Phony Iraq warriors beginning to surface

By LISA HOFFMAN, Scripps Howard News Service

On the front lines in Afghanistan, Sgt. Thomas Larez was said to have braved enemy fire to pull an injured soldier to safety, taking two shots to his torso and shrapnel in his thigh as he did.

Though bloodied and temporarily blinded by a concussion grenade, Larez then killed seven Taliban fighters and helped capture several others.
It was a compelling account of heroism hailed in a December 2001 Dallas newscast based on a "Marine advisory" about the battle that Larez said his commanding officer wrote.

Two days later, the station retracted the story. Not only was the "advisory" bogus, apparently concocted by Larez, but the Marine had never even left the United States, much less distinguished himself in combat overseas.