Mohawk College keynote speaker's war medals under scrutiny
Hamilton Spectator
By Teviah Moro
When the highly decorated war veteran took the stage at Mohawk College for Remembrance Day, the sight inspired awe in at least one student participating in the solemn ceremony.
"In my eyes, when he first walked up on the stage, he was a hero," recalls Daniel Levinter, an 18-year-old student and former cadet with a keen eye for military hardware.
The array of U.S. medals on his chest and around the small man's neck — including a Silver Star, Bronze Star, POW medal, Purple Heart and Joint Service Commendation Medal — commanded enormous respect.
But Donald Lemmond wasn't what he seemed.
There's no record of the 71-year-old Hamiltonian ever serving in the U.S. Army, a spokesperson confirmed Thursday.
"Essentially, this individual never served in the U.S. Army (active duty, Army National Guard or Army Reserve)," Wayne Hall wrote Thursday in an email to The Spectator.
But Lemmond, who also says he has 30 years of Canadian military experience under his belt, is sticking with his story.
"Well, I don't know what to say. I'll just have to live the last few months with the consequences," he said, adding he has cancer.
He's sensitive to being perceived as a "faker," with a Quebec man facing charges after appearing in a CBC interview wearing a fake soldier's uniform at the War Memorial in Ottawa on Remembrance Day.
About a year ago, Lemmond says, someone at Her Majesty's Army and Navy Veterans club on MacNab Street North, where he's a member, questioned his military credentials.
Tracy Walton, the association's financial secretary, said she'd heard about the allegations. "It's just he said, she said," Walton added. "There's nothing in writing."
Lemmond's winding narrative of his military career has him skipping back and forth between Canada and the United States, visiting family and serving in both armed forces.
At 13, he says he suited up for the cadets in Hamilton. In 1963, he graduated to the RHLI, embarking on an army reserve career that ended in 1986, when he was discharged, the old-age pensioner says, who offered up apparent Canadian military documents to vouch for his service.
When contacted Thursday, an official for Library and Archives Canada said confirmation about Lemmond's Canadian military record would require an access to information request. The Department of National Defence declined to comment.
Lemmond says in the 1970s he spent six months in Vietnam with his American cousins, where he served as a stretcher bearer for the U.S. Army.
"I don't know that you would call it extreme valour of anything else. I just did my job."
Lemmond also says he served unofficially with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan with his cousin, a commanding officer, in 2006-07.
"It was only a matter of three months, if that."
He retired in 2007 with the rank of captain, he says.
As for the medals, Lemmond says he's had them for a little over a year and a half — his cousin told him he should have them.
"They're the ones that my cousin sent me. He said they're your medals," said Lemmond, who lives in a small, modest suite in a Hamilton public housing high rise.
On Wednesday, Lemmond said he'd given his medals to a local military officer, whose name he wouldn't mention, to have them mounted properly.
Lemmond's time in the spotlight in Mohawk's packed McIntyre Theatre during one of its most important events of the year was brief, college spokesperson Jay Robb said.
"There was nothing there that stood out," Robb said. "He did talk about serving for both Canada and the United States."
The college was introduced to the guest speaker through the senior citizen's participation in Citizenship and Immigration Canada swearing-in courts at Mohawk.
A spokesperson for Citizenship and Immigration Canada couldn't provide comment by press time Thursday.
Levinter said as Lemmond spoke, he started noticing "red flags," such as a botched reference to one medal. Levinter was also skeptical of his Afghanistan service because of his age.
Canadians place great trust in war veterans, the police foundations student said.
"The best way to describe it would be to say that trust was misplaced."
Lemmond says he's also visited elementary school students at Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Catholic Elementary School.
Catholic board chair Pat Daly said Thursday like Mohawk, the school was introduced to Lemmond through citizenship ceremonies. "One would just assume that proper checks would have taken place."
Daly said principal Vito Colella "never heard him speak specifically about his own background in the military or otherwise."
