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Uniform gaffe outs fake Navy captain

When Andy Jerome Ticker got married in April, he wore a full-dress captain’s uniform strewn with medals, including a Navy Cross, Silver Star and Purple Heart.

But the 42-year-old electrician from Louisiana never even served in the military.

Ticker’s bogus effort to impress his wife landed him in federal court Sept. 30 with a misdemeanor charge of wearing an unauthorized medal. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year of home confinement with an ankle monitor, two years of probation-style supervision and a $500 fine. Ticker could have been charged with more violations, but prosecutors kept it to one charge in exchange for his guilty plea.

“This was not a gray area. This was not difficult to prove. It was a clear and deliberate violation of federal law,” Jim Letten, the U.S. attorney in New Orleans and a former Navy reservist, said in an interview.

Ticker bought the uniform online and got the medals at a local military surplus store, according to an official familiar with the investigation who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to discuss the case.

Someone at the wedding noticed that Ticker was wearing a lieutenant commander’s hat with a captain’s uniform and later contacted the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the official said. NCIS turned the case over to federal prosecutors.

Ticker had been posing as a Navy officer for years; he had been married before and had told his first wife that he was a lieutenant commander, the official said.

Photos of Ticker wearing the unearned medals were captured by a local photographer hired for the small outdoor wedding in Slidell, La., on April 12.

Ticker told federal officials that he makes about $21 an hour working at an electrical repair company outside Baton Rouge, La. He apparently moved there after his home in Holden, La., and his trailer were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina in 2005, according to court documents.

Ticker requested a court-appointed attorney after declaring that he had about $100 in cash and a lot of debt, court papers show. His attorney, Roma Kent, did not return calls for comment.

Ticker’s case is typical of many fakers, who often have no military background yet claim to have a rare array of the military’s most elite combat medals.

“Most of these guys just do this out of low self-esteem,” said B.G. Burkett, a specialist in military medals fakery and the author of “Stolen Valor.”

Ticker apologized to the judge and admitted he never served in the military in any capacity. He told U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey in New Orleans that he wore the fake uniform and unearned medals because he wanted to impress his wife.

The maximum penalty for wearing an unearned medal is one year in prison.