When some run-of-the-mill dummy steals valor for retail discounts or to get free food or to pick up a girl at the bar, we all shake our heads — but at the same time understand why a desperate attention-seeker would stoop that low to commit that criminal act of impersonating a military service member.

They want to be appear great, because they’re not.

But when a command sergeant major in the United States Army does it?

That’s hard to believe.

But, believe it. Because that’s exactly what Command Sgt. Major Perry McNeill did for nearly three years (between 2011 and 2014) while serving in Japan, Turkey and Fort Sill in Lawton, Oklahoma.

According to Stars and Stripes, McNeill has been convicted of wrongly wearing a Ranger Tab and a Pathfinder Badge. A military judge sentenced him to be demoted to sergeant first class, a letter of reprimand and a loss of $500 in pay over the course of ten months.

A Ranger Tab is only earned after completing the Army’s Ranger School, while the Pathfinder Badge is garnered after graduating from a school that deals with managing helicopter landing zones, drop zones and other air-ground operations.