[Young Werther]

In fact, a close friend of mine was a a Navy seal in Viet Nam and participated in many clandestine missions with Senator Kerrey and Gov Ventura. He told me that Ventura was every bit the loud mouth that he portrayed as a professional wrestler but there is no one he would rather have at his back while chasing Viet Cong in the jungle.

I don't want to go tell Steve that he's a liar and that he never soldiered with Ventura in Viet Nam.

[jordan8]

This was dealt with extensively here on FR when Ventura was running for governor or when the Kerrey thing was going on. Ventura (AKA James Janos) was in a UDT team and, while accepted as a SEAL, was never in Vietnam. His military career was well documented in The Teams: An Oral History Of The U.S. Navy SEALs by Kevin Dockery and Bill Fawcett. If he ever made it to Vietnam it was on a day-trip. Ventura himself doesn't claim to be a combat veteran, though over the years he's been kind of cute with some steely-eyed, faraway look, innuendos. The man was a professional wrestler AND a politician after all, so a little of that is to be expected. I hate to tell you this, but your friend Steve sounds like a flake.

[jordan8]

Ventura had an older brother, Jan Janos, who was a SEAL in Vietnam, though.

[norton]

"...a close friend of mine was a a Navy seal in Viet Nam and participated in many clandestine missions with Senator Kerrey..."

You might want to illuminate the rest of us about that one....must have made for some interesting talk a couple of years back(?)

Other: I'm still working on the image of James Durning climbing the cliffs at Normandy; but he always did play a good tough guy.