In January 2025, a ceremony was held at the Gold Star Monument in Sandy, where U.S. Marine Corps veteran Nickolas White was presented with a service dog to help with his PTSD.
The service dog had been provided and trained by the SSGT Taylor Hoover Foundation, a non-profit organization run by the Utah family of a Marine killed during a 2021 attack in Afghanistan. In requesting help with a service dog, White shared how he had been involved in an operation near where Hoover had died while serving his country.
There was one big problem: It was all a lie. White was never a Marine, nor was he a veteran, and had never served in any branch of the U.S. military…