Who were the real men/women on Apollo 18?

In the official records it said that Pete Conrad and Alan Bean were the two astronauts on Apollo 18 while Richard Gordon Jr remained in orbit taking photographs of the moon. At least that was who was scheduled for the Apollo 18 Mission. I goggled these three men to see the date that they passed away. All these men passed away way after the Apollo 18 mission and took jobs with high ranking positions. When I started thinking about this I came to one conclusion, these men were not the ones on the Apollo 18 shuttle. I believe that the DOD planned on having these men on the shuttle but when the budget crisis hit they used this to their advantage. Since the entire country thought there would not be any more space missions for a while, they secretly sent three other men into space (with the presidents permission  & off record). These three men went into space and never returned. When people started questioning they automatically went to the three men who were suppose to be on that mission. The men denied it because they themselves had no idea that the Apollo 18 mission went through anyways. How can any one question the DOD when the men who were on the record for the Apollo 18 deny any evidence of the mission? That is how the DOD took three unsuspecting men/females told them this was "off record" and lied to the entire country denying anything to do with Apollo 18. How can someone prove anything when there isn't any record of the launch? There wasn't any information until now. If you haven't looked at my previous post, I recommend you go their and click the link. The government lies to us...but why?