In last summer’s frothy comedy Wedding Crashers, the lead
characters, played by Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, used a variety of phony
personas to impress women. Their favorite gimmick — guaranteed to
garner “attention, admiration, and plenty of booze” — was
flaunting a fake Purple Heart, the military decoration awarded to soldiers
wounded in battle. But here in Illinois, a bill pending before the
General Assembly would make this sort of pretend heroism a crime punishable
by a fine of as much as $200. “We wanted to tighten up the Illinois criminal
code and make it the crime of false personation if somebody pawns
themselves off to be a recipient of some of our armed forces’
greatest honors,” says state Sen. Kirk Dillard, R-Westmont.
“Sadly, we have seen political candidates and people who apply for
jobs flat-out lie when it comes to . . . military honors. Not only is that
wrong, it also takes away from the status of the medals for those who
earned them.” Sponsored by a pair of Cook County legislators, House
Bill 4121 was originally drafted in response to a particular Chicagoland
political candidate. “We had an individual in our community actually
parading around wearing a purple medal claiming to have received it,”
says state Rep. Daniel Burke, D-Chicago, sponsor of the bill. “But
what could you do? There was no law against it. I thought it was something
we should attend to as a society, letting individuals masquerade as having
received that particular medal.” In February, the bill passed the House unanimously.
In the Senate, an amendment was added to include other military
decorations. Dillard, co-sponsor of the bill, says that the amendment was
drafted after consultation with the Illinois Department of Veterans
Affairs. “We asked them what medals are the most
coveted, and this is the list they came back with,” he says. The amendment includes the Medal of Honor, the
Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross, the Air Force Cross, the
Silver Star, and the Bronze Star. “When it comes to the world of heroic fantasy,
I believe that the medals we have protected in this new Illinois statute
are the epitome of service to one’s country,” Dillard says.
“We owe it to our veterans to do this.” If such legislation had been enacted earlier, it
might have snared Springfield political powerbroker Joe Wilkins. Wilkins, a
retired college professor who had a $40,000-per-year consulting contract
with the secretary of state and who had been tapped by three mayors to play
a major role in city government, derived much of his prestige from claims
of military heroics during his service in Vietnam. Wilkins claimed to have
two Purple Hearts, as well as the nation’s third-highest decoration,
the Silver Star. Last year, Illinois Times reported that the government has no record of
Wilkins’ purported Purple Hearts or Silver Star and that records
related to the medals, submitted to the state by Wilkins, included forged
signatures, according to the men whose names appeared on the documents.
Shortly after the report was published, the secretary of state revoked
Wilkins’ special license plates, which display the military
decorations [see “Duty calls,” April 7, 2005]. At the time,
Wilkins promised the State Journal-Register that he would search for documents proving that his
medals were genuine. Dillard wasn’t familiar with Wilkins but says
that such tales show why this legislation is necessary. “You can never tell psychologically why
somebody would fudge with respect to these medals,” he says. “We owe it to those who actually earned these
honors to make sure they are kept pristine. These medals are the way we say
thank you as a nation to the people who protect us day in and day
out.” He expects the legislation to pass handily before
session’s end. “It will blow out of the Senate,” Dillard
says.
This article appears in Mar 23-29, 2006.
