Special Forces impersonator in Md. gets 21 months in Prison

BALTIMORE — For years, William Hillar's tales about his exploits as an Army Green Beret and a puffed up resume helped him land jobs teaching counterterrorism and drug and human trafficking interdiction, but the scheme has now earned him 21 months in federal prison.

Nothing to me is lower than impersonating someone who risk their life for your freedom.

His scheme started to unravel when a skeptical veteran emailed members of the Special Forces community to see if anyone knew of Hillar, former Green Beret Jeff Hinton testified Tuesday. Hillar's story was suspicious because there were only a handful of colonels during the period Hillar claimed to have served, he said.

You have to love the "Suspicious Vet".

In my experience "Special Forces" members rarely talk about their service.

While Green Beret impostors are not uncommon, Hinton called Hillar the most prodigious fraud he has come across, noting that this case is the first he has seen result in jail time. Hillar's trading on a reputation that's "forged in blood" is reprehensible, dishonorable and disrespectful to those who have served and died, he said.

I guess the way they get away with it is...Nobody wants to question anyone's service.

"I have been trained as a terrorist," he said, explaining that an American would consider him a freedom fighter, but to an enemy in the Balkans or elsewhere he would be a terrorist. He said he was an adviser in Laos during the Vietnam War, spent time in drug interdiction in central America, trained with U.S. Special Forces' British, German and Israeli counterparts and spent time training mujahedeen during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, becoming an "adrenaline junkie." "I like the rush that you get, or at least that I get," he said. But he told the audience that his life came with a price: His morals were compromised and he ended up in counseling.

Maybe in prison he will get his counseling.

Hillar told the judge he takes full responsibility, apologized and said he has had to admit to himself that he is a fraud. He told the judge that people just assumed that he had a background with Special Forces. "I never denied it and after years I actually adopted it," he said. "I know that was wrong and I apologize. I didn't do it for the money and believe it or not, I'm a patriot."

A Patriot? Sir, you are a coward.

Great men have given the ultimate sacrifice.

Coward's story

May we also have a link to th original story...

I have met a few...myself I seem to talk only of the things I really enjoyed... I still jump at Loud sharp sounds so yeah...you don't really talk about tough stuff...

Ty for the find

I saw the link in the end.....

Heh, what a loser....

Doesn't he know you don't have to be special forces to experience war?

I know a few contracted civilian entities that have severe war trauma.........personally you have to have a real cob in yer ass to want to be apart of our military now and days..especially for SO.

IMO most of the guys going in are psychotic anyway....I blame the culture of America that teaches kids its ok to kill indiscriminately.

War in itself is a vulgar act.....I cant think of anyone who chooses to relive it on any level when asked about it...to include myself. Usually if one asks....I'll tell em to @!#^$ off

Thats just me though...

They shoulda thrown the book at the frakkin dirtbag!!!

What suprises me, and it shouldnt, is the US ARMY hired him, WITHOUT a background check!!!

reply to post by HomerinNC


How could he train alphabet agency's without a background check?

I love the fact a real Veteran called him out.

To all the real Veterans....Thank You

Throw him in the Glasshouse "military prison" and then see how he fairs with his "brothers".

reply to post by whyamIhere


HOOAH!!!

and a second HOOAH!!!
Thank you bro

reply to post by whyamIhere


This is so ridiculous, seriously. I agree with everyone here who is saying how on earth did none of these employers do a background check. It almost seems like he just walked in told a story and got a job. I guess it would only take one place to hire him then he'd have a reference at least, but still.

Absurd,
E

reply to post by whyamIhere


I'm sorry, but jail time?

If I told my employer I went to such and such school and the employer found out it was a lie, I would be either fired or reprimanded (depending on my performance). But I would not be sent to jail.

If I told my university that I had helped starving children in the Congo and they accepted me with that additional merit, but then later they found out it was all a lie, I would put on academic warning and possibly expelled from the institution for violating some academic honor code. But I would not be sent to jail.

If I told a charity that I spoke an indigenous language that they needed and they sent me to a remote field base to work with poor children there, but they later found out I was lying, they would certainly be disappointed and I could see them suing me for the expenses they paid to get me there and feed and shelter me. But I would not be sent to jail.

Misrepresenting yourself on a daily basis is not grounds for imprisonment. You may be shunned socially, loose friends, alienate family, make your neighbors less neighborly, loose a job, loose an opportunity, hurt your own ambitions...but you cannot be put in jail for this.

EDIT: My point is: why do we want to set more and more precedents allowing more and more invasion into our daily lives. Let people reap their own fruits of self destruction for falsehoods that they make, leave it up to those involved to dole out forgiveness or keep a level of rancor against the person.

reply to post by Sphota


I respectfully disagree.

It's one thing to say you helped feed the hungry in Congo.

It's an entirely different lie to say you risked your life in service of others.

It dishonors the men and women who have fought and died.

It dishonors the living Veteran who has giving so much of themselves.

It dishonors my family members that died for my Country.

These Americans are not here to defend themselves.

There are lies...

Then there are these guys.

reply to post by whyamIhere


I respectfully disagree as well. I don't see a difference of risking your life for children in an impoverished area and risking your life on a battlefield.

Actually, I do see a difference. When you risk your life to help the poor and indigent, especially in third world countries often ravaged by war, at least you are not there at the behest of multinational corporations whose media wings play up your service while denigrating your service behind your back, all the while realizing the jingoism is just there to make sure you keep fighting.

This is where I'm at odds. I don't see anything special about anyone who has served in the armed forces. Inherently, there is not supposed to be some pedestal. For some reason not only is their a pedestal, but there is massive lobotomy as well.

I wish I could get what my freedoms have to do with Nicaraguans' right to organize, Costa Ricans' right to a living wage, Colombians' right to grow what they want, Iraqis' rights to have their own oil, Vietnameses' rights to have their own form of government outside of French colonialism, and Afghanis' rights to herd goats in the mountains and lead a conservative lifestyle. None of that seems to concern my freedoms one bit, yet I'm supposed to conduct some strange form of hero worship at the alter of the Fallen Soldiers? I see them as much victims of this process, but I'm not going to exalt one victim over another to perpetuate some freakish mindgame.

And that's at the heart of what, in your opinion, makes the lie this guy told different somehow from any other professional lie.