WENTWORTH, Mark Alexander

Mark Alexander Wentworth claims to have enlisted in the Australian Regular Army at the age of 16, served overseas with the SAS at the age of 18, and been discharged after an enlistment period of 2 years and
seven months. Never mind that the minimum age for general enlistment is 17, and that for service in a war zone is 19 or that the minimum period of enlistment was three years. Wentworth came to attention in early 2000, after a complaint from his private school principal that he had told the boys in his class, in graphic detail, how he had "finished off" two Viet Cong with an axe. His principal initiated enquiries through the ACT Branch of the VVAA, and commenced an investigation of his own into the educational qualifications that Wentworth claimed. The Central Army Records Office (CARO) have no record of anyone of this name serving in the Australian Regular Army (ARA 6 year enlistment), the Regular Army Supplement (RAS 3 year enlistment), the Citizens' Military Forces (CMF) or the Army Reserve (ARES).

His name does not appear in the electronic or printed versions of the Vietnam Nominal Roll. His name does not appear in Dr David Horner's book "SAS: Phantoms of the Jungle - A History of the Special Air Service Regiment". When pressed, Wentworth produced his "evidence" through his solicitor, making it a condition that the investigators not take copies of documents or notes. A letter purporting to come from CARO had certain detail blacked out, but the investigators were able to prove that the signatory had never worked in CARO. A photograph of individuals in greens and webbing was produced, but close examination of details of the clothing, webbing and accoutrements worn indicates that these were either senior school cadets or CMF trainees, certainly not Regular Army of the period.

The final stroke was the "medals" - duplicates of the Vietnam Medal and the Vietnamese Campaign Medal mounted under glass with the SASR badge and wings underneath Wentworth's name. These vanity frames are of course able to be purchased by anyone. The medals were not engraved with the recipient's service number, initials and surname and were clearly duplicates. His solicitor's eyes were opened when these fakes were compared to a real set of medals that happened to be on hand, and the differences described - loudly.

Wentworth had also described the Vietnam Medal to both his principal and solicitor as the "Queen's Medal" because the obverse has the Queen's portrait. This was a mistake that no Vietnam veterans would ever make. As if this wasn't laughable enough, one of the investigators had actually run the Queen's Shoot in Brisbane in the early seventies, and was familiar with the Queen's Medal and was aware of who had won! Despite the accumulated evidence against him, Wentworth was offered an opportunity to apologise to the veteran community for his insult, but declined. We also understand that his claimed  educational qualifications did not stand up under investigation. When this was added to the evidence presented by our investigators, the principal immediately terminated his employment, and Wentworth fled overseas. We understand he doesn't have plans for an early return to Australia. Perhaps he's in Vietnam again?.

Needless to say, Wentworth's claims of military bravado and service were false.