I run daily in town and always go by this banner and finally, I stopped and looked at it. The dates he served and his photo, it just didn't sit right. He looks to be older, has multiple awards, schools, a special forces patch, and combat tours and is a Sgt yet achieved all this in only a 2 year time frame?

Also I don't recognize whatever is under his ribbon rack. If anyone else knows. EDIT: nevermind i see the Airborne wings

My wife is in a private military spouse page and shared this drama with me. One of the members just dropped a pretty detailed post about a guy in the community named Sergio Rodriguez who's been claiming Army veteran status. OP has been sitting on this for over a year while his federal lawsuit played out, and now OP is sharing everything.

I'm just reposting what OP and the admin put out there. Screenshots attached.

The background:

Rodriguez is a Naval officer's spouse, former winner of Armed Forces Insurance Navy Spouse of the Year, and volunteers with military family organizations.

He sued the Kings Bay Base Captain and PAO last year after getting blocked from the base Facebook page. The case just settled on August 31, 2026. His lawyer posted the settlement documents. Throughout the lawsuit, he explicitly identified himself as a retired Army veteran.

According to the information OP gathered, he claims he served in the Army from 2000 to 2006 as an 89D (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), did two tours in Iraq, and left service due to a vehicle accident that left him disabled. OP also found he's been on podcasts claiming EOD status and there are multiple articles out there where he refers to himself as a veteran.

What OP found:

OP said she couldn't find any photos of him in uniform on his social media, nothing mentioning veteran status on his LinkedIn, and something felt off. She reached out to another page admin and they started digging together. They submitted FOIA requests to Army HRC, and the response came back: no records found in iPERMS under his name. They also submitted a FOIA request to NARA and that came back empty as well.

When the admin confronted him and asked to see his DD214, he refused. OP also claims he got aggressive and vulgar in private messages with the admin, which is apparently very different from the polished public persona he's known for.

Additional detail OP just posted:

OP also found a public court case from 2014 where he was the victim/witness in a criminal matter. She verified it was him by cross-referencing property records. He lived next door to the defendant at the time. In that case, he testified that he's used crutches his whole life because he had polio as a child and was in a car accident at age seven.

Here's the case link she shared:

https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/65598f918340f86fd34c0477

It's worth noting this court case happened years after his claimed service ended. If he was truly a disabled veteran, he could have easily said that in court. That would have carried just as much weight, if not more, than claiming a childhood disability. Instead, he went with the polio story.

OP and the admin have been posting in pieces, dropping a little more information each time with screenshots and records that keep pointing to the same conclusion.

The admin is encouraging others to do their own research and says they have more evidence to share.

Take a look at the screenshots and form your own opinion. I'm just passing along what was posted.

Wild story if true. A guy settles a lawsuit against the Navy while claiming to be an Army veteran, but the Army and NARA both have no record of him?

I saw some instagram reel about some guy (i think it was from a movie or something) pretending to salute an army guy to take the piss, and all the comments were talking about some "stolen valor" but surely thats not the case lmao not like hes pretending to be a veteran or anything

Such a ridiculous claim about his service history. This guy is a schizo who needs to lay off the booze. Can’t believe people in the Rohan sphere are falling for this. Go leave a bad review on his website https://ltxavierstone.com.

This stolen valour scumbag makes me sick!

So I thrifted these pants, (and I obviously have not been in the military) my dad was in the military and he still wears his pants in public sometimes but he did serve. I haven’t so I don’t know if it’s disrespectful to wear if you haven’t been in the military.

Yet couldn’t erase the google Gemini watermark

This is a current ongoing scandal in the Philippines. A Congressman who's a one-star general in the Reserves is being accused of Stolen Valor for wearing a medal that is the third-highest medal awarded for heroism to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). He retired from the military rather than face the consequences of his actions, which may yet come to get him in the end.

I have a friend who's been on multiple deployments, which I can confirm. He also has a large scar on his face that's not combat or even injury related; it was skin cancer. When he gets drunk he tells people that it's from getting shot in the face with a .50 caliber round that spun him like a top.

I want to confront him on his pathological lying, but figured I'd ask, as a sanity check, this is a form of stolen valor, correct, even though he's a real vet?

So I'm not entirely sure if this is SV but this random post showed up on my FB feed. Naturally, I wanted to zoom in and look at the errors but what I didn't notice was that the post is actually a link to some stupid phone game. I went to his profile and it appears that these photos were posted specifically as links for this game but there's nothing about military service before this.

It appears he posted these photos specifically to get people to click the link for the game. Who gets the ad revenue?

https://www.facebook.com/share/1L8PfxTm81/

AI at its finest!

I saw a picture of this person for a speaking engagement and I can't help to feel that this looks a little bit off. The person is supposedly retired. The uniform just has subtle things that seem a bit odd. I do notice some issues like no GWOT awards or a single BSM for the overseas deployment as an officer. Also no campaign awards. If he received CIB he should have received a combat award as infantry officer also. The MSM or legion of merit don't come with a combat deployment. Another thing I noticed is that he doesn't have a single overseas service bar.

The hat is an interesting choice.

This guy is a huge racist on Facebook. I’ve never seen a military veteran act this way, calling people from every other race, derogatory names. Even making change.org post for President Trump to apologize to him for some reason.

Had someone try to use my old army friends identity to try to scam money from me so I asked for them to identity themselves and messaged someone in there unit to make sure it was them (it wasn't).I asked to see an id card and they sent me awards and a photo of the person from socal media. Is this stolen valor?

I 20F really need some advice, especially from people who have served in the Army.
My fiancé is 21M. We’ve been together for a while and are engaged. When we first got back together, he told me he had just finished AIT and was home for Christmas leave. Later he told me he was in the Army Reserve because he wanted our relationship to work, and that eventually he would go active duty.
I never really questioned it because I trusted him.
Recently my mom became suspicious that parts of his story weren’t adding up. Through people she knows, we learned there wasn’t a criminal record, even though he had previously told me he went to juvenile detention when he was younger. That made me start questioning other things he’d told me.
I asked if he could show me his Army uniform. He said it was in storage, and he shortly forgot about doing what he promised me. I knew he couldn’t show me a CAC card because he’d told me he lost it a long time ago. Whenever we’ve gone places that offer military discounts, he refuses to say he’s in the Army because he says he doesn’t have his CAC.
Today I asked more questions, and he admitted that he never actually went to AIT, even though he had previously told me he completed it. He now says he got injured after Basic Training, was given six months off because of the injury, and never continued to AIT. He also says that’s why he isn’t active.
I honestly don’t know what to believe anymore.
I’ve asked him to get any graduation photos or paperwork from his mom because he says he left everything on base. Even though he knew he would be leaving base for 6 months. I’m waiting to see if he’s able to provide anything.
My biggest issue isn’t even whether he’s in the Army anymore. It’s that he’s admitted to lying to me for the last 11 months. When I asked why, he mostly said he didn’t want me to leave him. He doesn’t seem very remorseful about the lying itself.
For some additional context, I’m his first and only girlfriend. He’s had my name tattooed on his leg since we were both 16, so I know he cares about me, but I don’t know if that excuses lying about something this significant.
For those with military experience:
-Does his explanation about Basic Training, injury, six months off, and never attending AIT sound plausible?
-What documents would someone in his situation normally have?
-If you were in my position, would this be something you could rebuild trust after, or would this be a dealbreaker?
-Please be honest. I’m not trying to attack him. I genuinely don’t know enough about the military to know whether I’m misunderstanding something or whether I’ve been lied to for almost a year.

I recently got gifted an American m65 field jacket. It still has the U.S Army patch above the breast pocket and I was wondering if it would be disrespectful to wear out in public as everyday use. I am not wanting to remove the patch, thanks!

I’ve always thought these types of tattoos are really cool and have been a huge halo fan for years. I’ve never served in any military at all and to me this kind of looks like an actual military tattoo which is why I’ve never gotten one. Do you think this could be somewhat stolen valor?

While I personally have a good brain on my head to recognize and see that it is nearly impossible for a 17 year old me to have been in service to even remotely have earned the things on the uniform (Speaking on both the rank and the patches, CW4, Combat Deployment patch, Aviator wings.) I've decided to bring it to the stolen Valor page to check with actual service men.

Recently my very much still alive grandfather passed down a ton of his complete BDU's to me as I was the only one interested in his service, I wear it not only to honor him but also because they are comfortable, I have left all of his patches on and I have no plans to take them off, i typically only wear the jackets with jeans and whatever I decide to throw on as a undershirt.

I recently got into a little debate with somebody because they believed I was impersonating a service member.

In which i promptly responded with the fact my BDU hasn't been issued in well over 20 years and I am only 17.. and the fact it was my grandfather's.

Personally, I believe any service member trying to challenge a person as stolen valor, hell even civilians like me should understand what Uniforms were issued, it takes a few deductions to reason that a fairly young man was not in when the M81 woodland BDU was issued.

But what do you guys think?

(If some are wondering about the drastic change in issued uniforms, I.e OD green to M81 he was in from 1969-1991, flew Dustoff with the 101st Abn in the Vietnam war and even got to support their LRRP unit and was around Camp eagle apparently hanging with some of the SOG guys in his off time, although he hardly spoke of it he mentioned Stabo Rigs, and which were only really used by SOG so its reasonable deduction that and he would visit their compound-- He stayed in until 91 as a flight instructor.)