Posted on 05/11/2011 11:55:13 AM PDT by ThinkingBuddha
Navy SEAL wannabes lie to get free beers, to get women into bed, to further their civilian careers or to get military benefits. And the number of phonies will probably only grow with the SEALs in the spotlight for the operation that killed Osama bin Laden.
In fact, there might be more fakes than the real thing — so despite being outnumbered, retired SEALs and others are doing what they can to stop impostors from stealing the valor that rightly belongs to others who have trained for some of the world's toughest military missions.
"There were about 500 SEALs that operated in Vietnam, and I've met all 20,000 of them," joked Steve Waterman, a retired Navy diver from South Thomaston, who said he has exposed more than 100 phony SEALs over the years.
The latest crop of fakes includes a Pennsylvania minister who let his congregation believe he was a SEAL and repeated the lie to a newspaper.
It's easy enough to spot a phony, the SEAL sleuths say. For starters, bona fide SEALs — trained to operate on sea, air and land — don't boast about their top-secret exploits. And the fakes' stories often unravel upon questioning. Sometimes, they're plots pulled from movies. Other times, they're too fanciful to be true.
"The more outrageous a story is, in a lot of cases, the more it's believed. These guys do a terrible amount of damage," said Don Shipley, a retired SEAL from Chesapeake, Va., who devotes much of his time to exposing the phonies.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I was a tail gunner on the space shuttle...
Ever met one of these phonies?
sorry, I’ve never met Obama.
I’ve met a couple of dozen fake SEALs, but only one real one.
I also met a fake B-52 pilot. He claimed he had been shot down during a secret mission in Cambodia but didn’t know how many crew positions a Buff has or why it is called a Buff.
“”There were about 500 SEALs that operated in Vietnam, and I’ve met all 20,000 of them,’ joked Steve Waterman,”
5000 of them have been in McP’s Pub in Coronado CA.
I knew one guy back in 1992 that was full of it.
I had just gone through Marine Core Recruit Training. I knew he was full of it within 60 seconds of talking to him. I asked him a very basic question about weapons and he did not know the answer. Then he tried to avoid me.
So I decided to have a little fun. I convinced him to go on a little run. I wore his fake Navy Seal ass out. He could barely run a mile and kept stopping. It was pathetic.
This guy would also wear Navy Seal T-Shirts out to bars. To pick up women I guess? Give me a break! I even called the Navy Seal museum in Florida to verify his name. And just like I thought it did not come up.
Yes Thinkingbuddha, I've run across one.
Especially since I was a member of a super-secret WALRUS team...
I hope every real Seal kicks the crap out of any fake BS artist he comes across. Can someone’s ego be so needy that they would fake this. Why soitenly! I guess faking being a Marxist hasn’t any cache with the women!
I hope every real Seal kicks the crap out of any fake BS artist he comes across. Can someone’s ego be so needy that they would fake this. Why soitenly! I guess faking being a Marxist hasn’t any cache with the women!
When I was still a young’un at the apartment pool of my friend whose husband was in the Navy......this little dude (I mean about 140 an 5’4) claimed he was a Seal. Even then I knew he was full of it. And at 18 I believed just about everything.
I exposed a guy at a familiy BBQ about 10 years ago. He was dating the sister of my then fiancee. She kept talking about her new boyfriend who used to be a Navy Seal.
At first I was looking forward to meeting him. I was an active duty Army captain at the time and had some college buddies that were Seals.
I also new about 20 guys who tried and failed to make it through Buds. It took about 2 minutes to determine he was a fake. My fiancee begged me not to say anything, but that wasn’t going to happen. I called him out in front of everyone. Needless to say, it was an uncomfortable scene.
I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Before anyone mentions Jesse Ventura:
From September 11, 1969, to September 10, 1975, during the Vietnam War era, Ventura served in the United States Navy. Ventura graduated with BUD/S class 58 in December 1970[4] and was part of Underwater Demolition Team 12 (UDT).[5] The UDTs were merged with the US Navy SEALs in 1983, 8 years after Ventura had left the Navy.
Bill Salisbury, an attorney in San Diego and a former Navy SEAL officer, accused Ventura of “pretending” to be a SEAL and wrote that Ventura would be blurring an important distinction by claiming to be a SEAL when he was actually a frogman with the UDT. Compared to SEAL teams, UDTs saw less combat and took fewer casualties.[6][7][8] Following that, Governor Ventura’s office confirmed that Ventura was never a member of the SEALs. His spokesman stated that Ventura has never tried to convince people otherwise.[6] Ventura stated: “Today we refer to all of us as SEALs; that’s all it is.”[8]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Ventura
Wow.
Ping
Disgrace: Pastor Makes Believe He was Navy SEAL, Aspects of Seagal Movie, GI Jane in Stories
Pastor Lies About Being a Navy SEAL, Confronted by Retired SEAL
Good for you.
So what’s the story? Trident/Delta hasn’t posted since 08/06.
Way to go....over the years I have exposed a few fake Vietnam Vets...pretty easy with just a few questions!
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