SEAL sleuths expose those who've faked service

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.

What a bunch of d-bags. I have certainly never been a SEAL. Now, my great-grandfather, he was a SEAL in WWI. He killed more Australians than you can imagine.....

I was in an underwater quartermaster mess kit repair battalion meself.

I believe the Ozstrines describe your granda's exploits as slotterin' a couple o' slabs of tinnies!

Piece o’ cake to out one: What’s your BUD/S class number?

Good start, and it covers a goodly percentage of the phonies, particularly those who were never in the Naby or other armed service at all.

However, like phony Marines, my preference is to cheerfukky introduce any of those who are suspect to others who are in fact the real thing. The results are sometimes funny, occaisionally instructive, and every once in a while, downright spectacular.

What’s your BUD/S class number?

What's a legitimate one "look like"?

In my experience, military class numbers were generally two digits of the year in which the class completed, a "dash" and then a number reflecting which class it was in that year, for schools which graduate more than one class per year.

BUD/S work the same way?

The real problem I find is that many people want to know a SEAL or other “celebrity” type. They want to be lied to, to believe it all. They’ll even go out of their way to defend the liar.

That's odd to me, since I've always been happier having been associated with a top-notch elite unit that very few folks outside it have much knowledge or understanding about its activities, yet is the oldest and most decorated organization of its type in the U.S Army.

Sure, I went on to other things, ranging from snakeeating to castle burning and fair maiden rescuing. But it's that one old outfit that most folks have no clue about that's the one that really counts with me.

And, of course, they've broken a lot of hearts of the people who happened to be on the other side of our country when the many good works of this fine group were accomplished over the years, from 15 July 1940 to today.

Campaigns;
World War II:

Algeria-French Morocco;
Sicily (with arrowhead);
Normandy (with arrowhead);
Northern France; Rhineland;
Ardennes-Alsace; Central Europe

Korean War:
UN Defensive;
UN Offensive;
CCF Intervention;
First UN Counteroffensive;
CCF Spring Offensive;
UN Summer-Fall Offensive;
Second Korean Winter

Southwest Asia:

Defense of Saudi Arabia;
Liberation and Defense of Kuwait;
Cease-Fire
Decorations:

Presidential Unit Citation (Army),
Streamer embroidered COTENTIN PENINSULA
Presidential Unit Citation (Army),
Streamer embroidered HURTGEN FOREST
Valorous Unit Award,
Streamer embroidered IRAQ
Belgian Fourragere 1940
Cited in the Order of the Day of the Belgian Army for actions in Belgium
Cited in the Order of the Day of the Belgian Army for action in the Ardennes

Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation,
Streamer embroidered TAEGU
Chryssoun Aristion Andrias (Bravery Gold Medal of Greece),
Streamer embroidered KOREA

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