heinleinblog

Anyone remember Paul Lemmen from alt.fan.heinlein? The Fayetteville Observer has an article on him:

Paul Lemmen says he is a retired Air Force general, a veteran of combat in Vietnam and years of intelligence work.

Former friends say he has also told people that he was an officer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army who cut a deal that landed him in the United States.

Both versions of his life story raise questions. Air Force records provide no evidence that Lemmen was a brigadier general. Lemmen denies ever connecting himself to the IRA.

But despite huge holes in his stories, Lemmen managed to talk his way into a contracting job in Iraq. He spent part of his time there hanging around Special Forces soldiers from Fort Bragg, getting close enough that he flew back for the funeral of one who was killed in action.

Overall, Lemmen traveled to Iraq at least four times working for Blue Iraq, a communications and information technology company with military contracts, according to Lemmen and e-mails from Ryan Lackey, the owner of Blue Iraq.

Jaimie Brehler, a Durham-based investigator who checks out military imposters, said that Lemmen was the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command. Chris Grey, a CID spokesman, said only that the command started an investigation of a contractor posing as a military officer in August 2005 and completed the probe in January. No results have been announced from that investigation.

It is a violation of federal law to wear military decorations without authorization.

The article mentions several a.f.h. regulars.