Man said he earned a top war medal

The phony Medal of Honor citation makes him sound like Audie Murphy.

But nowhere does Sgt. David M. Perelman's name appear on the official list of Medal of Honor recipients with Murphy, the most decorated American combat soldier from World War II, according to the Legion of Valor website.

Nor is his name listed alphabetically where it would be between Theodore Peck, a Civil War first lieutenant, and Lawrence D. Peters, a Marine sergeant who "gallantly gave his life for his country" in 1967 in Quan Tin province, Vietnam.

Yet, Perelman, a 57-year-old former Department of Veterans Affairs employee from Las Vegas who awaits trial in U.S. District Court on a charge of illegally wearing a Purple Heart medal, once claimed he too was awarded the Medal of Honor.

That's according to a California man who met Perelman on a vacation cruise and was given a copy of the bogus Medal of Honor citation.

Perelman also has pleaded not guilty to stealing $180,000 in VA disability benefits in the case to be heard July 12 before Judge Kent J. Dawson. The felony theft charge for stealing VA benefits carries up to 10 years in prison and a conviction on the misdemeanor of "unauthorized wearing of a military medal" could carry a fine and an additional year in prison.

Perelman's Medal of Honor claim surfaced in a 1997 federal court case in Los Angeles that was dismissed and the record sealed except for the dismissal order signed by a magistrate judge who is no longer with the court.

However, a copy of a Medal of Honor citation that he shared with the California man on a vacation cruise in the mid-1990s describes heroic acts akin to those of Audie Murphy.

The one-page "order of the president" dated July 10, 1991 states that 20 years before, Air Force Sgt. Perelman had single-handedly rescued the crew of a downed helicopter in Cambodia and killed dozens of the approaching enemy with his mini gun -- three less than Murphy killed mostly with a .50-caliber machine gun when Murphy's unit was attacked in France by tanks and waves of enemy German infantry.

With the pilot dead, Perelman, who was 18 years old at the time and was said to have had a pilot's license and "some 10 hours flying time in smaller helicopters decided to try and fly it, or perish from the rapidly approaching enemy," the citation states.

"He lifted the aircraft from the ground, turned it in the direction of the tree line, and fired an entire salvo of ... rockets. Sgt. Perelman was single-handedly responsible for killing 47 Viet Cong irregulars and saving the lives of 5 of his comrades," according to the typed, single-space citation with signatures that are supposed to be of then-Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Merrill McPeak and Air Force Secretary Donald Rice.

Sanford Kassel, a San Bernardino, Calif., lawyer, said Perelman gave him a copy of the citation after meeting on a vacation cruise. Once during the cruise he said Perelman wore the Medal of Honor to a formal gathering and spoke about his purported heroic actions. He was photographed with the ship's captain.

"We had an opportunity to converse with him at our dinner table," Kassel said in a telephone interview last week.

Kassel said he was unaware of the 1997 California case in which Perelman faced a charge of unauthorized wearing of the Congressional Medal of Honor.

He noted that Perelman was "walking with a limp and used a cane on this cruise."

"He said he received this medal for action in Vietnam. He was relatively low-key but was certainly quite visible wearing the medal out in common areas," Kassel said. "This is just flatly wrong."

U.S. Attorney for Nevada Daniel Bogden said he is aware of the false Medal of Honor case involving Perelman but declined comment because of the pending Purple Heart case.

Perelman's counsel in the Stolen Valor Act case in Nevada, Assistant Federal Public Defender Rene Valladares, said Monday he is aware of the prior litigation regarding Perelman and the Medal of Honor claim but because the Nevada case "is ongoing and unresolved on the unconstitutionality of the statute challenge, I'm not at liberty to comment."

In March, Valladares invoked a First Amendment defense in what is the first known prosecution in Nevada under the Stolen Valor Act. He said he believes the act is unconstitutional.

Perelman, who was Nevada's commander for the Military Order of the Purple Heart in 2008, is accused of illegally wearing a Purple Heart medal during a national convention of recipients in Las Vegas.

He claimed he was wounded in combat in the Vietnam War when in fact he was wounded by a self-inflicted gunshot in 1991, according to the indictment.

Bogden has said because of the Purple Heart, the VA presumed that his thigh injury was service related and awarded him benefits.

Perelman had worked as a clerk for a local VA office for three years until he resigned after he was indicted in October.

According to court papers, Perelman arrived in Vietnam in August 1971 as an air cargo specialist and sought treatment a month later for hallucination flashbacks from taking LSD.

Doctors diagnosed a personality disorder and restricted him from hazardous duty.

In October 1971, after only seven months in the Air Force and less than three months in Vietnam, he was given an administrative discharge.

Then, 20 years later he began a campaign, claiming that he was awarded the Air Force Cross and Purple Heart for heroic action on July 12, 1971. During that purported incident he claimed he was wounded by shrapnel and received second-degree burns but later admitted he shot himself in 1991, the court papers state.

The fake Medal of Honor citation that he gave to Kassel said "this award supersedes the Air Force Cross," among the highest awards for valor.

Somehow, a special order for award of a Purple Heart medal dated Sept. 1, 1993, "made its way into Perelman's record at the National personnel Records Center," according to the prosecution's filing in the Nevada case.

Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.