That's correct. It's retroactive.
That's why I'm attached to mine. Had it since 1998.
@Cyber Liberty I've had mine since my first post to FR,back in 97 or 98,and someone tipped me off there was someone posting on FR as a "Green Beret Colonel" with the screen name of "Deep in the Hurtgen Forrest",and babbling all sorts of nonsense about VN. Stuff like "There I was,standing in eyeballs up to my waist.....",etc,etc,etc. Well,not really,but close.
He also claimed to be in charge of a team deployed to Bosnia ( IIRC) and people at FR "adopted" him and his team,and started sending them money,gifts for his team members,food,etc,etc,etc.
So I logged on as "sneakypete" to test and see if he really was a vet or not,because that was a derogatory name the regular army tagged us with back in the 50's,and if he had served when he claimed,he would have known this and known he was being addressed by someone with the ability to find out who he really was,and get him shut down.
I even made an effort to make it humorous by stating we all have "there I was,nothing around me but teeth,hair,and enemy eyeballs" stories we tell to each other for amusement purposes,and everybody hearing it knows it is BS,but that it is NOT alright to play these games with people who don't know any better,never mind accept gifts and cash from these people.
He didn't. He got a little snotty with me in his reply,so MY reply to him may have been a tad harsh,and I was no longer asking him to back off. I was insisting on it,and told him and everyone reading the threads he was posting to that he was a liar and a poser,and should be arrested.
Jim,Connie,and the whole clan went ballistic and immediately banned for life,and then wrote a bunch of nasty posts about me calling me "jealous of his accomplishments,a liar,etc,etc,etc."
Little did they know I was only the "point man",and there were probably dozens of other SF VN vets and current serving SF members reading the posts,and THEY started logging on and backing me. One was a serving senior officer who gave them his real name and telephone number,and invited anyone interested to call him to verify he is who he says he is.
Little did they know,but there were probable dozens of SF VN vets following those threads with a great deal of interest because they take that sort of thing seriously. A few of the known and respected "freepers" knew someone that had served in SF in VN and asked them their opinion,and they knew who I am in "real life" and vouched for me.
BTW,do NOT be impressed by that. SF back in the 50's and 60's was a VERY small army unit,and pretty much everybody on the teams either knew each other,or had friends who knew each other. In SF,you live or die by your reputation. If you get a reputation as being unreliable,it's not long before you found yourself in another unit. ALL it takes is for your team sgt to say "I don't want him because he is unreliable",and you are history. If the company SGM thinks it may be due to some factor other than performance,he will see if he can find another team to give you a home. If he can't or if that team give you the boot too,you are gone and never coming back.
Sooo,several other SF vets,some with public faces and names,logged on and vouched for me,and added the guy WAS a poser and HE should be booted instead of me. One was even a serving field grade officer who gave his real name and phone number if anyone wanted to call.
Which resulted in several "Free Sneakpete" threads being started by freepers who thought I was the one telling the truth. LOTS of people raising heck with Jim Bob,and he ended up banning some of my more vocal supporters. Which made it worse. He eventually ended up reinstating me,and Connie,for one,ended up offering me both public and private apologies.
What really put the cork in that sham was a couple of SF guys with free time on their hands started investigating that "Green Beret Colonel in Bosnia",and discovered not only his real name,but also the fact he was 19 years old and still living at home with his mama. They let him get away with just making a personal apology to all he had fooled,and offering to return money for any donations made to him,claiming he had donated it all to charity,and sent the food packages to soldiers actually serving in Bosnia. His father was an active duty soldier stationed in Texas,so you know he had to be embarrassed. He claimed he started doing it to pump up support for SF guys stationed in Bosnia,and it just got out of hand.
He also posted his confession as a stand-alone thread on FR and apologized to everyone he had fooled.
BTW,he was monitored by some SF guys in Texas to make sure he did the volunteer work,too. I don't know if these were the same guys that outed him or not,though.
Jim Bob kept those threads in the FR history for a couple of years,too. Kinda surprised me,and I do give him credit for that. Last time I checked a couple of years ago,there was only one to be found using their search engine,though.