Pledge possibly lying about military service..

[scoobis]

We've had a pledge in our house for several months now and he's a great friend of mine. He's a stand up guy, respectful, intelligent, funny, etc. Personally one of the most interesting people i've met in college. One of things that our chapter really liked about him was that he had served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan which we hold very highly in our house. Our chapter has many veterans and our national fraternity itself was founded by Cadets at Virginia Military Institute.

Today I was speaking with a classmate who was in ROTC with our pledge at one point. When I brought up the pledge's name he began laughing and said that he was joke in ROTC and is lying about ever being in the military at all. Also that the ROTC students hate him for lying about his service. According to this kid our pledge completely fabricated his entire experience in the military. Many of the points the ROTC member made began to make sense the more i thought about it and i became suspicious.

Honestly I want to believe our pledge and at this point I do. Right now it's one person's word against one of my close friend's. I'm really looking for advice on a way to find out if this has any truth in it other than asking him directly; which i would feel could be the most disrespectful thing EVER to do to a vet.

This is a situation i've never even fathomed dealing with and i'd appreciate any help you can get me.