Fake army hero weaved tall stories of derring-do

"The lie had just gone too deep, it's like a weed that invades your life. Once it's taken root, there's nothing you can do about it," he said. "It's like the game Buckaroo, everybody keeps adding something on and you have got to try and keep up with everything. My mind started going like `this is who you are' and this is when I started thinking that it was true. I believed I had been to all these places."