Edited sentence: " Much of his credibility was damaged however, when it was also learned that French had falsely previously claimed to have been a US Marine in the late 1970's.French never explained the incident, nor did he apologize for his actions in the matter.He was found to have only taken one Navy ROTC class in college and never have completed Marine Corps boot camp at either San Diego Calf.SC, nor had he ever been commissioned an officer in the Marine Corps to have "earned" the title of Marine by USMC standards.This earned him great derision from Alaska's large veteran community, especially former Marines and their families, who referred to him as "gunny", a tongue-in-cheek jab that he had probably also promoted himself to the Marine Corps senior NCO rank of gunnery sergeant(E-7).or Parris I