The man pictured here in military dress is not a marine, nor is he at a costume party. Jesse Bernard Johnston III bluffed his way into the U.S. armed services, pretending to be an officer and committing a crime by wearing military honors under false pretenses. More shocking to me than this falsehood, however, was the following information from this article:
"In a recent court proceeding, Johnston's former wife, also an Army reservist, accused him of using falsified documents to make it appear he'd served in the Marines. Melanie Rolfing, 24, made the claim in a sworn statement filed last month in Fort Worth family court when she had her two-year-old marriage annulled, alleging fraud. Johnston did not contest the annulment."
Even after seeing, reading, or experiencing dozens of similar situations in news, television programs, literature, and my own life, I still cannot fathom a person having no idea who her spouse is, to the point that an annulment is both necessary and possible after two years of marriage. I'd like to think that I could neither befriend nor partner with a fraud, that my own honesty would repel this type of person, or at least illuminate his or her dishonesty, but I know this is not true. These types of frauds are successful simply because most others are honest, because the honest ones would never lie and therefore do not expect to be lied to. We are the types of people who would state "fraud" as a reason for annulment of marriage after two years, because it would take that long to detect our loved ones' lies.
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