[67Rally]

Originally Posted by jingram058

A couple of years ago, during the Covid epidemic, I got a 1950 Bowman Gene Bearden card. He helped the Indians win the 1948 World Series with 2 wins as a pitcher before fading into obscurity. But more important to me, he was a survivor of the USS Helena, a cruiser torpedoed and sunk during World War II. He was wounded severely, according to the story. He was told he would never walk again, much less pitch again. Trouble is...

...It was all lies, all made up. He was never on the Helena in the South Pacific, but rather, a sub chaser in the Atlantic.

This is the worst case of made up BS that I think I have ever come across. The question is, why? Why would he make up a story like that? Now I want to get rid of that card.

It definitely ranks up there among the worst cases of veterans lying about their service.

I was thrilled to land a team ball that bore several signatures of war veterans with his placed among several combat veterans. Desiring to fully document his WWII service and his ordeal aboard the USS Helena led to a succession of discoveries showing that he could not have possibly served aboard the ill-fated cruiser. When I finally received his full service record, it was a bittersweet moment as it confirmed my research but also confirmed that he lied and lied big.