When military veteran Garrett Goodwin encountered a man wearing a military uniform while panhandling near MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, he quickly shouted at the man to take it off.
“Don’t apologize to me! Take that and throw it in the garbage. I don’t want you to wear it anymore! That’s my uniform!” Goodwin shouted as he chased the man away from the base.
“My brothers died wearing that uniform! …Take that and throw it away! Don’t put it back on!” he added.
Realizing he had been caught, the man quickly began shedding his clothes as he ran away from Goodwin.
After the encounter, which was caught on camera, Goodwin told a local news station why it was an especially hard day for him to see someone wearing an undeserved uniform.
“Maybe one of the reasons I was so into this yesterday is tomorrow I’m burying a good friend who is a Marine…I’m putting that man in the ground tomorrow,” Goodwin said.
“Not on my watch. Not yesterday. Not today. Not tomorrow,” he said of stolen valor.
