destroyed his life.
I know there are phony vets. I've met and faced down many myself while working for the VA years ago. I've found doctored DD-214s, and I believe I can talk to a vet for five minutes and tell if he was in Nam. I have always been instantly suspicious when I see a vet wearing cammies and tons of different elite unit patches plastered all over them. On one visit to the Wall years ago, I felt totally out of place because I wasn't dressed like an Army Ranger. I saw a guy in Ranger fatigues limping around on a cane. He was wearing (actual medals not ribbons) four Silver Stars and six Purple Hearts. Later on, I saw him walking across the parking lot normal as hell with the cane over his shoulder.
I might also add that when I worked at the Cincinnati Vet Center we had three Nam vet clients commit suicide in one week, which resulted in my boss having a nervous breakdown and being medically retired because he couldn't forgive himself for not noticing the signs they were suicidal.
I also know PTSD exists, and that is where I find fault with the book. No one who experienced combat is ever the same. Some deal with it better than others, but to say those who can't deal with it are slackers is an injustice.
I was in combat, and all I wanted to do was survive. I did finally receive a copy of my service records, having never seen them, and there are three medals I had that weren't on my original DD-214. So using the DD-214 for a complete combat history is useless without the rest of the records showing the combat history page.
I applaud Stolen Valor for uncovering phony vets, but grouping all actual combat vets with these ... because they happened to have a disability is a terrible mistake and the fatal flaw of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Stolen Valor-How the Vietnam Generations was Robbed of its'
Review: I was a "decorated" USAF Medic in Vietnam during the "Tet" years of 1967-1968. I have read the book and am greatful that at least someone has stood up for us as Vietnam Vets. To give you a background, I returned from Vietnam, went to college 10 days later, graduated and then went on to obtain a MBA. So I am not some "homeless, drug addicted, crazed killer" that we have been often portrayed as in TV and Movies.There are a number of points in the book that I would take issue to, including PTSD claims, but I also support the author in his contention that we, men and women, as veterans of that war were "robbed" of our honor. We served in Vietnam with honor, distinction, caring, and courage in that war, only to be berated, rediculed, lied too, hated, etc when we returned from Vietnam. At least this book does give us a certain amount of respect, and does show some of the misconceptions of us as veterans and as "persons". I did take exception to his contention on the PTSD problems. Yes, there are the "fakers" involved in this, but also their are those of "US" which includes me that do suffer from this problem and their lives were affected accordingly.
Rating: 
Summary: The author is a phony
Review: The author gives the layperson, who was never in the military, the impression that he fought in combat in Vietanm. On talk radio, he is being, "thanked for fighting in Vietnam." He has photos in his book of himself in combat gear stating that his main job was a platoon leader of a ready reaction platoon. He was suppose to go out into the field to assist men in combat, but the national archive records I have obtained show this Burkett was a man who was afraid, at the time, to do so. He was also able to avoid the six-months combat stint that most officers pulled. Six months in the rear and six months in the bush. But Burkett came from an upper-class family and his father was a retiring Air Force Colonel who had "friends in high places" in RVN. Starting to see a clear picture now? I found this book to be full of errors and far too many mistakes and far too many to get into in a review. I think I may write a book about this phony, Bernard Gary Burkett and expose him and his civil trails in which he was hammered for slander and libel. I know of three good men's names that he destroyed. This is one arrogant know-it-all and in time it will all catch up to him. He knows because before his book was to be published, I warned him about relying souly on one piece of paper known as the DD 214. He in spite of that, he set out with malice, and intent to destroy some good men's names who fought in real combat in Vietnam. Where do these men who could not afford an attorney go too, Burkett? You'll see in time. SHAME ON YOU B. J. BURKETT! YOU OWE ALL OD US VIETNAM COMBAT VETERANS AN APOGOLY - NOW!
Rating:
Summary: Stolen Valor-How the Vietnam Generations was Robbed of its'
Review: I was a "decorated" USAF Medic in Vietnam during the "Tet" years of 1967-1968. I have read the book and am greatful that at least someone has stood up for us as Vietnam Vets. To give you a background, I returned from Vietnam, went to college 10 days later, graduated and then went on to obtain a MBA. So I am not some "homeless, drug addicted, crazed killer" that we have been often portrayed as in TV and Movies. There are a number of points in the book that I would take issue to, including PTSD claims, but I also support the author in his contention that we, men and women, as veterans of that war were "robbed" of our honor. We served in Vietnam with honor, distinction, caring, and courage in that war, only to be berated, rediculed, lied too, hated, etc when we returned from Vietnam. At least this book does give us a certain amount of respect, and does show some of the misconceptions of us as veterans and as "persons". I did take exception to his contention on the PTSD problems. Yes, there are the "fakers" involved in this, but also their are those of "US" which includes me that do suffer from this problem and their lives were affected accordingly.
Rating:
Summary: Poorly written, poorly researched
Review: Surprised at the poor quality of writing and research in a book so widely quoted in Internet chat rooms as the last word on VN vets. The mistakes he made re Kerry's medals are probably the most recently exposed problems with the book, but there are plenty more just in terms of historical context. Recommendation: don't bother. You can get more recent and accurate information just by performing your own Google search.
Rating: 
Summary: Truth...at last
Review: This book has become something of an icon for those that actually were in combat in VietNam (only a very small precentage of those that went saw action). In fact, for many it was an extremely comfortable war while just a few kilometers away it was a cauldron for others.
The book brings to light, accuratly I might add, the stereotype Viet-vet that has unjustly come to represent a generation of warrior. With each visit to the VA clinic, I encounter many of these professional vets dressed in discarded camo shirts adorned with badges, patches, wearing bush hats and berets...I often move away when they begin their long-winded tales of heroic non-sense...I am embarrased by their almost comic personas, yet I become furious with their anecdotes. I spent almost 2 years in the bush, returned home and put it behind me, became somewhat successful...I have never asked for anything yet the VA has always treated my wounds with great compassion...I have no complaints with the system exccept that it is being abused by so many. Why am I different?...I don't know....but almost all of the bush-fighters I know are like me...just regular guys.
Kudos to the authors for exposing the phonies and those that seem to make a career of preying on the emotions of others. PTSD, yea..it is reality for those that were in the bush but not for the majority that served in the rear eating hot chow and wearing clean clothes, watching USO and drinking cold beer (you know who you were).
Rating:
Summary: "The Truth be.....stolen....
Review: It's important to remember this book is self-published. Burkett would not allow editing or fact checking required by major publishers and as a result the book has glaring mistakes, laughable distortions of truth, and silly inclusions (who cares about his daughter's dance recitals or his golf scores?) that are meaningless and have nothing to do with his original premise---exposing phony claims by "phony" veterans. The writing is ponderous and if portions of the book are dishonest and incredulous then the whole book is suspect.
The Vietnam War era veteran is old and gray now. The leaders are gone, going, or grappling with the effects of old age and debilitating mental and physical infirmities. What's Burkett's next self published book? A recording and "exposure" of deathbed ramblings and "claims" of war time exploits fueled by hallucinations and demented memories?
Burkett is a stockbroker, not a military historian or writer/researcher. This man has a giant ego that is more pitiful than annoying. It's sad he would self promote and profit off attacking soldiers--good, bad, phony, sick, dying, dead, it doesn't matter--in light of our present times.
Don't bother with this book. It's expensive, long and generally uninteresting. Spend your money and certainly your time elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: A younger generation's point of view
Review: The inspirational stories of individual heroism alone make the book worth it. Vietnam is history to me. I was five years old when Saigon fell and have no recollection of the event. But I do remember Memorial Day parades. I was one of many excited children following the flag bearing columns of "old men" as they marched through the streets toward the city's local war memorial. In retrospect, there was a stark contrast between these solemn men and their entourage of giddy children. I would feel horrible today for our naïve excitement over a parade if I didn't believe that our happiness served as a reminder to these men of the reason for their sacrifice. I don't remember anyone young enough to have been in Vietnam marching in any of these parades. My generation owes it to those who fought in Vietnam to read this book and learn the truth about the myths that disparage the millions who served. You will be shocked at the number of factually wrong things that major media outlets have repeated for decades despite the truth being readily available. No American will be able to read a newspaper or watch a news broadcast the same way after reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: Recapturing our Reputation
Review: I was yanked out of the field in Vietnam to come home on emergency leave because Dad had a heart attack. I had on khaki uniform, jump boots and a Green Beret. A civilian drinking coffee beside me asked me where I was serving. When I replied "Vietnam" he turned and stared. "You guys are all screwed up," he said. Then he picked up his coffee and moved down the counter. He continued to shoot curious glances at me. Waiting for a flight I found that people would not make eye contact and kept their distance. What is going on here? I wondered, because I had been overseas for almost three years by that time.
In his amazing book, Stolen Valor, BG Burkett and co-author Glenn Whitley tell the story of what happened to those who served and, sadly, what continues to happen. Page after page, Burkett takes on every one of the myths, the exaggerations, the pretenders, the bogus vets and the entire cultural stereotype that has become the Vietnam Veteran.
I put off reading Stolen Valor for awhile because I thought that there would only be a story or two of a pretender in it. What a shock, even for someone who thought he was in the know, to see the prodigous work that Burkett and Whitley have amassed. Now I wish that I had read it immediately on release. I am certain that over the years I will refer back to it frequently. It is in the "keeper" section of my bookshelf.
One of the most useful results of this amazingly effective book is that for those who might have felt guilty about supporting our Vietnam veterans you also can hold your heads high knowing full well that you are not supporting the contrived 'baby killing, drug besotted, anti-social bum' that Hollywood and the anti-war left presented to you.
As Burkett correctly notes, we are your children, parents, cousins and fellow countrymen. We are just like you, just like the amazing American service men and women who preceeded us and who sacrifice for us now. Thanks to BG Burkett for giving us back the honor that was so casually and reprehensibly besmirched by those who didn't have the courage to serve themselves.
If you want to start your Vietnam library start with this book. If you are a vet, know a vet and especially if you unwittingly bought into the negative stereotypes about us, you must read this book. Tell everyone about it. Given time the truth will out.
Rating:
Summary: Stolen Valor
Review: Without question, one of the finest books I have ever read. Very well footnoted/documented, well written, and one that ALL Americans need to read. Notwithstanding Shelby Stanton's childish and most idiotic review, "Stolen Valor" is a MUST read. Mr. Burkett and Ms. Whitley are to be commended !!!
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