NC academy head suspected of posing as Vietnam vet

NC academy head suspected of posing as Vietnam vet
BY MIKE BAKER
Associated Press

OAK RIDGE, N.C. (AP) -- Well before he became commandant of North Carolina's only military boarding academy, William Northrop regaled people with stories of serving in the jungles of Vietnam - how he was wounded in battle, how some comrades committed suicide, how he used amphetamines on patrol.

But his war stories may be pure fiction.

There is no record Northrop ever served in the military, let alone Vietnam.

Northrop, 66, left as commandant at Oak Ridge Military Academy last fall after just a few months on the job, the same day a parent formally asked school officials to look into his background.

He refused to discuss his past or explain the discrepancies in his record to an Associated Press reporter. The academy's president would not discuss Northrop's background either.

If his claim of wartime service proves false, it will be the latest and one of the most audacious to emerge in recent years, and comes as the courts grapple with the constitutionality of a 2006 federal law that makes it a crime to pose as a war hero.

The academy, with an enrollment of about 125, had hired Northrop to oversee the cadets even though there had been long-standing suspicions about him, including a 1998 book on military impostors, "Stolen Valor," that pronounced Northrop a "pretender."
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NC academy head suspected of posing as Vietnam vet