My mother lives quite a few states away from me, and told me last week that she is getting remarried. She was going on about this guy and how great he was and that he said he was an ex-Seal. Everything sounded a little too good to be true, and my mom can be a little too trusting at times, so I did a little web surfing and found the cyberSeals website. I sent them what little information I had, basically just his name, approximate age, and where he lived. They responded to me within 4 days and confirmed that he was in fact a UDT/Seal graduate.

Here is the actual email they sent me, with names witheld.

Thanks for checking with us - we greatly appreciate your interest in upholding the honor of the US Navy SEAL Teams. You have requested information to confirm or deny whether the following individual is U.S. Navy Frogman, (UDT / SEAL): *****(( xxxxxx, xxxxxx approximately xx years old ))***** It appears that your Mother has landed a Real Deal... congratulations! The subject named above is a certified card carrying member of our UDT/SEAL community. He has graduated from one of the toughest training programs in the military. He no doubt went on to perform great deeds at one of our UDT or SEAL teams... for further information... ask him. Should you have further doubts, please recontact the team with your specific concerns. Our database is thoroughly researched and based on original documentation which dates back to the mid 1940's. There is no other more official resource and it is certainly the best and most accurate method of verifying an authentic genuine 100% U. S. Navy Frogman. This is the same database that SEAL's use for authentication among themselves when they are not known to each other. Please "reply all" if you respond so all individuals involved in this project will receive your response. Thank you again for your assistance in upholding the honor of the US Navy SEAL Teams. Tell the lucky couple hello from us and they have our blessings...

 

  I just wanted to make everyone on Freerepublic aware of this website and the very honorable job that these people are performing.

It worked for me once. Unfortunately, the person I had checked out is now on the Wall of Shame as a poser.

This is great. Wannabes: watch your mouths. Don't let them write checks these guys won't back up. Any claims to military service and valor had better be substantiable or you will be exposed to whatever humiliation bedecks a pretender. There is no reason our brave men and women should have to share their glory with a bunch of barrom braggarts.

Good job! I love it when guys look after their mother like you did. It looks like she has landed the Real Deal!

There are other vets who check on vietnam vets. Mostly homeless types claim it and mostly turn out to be lying. Very few are vets, much less vietnam.

I had to check. It appears my Governor really was what he claimed to be.

Stolen Valor Bump!

Good on to you, FatherTorque.

Has anyone done a search to verify that Jesse Ventura was a SEAL?

Sorry. You beat me to it.

Hey is that guy Richard Marcinko who writes the "Rogue Warrior" books for real??? I have met a two SEALs in my life. One told me that Marcinko's autobiography was basically truthful. The other guy said it was a load of crap.

As far as I know, he is completely legit. He was at the SEAL reunion with Rudy (from Survivor), who is a legit SEAL (actually, I think he was SEAL when the still considered them UDT operators).

He is a BUD/S graduate, but old UDT hands are kind of irate about him calling himself a SEAL, because he was in a UDT unit, and UDT folks had a very different job from the SEALs in those days. They're not so much annoyed about any "wannabe" issue so much as they dislike not getting their piece of the limelight--UDT served for several decades with honor, but the SEALs got all of the publicity after 1962.

Yes, Marcinko was a SEAL.

I saw him in 1997, flying from San Diego to Dulles. I was amazed how overweight he'd gotten.

... is that guy Richard Marcinko who writes the "Rogue Warrior" books for real???

He's for real ... per James Watson ex-SEAL and former curator at the UDT/SEAL museum Fort Pierce, FL. They were in Nam together ... Watson mentions their association in his book "Point Man". Met Watson, when he was still curator at the museum, he has some great stories ... so do some of the other UDT guys going back to WWII, who work at the museum part time as volunteers. Fort Pierce is the original WWII UDT training base.

Whats the real story on why Marcinko got kicked out and put in prison then???

Whats the real story on why Marcinko got kicked out and put in prison then???

Yes, Dickie glosses over that quite nicely in his book. Chalks it up to his violent temper and sassing his superiors, that's all... hmmmm. Methinks there's another side to that SEAL story......

Whats the real story on why Marcinko got kicked out and put in prison then???

Marcinko was the leader of a SEAL team whose primary function was to test security at Navy facilities, stateside and overseas. Several base commanders were humiliated when Marcinko's group penetrated their security ... even when some bases had been alerted to a possible probe by the SEAL's. All of these base commanders (career ticket punchers) are very sensitive to anything that might reflect poorly in a fitness report and damage their career. This went on for some period of time and Marcinko was making a lot of enemies in the process. They finally were able to nail him on expense account irregularities ... to detailed to go into ... but were common practice in the Navy. So they trumped up charges and made them stick.

Bump!

Time for another Navy/Marine Corps bump.

I swear I've never claimed to be a Seal...a Penguin maybe but NEVER a SEAL! LOL

PS: Did anyone check GOV.Jesse Ventura?