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OREM -- It's against the law to impersonate a police officer, but what about faking being a military veteran? Some real Utah veterans say it's happening.
The latest case they report happened at an Orem restaurant on Veterans Day where free meals were being given out to military veterans.
U.S. Air Force veteran Matthew Davis just got back from Afghanistan and works with the ROTC at BYU. When he and a friend noticed two people at the Orem Applebee's wearing military uniforms that looked 15 years out of date, he just had to ask them.
"They just wouldn't stop lying. The person who was impersonating a major wouldn't even look at us. He just stared at his plate," Davis said.
Turns out Applebee's was giving free meals to veterans on Veterans Day. Davis's friend, who also works with BYU's ROTC program, recognized the two. He says one is a current BYU student and thinks they only wore military uniforms to get free meals.
"It happens more than what people think," Vietnam veteran Gary Campbell said.
Campbell was part of a veterans ceremony Friday at Timberline Middle School in Alpine. He said even the young students there know being a veteran is more than putting on a uniform.
"It's a shame and a dishonor, I think, for people to try and get these benefits they don't deserve," Campbell said.
It also makes fundraising tough for veterans.
"It makes it hard on us. People, they're leery about giving to us when people like that do that," said Charles Edwards, Post 4918 commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization.
It may not be illegal, but real veterans say it's just plain wrong.
"Maybe they didn't realize what they're doing, but I hope they learned their lesson from this," Davis said.
BYU administrators say they will look into this case, which, if it's as claimed, could be a violation of the school's honor code.
E-mail: acabrero@ksl.com.
