We initially exposed Don Albares Jr the fake Green Beret, 10 years ago at the beginning of 2011.
At the bottom of the picture section, click on the red bar to expand to more pictures.
He was a heavy commentator on Military.com as a QP. He was also on some SF forums on FB and had some good friends as Green Berets.
This guy was pretty good at running the lie. He knew names of legit Green Berets to throw out, correct training locations, also…
- claims time in El Salvador
- claims time in Panama
- claims to have been in Somalia
- claims time in Bad Tolz
- claims to have been a Combatives Instructor at USAJFKIMA
- claims ODA 531, ODA 574, ODA 735, ODA 16 (From his Facebook before it was removed)
- claims MTT-7106 (711-06A), USMILGP ELSAL, USAIMA/JFKCENMA, 1st SOCOM (Found on Military.com since removed)
-Claims to have served with Kenny Mac. A well known GB. Pic #31
- He read the names of San Diego Fallen in Vietnam 29 May 2011 at the San Diego Veterans Memorial dressed in his fake SFA Blazer. In the picture section #5
- He was the featured member of the month on Military.com in Mar 2008
Basic, AIT, Ranger School, the Q-course, Military Free Fall, Jumpmaster, SCUBA (but getting himself retroactively awarded the Special Operations Diver Badge after it was created in September 2004), the Jungle Expert Patch (which went out of business about 1982ish), the Pathfinder Badge, all while serving in three groups and the schoolhouse, and getting enough jumps for the Master Parachutist Badge, while earning a CIB and a good batch of foreign wings, and the Schützenschnur (German marksmanship award). This isn't happening and all false. Many other fake awards on his uniform including Silver Star. Pic #12.
These are only a few of his claims. What he did though, was he kept adding to the claims yet didn’t add to his timeframe in the service. He couldn’t have been where he claims, done all he did in the time he claims.
We found him in a non vetted SF Forum on facebook and watched as he threw out names of those he served with, events, and training locations/schools attended as he commented on threads. We think the fact that he bamboozled some legit Green Berets, he must have thought he had his lie down solid enough. He actually had the balls to toss out ODA’s he served on and names. His buddy who was a member of the vetted forum on Facebook called SF Brothers and legit Green Beret, tried to add him to the room, we responded that we would have to find someone he served with to bring him in that could state he's who and what he claims.
You might be able to bullshit someone into believing your lies, you might be able to create a fake shadow box and fake certificates you can easily buy fake medals you didn't earn and patches of units you didn't serve in. What you can't do is fake the guy who stood with you in Special Forces that can go on record that you are what you claim and indeed a Green Beret. That's what's needed to have the switch flipped in SF Brothers. Sadly, when we told him that, he responded "Y'all know what?? If y'all don't want him in y'alls little clique, just say so. I know I'm tired of it, so take me off y'alls list as well". He then left the forum thinking his buddy was a Green Beret like himself.
We decided to continue to try and vet Don Albares, the fake Green Beret with all intentions of getting him added and then asking the Green Beret that put him up for membership if he wanted added back since he had left the room when we wouldn't add his buddy. Well, when Don was asked for additional names and such, his response was “I appreciate the efforts to vet me, but as my privacy is paramount (you notice I do not publish my last name anywhere) and my wife and I lost close to $65K in an identity theft incident 8 years ago, my security concerns trump all other considerations... and we are probably pulling out of Facebook altogether.”
He then started removing all things SF related from FB as we were trying at the same time to collect them. This was a lesson learned to collect all (if you think there might be an issue with claims) before you reach out, as all too often, it tends to disappear if he’s indeed a fraud.
On his uniform:
The unit citations side he has displays three Vietnamese citations awards, yet on his personal awards side there are no Vietnamese ribbons for services. Leadership tabs as an E6? The unit citation bottom left, yellow with 3 red stripes is the Vn PUC. It was last issued in 1954. Looks like he put it together what he saw on other uniforms and didn’t do the research on it. Break… You know what? It’s easier to just say IT'S ALL BULLSHIT. NOTHING HE WEARS WAS EARNED. NOTHING, NADA, ZILCH, ZERO.
What’s worse is he claims to have served with Randy Shughart and Earl Filmore, both legit Green Berets that were lost while serving with 1st SFOD-D (Delta) - Special Forces Command in Mogadishu. This is beyond sad and truly as low as one can get.
Like we said we had him 10 years ago. When we got his records back, we reached out and he immediately came clean and shut down his social media. We asked him via his wife's account to re-activate and apologize. His apology on military.com is picture #26, on ProfessionalSoldiers.com pic #27, and on Special Forces Signatures pic #28.
While getting the article ready for our website, as it was initially carried on our FB forum before we had a website and we are trying to get those cases uploaded, we found his newly created FB profile and it seems Don Albares the fake Green Beret has started up the lie again. We see him with "Retired Mott Lake Actives Director" and "Pineland Gorilla Trainer" Pic #16. You would think if he had actually EVER spent time in Special Forces he would know the difference between a Gorilla (What you'd see in a Zoo) and Guerrilla (A small group of irregular combatants)
Pictures #13-16 are all newly posted within the last 6 months. On his banner, pic #15, you'll see what looks like new SF grads as they stand in front of Co A in the very upper right corner. Also very bottom right of same banner picture which we added as stand alone pic #29... It's a picture of ODA 145. We have a guy from that ODA that know beyond doubt Don Albares the fake Green Beret is NOT in that picture.
On picture #13... He shares both on the same day 10/3/20. The bigger one saying "Me and Randy at Ft Benning" and a second one immediately after that we have added as an inset that simply states "Randy Shughart" which would only lead one to believe he means it's Randy Shughart standing with him at Ft Benning. Let's dig deeper into that...
It looks like he was in the National Guard for a very short time and went to Basic training and AIT from April to August in 1979 as a 19F10 Tank Driver.
It looks like he went Active duty for a few months from Oct 1980 until May 1981. 7 Months, again as a 19F10 Tank Driver.
That's his total military footprint. 261 days...121 in 1979 and 160 in '80-'81.
Randy Shughart (who he pretends to have served with went in the Army) entered the Army in 1976, Basic, AIT, Airborne, Ranger School and then 2/75 and ETS'd in 1980 and went into the Army Reserves. He returned to active duty in 1983....
With the timeline and different MOS's, Don Albares the fake Green Beret and Randy Shughart's paths would never have crossed.
This fraud should be ashamed of himself.
Don Albares, you'll now be added to Guaridansofthegreenberet.com hall of zeroes.
#DonAlbares, #DonJosephAlbares, #DonJosephAlbaresJr, #DonAlbaresJr, #DonaldJAlbaresJr