This falls under the "kind of feel sorry for them" banner. A lady named Sherry Boggs is an aviation artist, who makes the airshow circuit. She claims to be one of the first women to fly an F-16 in combat. Only trouble is, no one can find a record of her doing any such thing, she doesn't even have a civilian pilot's license. And she won't tell anyone what SUPT class she was in, or any squadrons. She apparently is not even familiar with the term "Viper" to refer to an F-16.

The "feel sorry for her part" is because she had a severe car wreck in 2004, with a traumatic brain injury. So part of this might be mental illness.

Assuming she really did have a wreck.

Today, she upped the ante via photoshop. See if you can determine the problem on this sliver of a photo.



Someone's discussion about it on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/kaseydixonaviation/posts/10104064041774593

Her aviation "art". (Benjamin Knox, look out)

https://48thmaintenancecompany.com/


I don't post this to have anyone go after her, I think that's being done. Not sure she's doing anything illegal, just unethical.

I'm really just speculating about the whole Stolen Valor phenomenon. Some may do it to defraud, but it seems like most do it for the attention and recognition. But why go so overboard? She could claim to be a civilian pilot, and likely not get caught. But she claims to be a military pilot. Then she narrows it to fighter pilot. Then she claims to be one of the first female combat pilots.

Things like this do not go unreported. People know who the first female combat pilots are. Heck, there are probably less than 100 female fighter pilots in the Air Force at any one time.

It's like the fake SEALS. Apparently, mere service is not enough of an attention grab for them. They have to claim to be the elite of the elite....which makes it easy to confirm or deny.

It's an odd psychology I don't think I'll ever understand.

HollywoodBQ said:

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Based on the photos, is she also claiming to be a Lieutenant General in the Air Force?
That seems easily provable.

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Up until the photoshop, she referred to herself as a Captain.

She's not playing with a full deck.

CanyonAg77 said:

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HollywoodBQ said:

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Based on the photos, is she also claiming to be a Lieutenant General in the Air Force?
That seems easily provable.

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Up until the photoshop, she referred to herself as a Captain.

She's not playing with a full deck.

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That would be my guess. Anyone sane trying to commit a stolen valor type scam would at least make it plausible. That is so far out there that I think she has problems like you stated.

If only these idiots know how easy stolen valor was. Not everyone is a SEAL or ODA. All they gotta do is a tiny amount of research, and say I was an infantryman in B Co 2/23 INF out of Lewis or some other actual unit (which you can find on google) then their good. Unless the person they are trying to con was in that exact unit then their home free and can get their free mean at Denny's. Sigh. People are just too lazy to even do a little research for a good scam and here days.

HollywoodBQ said:

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Based on the photos, is she also claiming to be a Lieutenant General in the Air Force?
That seems easily provable.

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Yes. af.mil has bios on generals past and present. Sherry Boggs cannot be found.

CanyonAg77 said:

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This crazy woman, people would talk to her about flying the Viper, and she would counter that no, she flew the Falcon. Nobody in the F-16 community calls it anything other than Viper, and a few minutes on Google would show that.

But she also has a photo of herself on the wing of a T-6 (WWII version) and says it's a P-51.

I agree on your main point. Most Americans would be appreciative of someone's military service, even if all they did was shovel s*** in Louisiana. Why do people insist on claiming that they were George Patton?

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There's a you by lady in college station who claims to have been a USMC pilot.
Flying the F16.
As enlisted (I forget what rank she claimed but was not an officer).

Just shook my head and moved on.

Da fuq?

Yeah.

And she's now probably mid to late 20s. She was claiming this while 22 and still at A&M (I think in the corps too).

Pretty much everyone knows she's nuts and it's funny when she shows up at the West End Elixre for veterans and USMC events.
She mainly sticks around Dudley's these days.

I wish she would show up at West End, would be entertaining.

When is cigar night? I'll have to make an appearance

I really don't see why anyone cares so much and thinks it's their job to call them out. We aren't the stolen valor police, even being military. Let them look like idiots. It doesn't make your service or mine mean any less.

It's nothing more than what a basic b* (talking civilian here but they are in the military as well) will lie about to garner attention and stay in the spotlight.

Complaint Investigator said:

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I really don't see why anyone cares so much and thinks it's their job to call them out.

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In this case there's a level of fraud going on. She is using her imagined status as a veteran to promote her artwork.

And lots of people who have worked very hard to get somewhere, are offended that others are claiming the same status, without paying the price.

On a lower level, I would be offended to see someone claim to be an Aggie grad who was not. Especially if their personal or professional life is low quality. It reflects poorly on all of us.


Personally, my daughter is on a female pilot's web site where this is gaining traction, and she showed it to me.

I could care less about "outing" or shaming her. Although I feel it's slimy to claim veteran status for personal gain, and I'm glad to know so I can shun her "art".

The reason I posted here is to see if there were any insights as to the psychology of it. It's a very strange affliction.

It's a flow.

"I never was" becomes "I wish I had" to "I almost did", "I kinda did", "I was there by association", ... "I did it first and bestest and mostest and **** you".

... "and you should pay/thank/**** me for it".

It's not right, but as someone earlier posted, it's generally not worth the fight and making a scene.

Even if fraud - it doesn't matter. She has some mental issues going on. Ignore it and drive on. Her work sucks and she won't get much from it even by claiming Vet status.

Your daughter and her friends should ignore it as well.

Stolen valor cases usually just leave me feeling sad for the person.

Naveronski said:

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It's a flow.

"I never was" becomes "I wish I had" to "I almost did", "I kinda did", "I was there by association", ... "I did it first and bestest and mostest and **** you".

... "and you should pay/thank/**** me for it".

It's not right, but as someone earlier posted, it's generally not worth the fight and making a scene.

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It's also sad that this is the same flow for many veterans. But instead of starting at "I was never" it starts at "I was just a PAC clerk that never deployed/left the wire" to "and you should pay/thank/f-me for it." It pains me to watch veterans go out of their way to throw their service in people's face to prove points or get free stuff.

JABQ04 said:

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Complaint Investigator said:

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I really don't see why anyone cares so much and thinks it's their job to call them out. We aren't the stolen valor police, even being military. Let them look like idiots. It doesn't make your service or mine mean any less.

It's nothing more than what a basic b* (talking civilian here but they are in the military as well) will lie about to garner attention and stay in the spotlight.

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Some Post 9/11 veterans and this Tac-Bro culture have made waving military service in the faces of civilians seem acceptable. This very vocal sub culture complete with their Grunt Style clothing. 5.11 pants, "operator" beards, Molon Labe and Infidel stickers are (IMHO) annoying as hell and also (my opinion again) seem to drive a divide between vets and non-vets. These dudes want to get on Facebook or YouTube by confronting these individuals and publicly ridiculing them to make their culture better. Every now and again they'll confront an actual veteran and make false accusations against them. Personally I find it stupid as ****, but pages like John Burke ( who I think is an immense tool), Mat Best, and others have huge followings of this crowd who hype themselves as the saviors of mankind for deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan as an Infantryman, Ranger etc...My FB friends who are vets follow these dudes religiously, and the funny thing is half of them were POS when they were in. Now that their out, the military was the greatest thing since sliced bread and only doing 4 years was a mistake, but are too lazy to go back in. I'm not saying don't be proud of your own service by any means, to each his own. But I think most of this is just self advertisement and other people, non-veterans specifically, see this and want to ride the wave and get their 15 mins of fame and free drinks at a bar, or 15% off at Denny's or what have you. Many times these folks seem to have some type of mental issue as well. Not excusing it, but at the end of the day if Joe Civilians gets a free beer at the bar does it really matter. You know they're lying and they truly know they're lying. No need to go all psycho on people.

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