Texas man who exposed fake Vietnam records honored by Army
Dallas-AP -- The Army has honored a Texas man for discovering that more than 12-hundred people either lied or exaggerated their claims of serving in the Vietnam War. B.G. "Jug" Burkett has received the Army's Distinguished Civilian Service Award. Former President Bush presented the award to Burkett at the Bush Library.
An undersecretary at the U-S Department of Veterans Affairs says Burkett exposed a mass distortion of history that cost taxpayers (b) billions of dollars in undeserved veteran benefits.
Among other things, Burkett challenged the belief that young and poor minority draftees fought and died in higher numbers in Vietnam. His research found that 75 percent of those killed were volunteers.
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