In Person Of Interest's final episode, the Machine, while fading away from the viral attack, talks to Harold and explains some key lessons it learned about people. One of the stories it tells, to illustrate that how people die and how they are remembered are really important, appears to be the story of how Reese's father dies.
We see a young Reese at a funeral and overhear people describing his father as a hero because he rescued some people from a fire while losing his own life in the process. He seems to have been a fireman.
But in series 3 episode 11, in a bar scene between him and Fusco, we seem to get a different story. They are in the bar his father used to frequent where there are photos from his military service. Fusco asks if he was killed in action. Reese explains his father did four tours in vietnam but died two months after coming home in an accident at a refinery.
These stories don't seem to be consistent.
Which one is true? Did the machine make up or embellish the story?