(no subject)
Someone just got busted
GORDON Tisdell is a broken man. For a decade he has been the public face of Anzac and Remembrance days. His photograph has run in LIFE magazine, in The Australian - where he claimed to be a Vietnam veteran - and in the Sydney Morning Herald as a survivor of the Battle of Long Tan.
In 2006 his portrait was among the finalists in the annual Olive Cotton Award for excellence in photographic portraiture. It was titled Gordon Tisdell - Shadow of Remembrance.
The problem is, Mr Tisdell never served in Vietnam. He never served in any war. His name is nowhere on the Nominal Roll. When 6RAR was in pitched battled against the Vietcong, he was on a dairy farm outside Gloucester, New South Wales.
''We can do without pricks the like of Gordon Tisdell,'' said Graham Smith, the acting secretary of the 6RAR Association and a Long Tan veteran, yesterday. ''By doing these things he robs the honour from people who are quite happy to be understated. They are impostors of the lowest order. It's like stealing someone's identity.''
Mr Tisdell was tracked to his Department of Housing unit in Petersham, Sydney, this week. Confronted with his deception, he was stricken with remorse and denial.
''I've never been a fraud in my life. I was just wearing my relatives' medals,'' he said.
''Defence came here today to see me. They said I'm not allowed to say anything. They brought the photographs out and showed them to me. They said not to say anything otherwise I get six months in jail.''
The Department of Defence was acting on information from The Sydney Morning Herald when two of its employees knocked on Mr Tisdell's door and ended his decade of deception. They gave him a warning and told him he could no longer attend veterans' marches.
''Award recipients receive great respect from the Australian community,'' a department spokesman said. ''And Defence supports the investigation of such claims where necessary, so that the service and sacrifice the awards represent may continue to be held in high regard by the community.''
The president of the NSW Returned and Services League, Don Rowe, described Mr Tisdell as a ''bloody fraud'' who would inevitably be exposed.
''We are disgusted by people presenting themselves as veterans,'' he said. ''I'm not sure why they do it. Maybe they're big-noting themselves. I can't think of another reason.''
Mr Tisdell claimed this week he had only worn the medals of his uncles. He said - at odds with a decade of interviews - that he had never claimed to have served himself. He had wanted to sign up, he said, but never did.
''It's an emotional day,'' Mr Tisdell told AAP on Anzac Day this year, identifying himself as a Long Tan survivor. ''You remember the times you had in the army and the mates you went away with. Some of them didn't come back.''
And some of them didn't go.
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Australian protocol considers it perfectly acceptable to wear someone else's medals, but if you're going to do it you wear them on the right side of your jacket so everyone who sees you knows they're not yours. He should have known that. It's pretty common knowledge among Australians; even if your family can't drill that into you, it's often taught to kids at school. Doing otherwise, especially with the interviews and stuff to give him such a public profile...that has to have been deliberate.
Liar.
At least he's not claiming any pension or benefits off it...