The leader of a Colorado Springs veterans' advocacy group was arrested earlier today after it was revealed that he was not a veteran and had not been in the Pentagon during the September 11th attacks as he had claimed, but was instead a former mental patient.
Richard Glen Strandlof posed as a disabled Marine and 9/11 survivor named Rick Duncan. As Duncan, Strandlof founded the Colorado Veterans Alliance, one of Colorado's largest veterans' groups. CVA's board members became suspicious of Strandlof as "significant inconsistencies" in his story appeared, and once they discovered Strandlof's real name, they found that he had been an inpatient at a mental hospital at the time he claimed to have been injured in a roadside bombing in Iraq. In one YouTube video, he had claimed to have lost a finger in Iraq, although all ten of his fingers are intact.
As president of the Colorado Veterans Alliance, Strandlof threatened to sue the city of Colorado Springs for performing regular sweeps of homeless shelters, causing the city to end the sweeps. He also appeared in advertisements for Senator Mark Udall and was cited in local publications as an "expert" on post-traumatic stress disorder. He took a stand against the way the Department of Defense treats veterans.
The Alliance's board of directors will be holding a meeting to remove Strandlof from his position, but will continue fighting for veterans' rights. Hal Bidlack, a CVA supporter who lost a bid for state office last year, says he hopes that Strandlof's dishonesty will not make life harder for legitimate veterans who need help.
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