One of the most disrespectful things an American can do is claim they served in the military when they never actually did. One WWE Legend is in trouble when it comes to trying to explain what he's been claiming over the past thirty years.

WWE Hall of Famer Sgt. Slaughter (Robert Remus) is being accused of Stolen Valor. His character has long-been known as one that was a drill instructor in the United States Marines and for decades, Slaughter has been portraying a war veteran, even during non-kayfabe interviews. Even well after he was a regular in-ring performer, Slaughter has been talking about his tours of duty, for example, when he told Sam Roberts and Jim Norton that he served in Vietnam.

The problem is, reports are he never actually served in the military at all. Slaughter claimed that he served six years in the US Marine Corps, from 1966 until 1973, but he started wrestling for the AWA promotion in 1972. And, it sounds like the Marines had been reaching out to Slaughter since 1985 to ask him to stop.

According to WrestlingInc., The Baltimore Sun reported on March 24, 1985 that the Marines wrote a letter to the former WWE Champion and asked him to stop pretending he was a Marine. Apparently, they had been "interested" in Slaughter for a few years but he was "very elusive." The report notes Slaughter received more than 50 complaints in one year from actual Marines. Slaughter and his agent never responded.

Accusations against Slaughter came to light again this week on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter message board, started by writer Karl Stern. (H/T to Wrestlingnews.co) The story blew up when SoCal Uncensored started tweeting about it.

Will WWE Respond?

It's one thing to be claiming something while you're in character (some will even debate how appropriate this is) but another thing to do after you've retired, which Slaughter has been doing.

There's no word on whether or not WWE plans to address the accusations.

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