CLEVELAND, Ohio – John Jakeman always knew he wanted to be a fake veteran, ever since he grew up following his father Sullivan "Sully" Jakeman around to various veterans' reunions.
"As a boy I loved to play with the Purple Hearts and Distinguished Service Cross Dad pretends he was awarded in Vietnam," said Jakeman. "Those are powerful experiences to a young man."
Jakeman has big bootprints to follow. He is actually the third generation of Jakemans to fake military service. In addition to his father, his grandfather faked military service in World War II.
John spoke to reporters at a recent Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America event, where he addressed the crowd on his role in the Second Battle of Fallujah.
He later shared some of the family secrets on fake military service.
"Life can be pretty hard for the solitary 'artificial warfighter' as we like to call ourselves, but I was lucky enough to have my father and grandfather teach me how to avoid a lot of the mistakes that separate the professional wannabes from the wannabe wannabes."
According to Jakeman, the biggest trick is to not think big.
"Some of these new guys talk about being on the Bin Laden raid or doing secret operations in the Philippines that no one's ever heard of," said Jakeman.