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Last weekend, William Colvard's wedding was news.
Today, it still is...*but for a different reason.
It turns out he's not the "wounded warrior" he's been saying he was.
Colvard's wedding was the subject of two television stories on Saturday, and Colvard and his bride celebrated the nuptials they never had five years ago when they were married. The reason, the story went:*He had*been injured in combat in Iraq, and they couldn't afford a ceremony.
Now, Colvard says he was never injured in combat, and apologizes to a number of people he's been lying to for the last several years.
WFAA
Paradise Cove owner Tina Nealy arranged for William Colvard to have a wedding free of charge.
"I feel violated. I feel completely violated," said Tina Nealy, who*owns Paradise Cove, a wedding venue on Lake Grapevine.
She volunteered to throw a wedding with all the trimmings for the Colvards when she heard their story.*Even after Nealy's facility was destroyed by floods, she pulled strings with her friends in the wedding trade to make sure the Colvards got a venue;*food;*a cake;*flowers;*and a photographer — all*for free.
"Their time was donated thinking they were doing the right thing for a wounded warrior," Nealy said.
WFAA
"I feel completely violated," said Paradise Cove owner Tina Nealy.
Colvard was living on a legend that had begun at least two years ago, when he was honored in a "McAfee Military Moment" celebration at a Frisco Rough Riders game.
"In March of 2008, his convoy was hit by a roadside bomb which caused the Humvee he was in to roll over," a news release said. "He [Colvard]*suffered burns, a separated shoulder and hearing loss."
The Rough Riders said the news*release was based on an interview with Colvard, he approved it, and was there when it was read at the baseball game.
Colvard now concedes to News 8 that he was lying.
He was never injured in a bombed convoy, he said. He said he hurt his shoulder diving over a wall at Camp Taji, a large base in Iraq. Records show he was in the National Guard, and spent seven months on active duty in Iraq. He spent an additional 17 months in rehabilitation in San Antonio, he said.
Records indicate he was honorably discharged five years ago.
It's not clear if Colvard is a wounded warrior, even though he has a "Wounded Warrior" medallion on his pickup truck. Congress defines a wounded warrior as a combatant with a 30 percent disability. Colvard did not describe the permanence of his injury;*he now describes himself as an "injured veteran."
William Covard's pickup truck bears a "Wounded Warrior Edition" emblem.
Colvard declined to be interviewed on camera. He apologized for lying about his record, but it appears that he continued to embellish his injuries as recently as last Sunday. He told professionals at his wedding*that his Humvee was bombed in a convoy, when the road he was travelling on was not secured.
It was a "very extensive conversation," Tina Nealy said.
She has*donated two other weddings to wounded warriors, and says*she will ask more questions the next time around.
"I will ask for documentation for sure," Nealy said.*"But I'll still give. It's not going to stop me from helping a wounded warrior*—*no way."
now this story makes me sick.
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