BEEN WATCHING DON SHIPLEY'S FAKE NAVY SEAL VIDEO'S AND I AM ASTOUNDED!

[rwsmith]

HAD to be....

Yea I know, encountered one myself. If he was ever a SEAL, I'm a ballerina.

Used to be, posers claimed to be Vietnam veterans. Always in some kind of Special Ops though. Never a regular troop. Sometimes I think I must have been one of the only guys in Vietnam, who was NOT some kind of super secret Ninja warrior

Had to be Special Ops. Or somebody would immediately pop up and ask him about his posting there and his story would go to mud, quick.

 

[rwsmith]

There has to be a special word......

Pretending to have been in the service is pretty pathetic.

Know what's almost just as pathetic? Accosting a random person in a Walmart for wearing a M65 field jacket. I have a OD Green M65 field jacket I bought in a thrift store about 5 or 6 years ago. I pulled all the patches off it and I wear it in the winter for hunting, hiking, etc. It has a zip-in hood and removable liner.

One day, while standing at the ammo case in my local Walmart, some old man just walks right up to me and snidely asks "Did you EARN that jacket?"

I informed him that no one "earns" a field jacket. You are "issued" a field jacket and that he needed to get out of my face with that nonsense immediately. I have never served - nor have I pretended to have served - and his accusatory tone infuriated me. It's making me angry all over again just thinking about it.

Like the guy that spent his time confronting people about handicapped parking spaces, this guy sounds like he's looking for a confrontation, too and has his targets pre-identified. There must be a special word for people like this. One by which these guys would immediately know in one word. Kinda like we were talking about 'bubbas' on another post.

 

[rwsmith]

I always joked that there's always......

I've joked that there are always a couple of retired SEALS that hang around gunshops. But this ain't funny.

 

[Rammer Jammer]

I respect and admire what real Navy SEALS do but can't understand the mentality of those that pretend to be one or claim to be some other sort of combat veteran.

Whenever a company tries to use the SEAL angle in their marketing I find it to be more of a turnoff and disregard the product as a gimmick at worst or at the least braggadocious.

Those who really saw combat aren't the type to brag about it let alone even want to talk about it.

For the record I'm a civilian who has never served and would never claim to have.

 

[Dave.357]

From reading this post I would
Rate you as a Army of one

 

[Steve912]

Um, I don't think so. You don't just walk up to a random stranger and toss out an accusation like that. I took it as a personal insult. .

That was your decision--to take it as "a personal insult."

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I was picking a friend up for lunch on Nov.10th one year. In the window to the office were a set of "Gunny" stripes. The other guy had been a Gunny, my friend never got above E-5 in the Marines. Their joke was they were the only 2 old marines in Ohio, that were never snipers, or on Iwo Jima!

Ivan

 

[Donn]

One of my favorites. A guy comes into our VVA Chapter, wants to join, dressed in full regalia, must've had a standing order with Medals of America. Asked for a copy of his DD-214, (required for membership). He says, "I never got one. We were too far under cover, everything we did is still classified." Yeah, sure. There's the door, don't let it hit you in the ***.

 

[Rastoff]

I always knew how tough it was to become a SEAL and what a coveted job it is,...

With respect sir, you are incorrect about this. Absolutely no one covets the job of a SEAL, Recon or Ranger, not even those who really fill those positions. This is why the wash out rate is so high in the fist week of training. It is a suck *** job and we should be grateful for those who suffer through, finish the training and then continue on to actually do that job.

What people really covet is the respect those men engender. They want people to lavish them with praise, buy their meals and just generally stand in awe. The true warrior covets not these things. The true warrior covets a warm bed, a hot meal and some peace later in life because of all the horrible things they've had to do to protect our way of life. This is why there are posers and why every one of them should be ashamed of themselves and shamed by anyone who discovers their lie. We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.

I served 5 years on active duty and have spent the rest of my adult life working as a USAF government civilian supporting the war fighter. I've never been to combat. I didn't serve during a wartime period. That doesn't make me any less happy to have served nor do I feel less than those that did see combat. I worked in a laboratory; still do. Without me doing what I do, there would be no accurate, reliable guns. There would be no high tech aircraft that fly >Mach 1 without after burners. There would be no C-17 to fly the tanks in close to where they're needed and take our fallen home with honors.

No, I wasn't a SEAL or Para-Rescue, but what I do is vital to the mission.

Actually I've read the number is much higher. According to the 1995 Census something like 9.5 Million people claimed Vietnam service when less than 1.8 million actually did.

Be careful with numbers because they can be confusing.

There were over 2M boots on the ground in Viet Nam. But there were over 9M who served on active duty during the Viet Nam conflict. They are Viet Nam vets too, just not the muddy, bloody kind.

As I stated above, I would never claim something I didn't actually do. I'm not old enough to have served in Nam (born in '66).

 

[rwsmith]

I tried watching it.....

...maybe later I'll watch some more. I could only take a few minutes before I was getting very agitated.

A phony SEALS worst nightmare is having a real one walk into the room.

 

[Drm50]

After they bought the Wall to our town and set it up on the school
Foot Ball field, the town was all pumped up. We have a American
Legion, there were reps there from VFW. About a dozen of us
signed up or transferred from a post 25mi away. This was all based on getting a building. One of the major cheerleaders of
this was owner of local Greasy Spoon. Since he offered the use
of his basement for a temporary post we appointed him CO of
Post. He was aways talking about search & kills down in Delta
area, Brown Water Navy. When VFW organizer came back with
our cards, everyone got one except this guy. Turns out he was
Navy, got a General discharge on Medical and never left the states. He withdrew offer of his basement and our VFW post
went under before it started. Most of us just dropped out. The
Legion didn't like the idea anyway. Small area like ours couldn't
support two organizations. They are in trouble now. Got a couple
WW2 Vets left and about 5 Korean vets, and about 2 dozen RVN
vets, no new ones. They would have to shut it down if not for
associates & Sons of the Legion.

 

[STCM(SW)]

All I'll say is you didn't have to be a ground pounder to be a combat vet...
I liked being on a Mobile platform with 3 hots and a cot and guns that
the other side had a hard time shooting back at...

 

[dr. mordo]

I'm not a special operator, but I work with SEALs and every other variant of USSOF every day. I worked for two high ranking SEALs for the last two years. It was a nightmare.

The most impressive thing about the SEAL community is their marketing and PR. In actual fact, they are truly experts at tactical ops, but terrible at everything else, for example, leadership, management, planning, etc. So while it's true there aren't very many SEALs, I'm completely fine with that. In fact, I was recently talking to a very bright young SEAL Lieutenant, and he said he was getting out in the near future. I was surprised and asked why, and he explained that the SEAL corps can't keep good people. They beat them up so much that anyone with any outside prospects leaves before 10 years of service, so the guys left to run things are bottom of the barrel. I told him that explained a lot.

The guys that make everyone look bad are the Green Berets. They can do 90% of what a SEAL or Ranger can tactically, plus they speak multiple languages, are often trained intelligence operatives, and are master planners and trainers. I've never been around a more generally competent and professional group of people than the Green Beret corps. They are truly impressive.

 

[OLDNAVYMCPO]

Navy SEALS are trigger pullers, that is their primary mission. They are also explosives experts, excellent swimmers and expert parachutist. At the troop level, their extent of planning doesn't have to extend much past the " five paragraph order" ( for those of you familiar with infantry terminology).

Army Special Forces on the other hand are trained to be a force multiplier. In other words, their function is to train indigenous people to function in a paramilitary fashion. They may as individuals be trained in scuba, HALO, as snipers, corpsmen or medics, communications experts, demolitions experts, engineers, and weapons experts.No single individual is trained in all aspects.

Rangers are trained as small unit infantry. That may sound simple, but they stretch the envelope about as far as it can be stretched. They are individually trained in many of the same aspects as other operators.

Delta, is made up of the very best of the above individuals.

Paratroopers are trained to fight as infantry, no matter how they find themselves on the battlefield. They don't need a squad leader or platoon sgt standing over them to direct their every action. They are trained to exhibit initiative, to take charge regardless of rank, regardless of number, equipment or weapons and take the fight to the enemy. Here to, individuals are cross trained in other fields such as Pathfinders, Riggers, Jumpmasters, HALO, etc.

Marine Force Recon, go thru very similar training as all the above but in addition, their primary mission is intelligence gathering be it in preparation of an amphibious assault, removing beach obstacles or intel gathering ashore.

There are others that fall in the realm of Special Operations, they are Air Force Ground Combat Units, Army and Marine Snipers, Air Force PJs, Rescue Swimmers and others.

I've been in and around most of the above. I find common traits among them all, they for the most part are dedicated to what they do and to their responsibilities. They are firmly dedicated to their teammates. They are fiercely determined to complete their mission at any cost. To a man the thing that stands out the most is there is no quit in them.

I didn't mean to get so far astray but the thread had drifted from posers to comparisons. I thought some explanation was in order for those not intimately familiar with the military.

 

[paulh]

I'm not a special operator, but I work with SEALs and every other variant of USSOF every day. I worked for two high ranking SEALs for the last two years. It was a nightmare.

The most impressive thing about the SEAL community is their marketing and PR. In actual fact, they are truly experts at tactical ops, but terrible at everything else, for example, leadership, management, planning, etc. So while it's true there aren't very many SEALs, I'm completely fine with that. In fact, I was recently talking to a very bright young SEAL Lieutenant, and he said he was getting out in the near future. I was surprised and asked why, and he explained that the SEAL corps can't keep good people. They beat them up so much that anyone with any outside prospects leaves before 10 years of service, so the guys left to run things are bottom of the barrel. I told him that explained a lot.

The guys that make everyone look bad are the Green Berets. They can do 90% of what a SEAL or Ranger can tactically, plus they speak multiple languages, are often trained intelligence operatives, and are master planners and trainers. I've never been around a more generally competent and professional group of people than the Green Beret corps. They are truly impressive.

I don't think any SEAL is bottom of the barrel. I thought I had it rough in PI but after reading " Lone Survivor " and what they go thru there's no comparison.

 

[Golddollar]

I belong to the VFW Auxiliary and Sons of the American Legion because of my grandfather's service in World War I. When I mention that sometimes people will thank me for my service, and I immediately make the point it was my grandfather who served, not me. I don't want any inference that I served in the Armed Forces when I didn't. Some people will still thank me for what the adjunct groups to the American Legion and VFW do and that's OK by me.