I explained that I read a story from AP that quoted him. He acknowledged it right away. I said that I followed an internet discussion group that was questioning his membership in the Seals, that there was an organization that kept records of that kind of thing and that there was no record of his membership, and some speculated that he had a name change since them.
He said that he did have a name change since then, but was not willing to get involved. I tried to talk him into giving me his former name, but he was unwilling.
I asked specifically if he was a Seal and he said, “yes”. I asked if he went through Seal school, and his answer was in the affirmative, but vague. I mentioned that people were suggesting that he wasn’t a Seal, and brought up the “wall of shame” of people pretending to be Seals. He said, “I seriously doubt that I’ll be up on that.” He said he wasn’t worried about that.
He kept a good humor about him, but wanted to end the call. I mentioned that some people were saying that it was not possible to spend 5 years as a Seal in Vietnam. He said that he was misquoted there, that he did spend five years there, but not back to back. He said that “In fact, I spent more than five years total there”. I said, “but not all 5 years as a Seal?” He laughed and said, “No, not all 5 years.”
He said that he was a retired Master Chief Petty Officer.
He repeated several times that he didn’t want to get involved in this dispute “for obvious reasons”. And then he said, “I don’t know how I allowed myself to be quoted” or pulled into this by the guy that contacted him.
He really wanted out. I had to have mercy on him and let him go. I told him that because of the story others would call. He laughed and said he knows how to end a conversation. We said goodbye.
Good work, Elfman2. He may not have wanted the attention, but he can't avoid it now. It seems that AP went to quite a bit of trouble "source shopping" to get his comments. The bit about having spent more than five years total in Vietnam puts up more alarm bells for me. As he has listed a social security number on his contact information, it ought to be very easy to check out his credentials, name change or not.
Give the guy a call.
You know the questions to ask.
ok. well it seems legit then. Let's not bother the poor guy anymore. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I can't really blame those guys, especially Seals, for looking down a bit on those in the guard while they were in Nam seeing their buddies die and all. Heck, some freinds of mine are Rangers and they look down on everybody (in a goodnatured way). Just a typical macho human reaction. If we start calling and harrassing people all the time, we'll get a bad rep. The headline will be
"Right Wing Websiters harrass and accuse a decorated Ex Veteran of being a Communist". lol
It's not a SEAL school. It's called BUD/S. He should have been very willing to give you his Class number. His vague answers are the first clue that he is not a real SEAL. The dates that you have him serving in the USN, he would probably have been only an E-4, after 3 years. I still don't see the time frame to give him thirty years in the USN. When I talked to the people at AuthentiSeal, they get so many e-mails per day about people pretending to be SEALs. It takes three guys, seven days a week to process all the fake claims.
Of the Navy? No way.
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy. The Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON) is the senior enlisted person in the Navy. The MCPON serves as the senior enlisted leader of the Navy, and as an advisor to the Chief of Naval Operations and to the Chief of Naval Personnel in matters dealing with enlisted personnel and their families.
You sure you heard him right? There's only been a handful of MCPON's over the years. Here's a list. There's 10.