Ike Densmore’s demise
If you’ve been watching the drama in our archives, it won’t be news to you that Ike Densmore, a phony SEAL busted out by our buddy, Don Shipley, and featured on a local newscast for his phony buffoonery, was found dead on a beach in California. The local news is reporting that the coroner hasn’t released the cause of his death yet.
Of course, Don Shipley and TAH are to blame for his death according to comments on the above-linked articles about him. He’s the third person to expire after being exposed on TAH as a phony. Blackfive says we’re the only milblog with a body count.
Speculation is that he died due to a successful suicide attempt – the last of his series of poor choices. We here at TAH take no pleasure in the death of any fellow human being, but, I’ll repeat, he made a bunch of bad choices, the first of which was to make up stories about his military service. We’re not the ones who went “too far” as it’s been said about us in the subsequent comments in our archives. Densmore went too far the moment he decided that he wanted to be a SEAL without the proper credentials and then claimed on top of that he had earned a Silver and Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.
In the comments at one of the stories linked above, some dingus said that the Supreme Court protects liars in regards to their service, that the right to lie supersedes our right to expose the liar. No, what the Supreme Court said was that the government can’t punish someone for lying about their service. They then went on to give us phony hunters a warrant to out them by writing that “The remedy for speech that is false is speech that is true.” We are speech that is true.
Our sympathies go out to his family. They were Ike’s victims like veterans everywhere were his victims. But Ike’s death will certainly not stop us in our endeavor to end this recent spate of phonies, obviously people who didn’t read the Supreme Court decision.
Category: Phony soldiers
the right to lie supersedes our right to expose the liar
Uh, no. -10 points, gross conceptual error (GCE.) Memo to poseurs–when you’re caught pulling shit like this, 1–expect to get caught, 2–expect to be exposed.
Don’t like that? Then don’t do it.
If someone is unable to live with the poor choices they made in life, then I hope they find peace in death. Keep doing what you are doing TAH. Defending this dirtbag just goes along with the same line to thinking that everything but the individual at fault is to blame. It happens with him just like it happens with mass shooters.
My own anger at poseurs ends with their death, I suppose, unless you find later family members that were duped and cannot believe that their deceased would *ever* lie about such things. It’s causality; don’t lie and manufacture an alternate reality, and you won’t have soul-searing humiliation when it all comes crashing down.
I think the causation chain BK touches on @3 goes slightly further back. People who are so unsure of themselves and who feel so valueless that they need to construct an elaborate fantasy and/or need affirmation so much they must constantly lie to get it are already at a very high risk for suicide.
Arguably, the illness or defect that lead them to pose or fake also lead them to suicide.
I have to agree with BK entirely in that suicide clears away any sins they may have committed on the level of Stolen Valor. I think we can say that no more rancor is appropriate.
I am sorry for his family. Sadly, the lesson is that actions equal consequences and it’s what I teach my kids. No sympathy for the devil. It will come back to you every time if you don’t learn it, live it and remember it.
I am just wondering if he will be buried with full (fake) military honors. Maybe Gunny Driveway can give the eulogy.
I posted this below some of the dumber comments that inferred Mr. Shipley was in any way responsible…someone said they felt it was sad that a real SEAL would waste his time exposing fake SEALs….
“It’s not sad for someone holding the real credentials, whether they be SEAL or PhD credentials, to point out those who would attempt to gain something (monetary or relationship based) through the false use of those credentials. It is sad that he thought he needed to commit a fraud to be acceptable to others, it is also sad if he felt the need to terminate his life over his lies. The outcome of this was not determined by Mr. Shipley it was determined by Mr. Densmore, who set the entire tragedy in motion when he started telling lies. If he told those lies to gain access to VA benefits Mr. Densmore would essentially be taking the benefits from someone who had actually earned them, that’s reprehensible on many levels. No one will no why Mr. Densmore chose to lie, speculation on the responsibility of others for the death of a man whose lies they exposed is inappropriate at best and dishonest at worst. I will be interested in hearing the results of the investigation, it should reveal what actually happened here.”
I believe it is sad for his family that he felt the need to kill himself (if that is what turns out to be the truth) over his lying.
Why not finally man up and apologize? It doesn’t turn back the clock, but it does allow you to be truthful from that day forward…and lets you start a new chapter. He must have been, as JA says, at high risk already because of his lack of self value…
I am aghast at the readiness of our own to assume that Densmore’s demise can be traced to anything that appeared at TAH or elsewhere regarding his fraudulent claims. As I said in a companion thread here, and won’t repeat, there are a gazillion reasons or prmpts that can cause someone to do a two and a half off a cliff onto rocks. IF he committed suicide at all and didn’t get pushed or slip off in a drunk or drugged stupor, then the issue becomes why he did so. And I am not going there unless another knucklehead points a finger at those good people who exposed one small tile of Densmore’s mosaic of lies.
@ 3 & 4,
The proverbial “falling on your sword to end the shame”, likened to Hara-kiri or Seppuku as a way to bring honor to one’s self when they have ultimately dishonored themselves and those in the community, and population…
Now that being said it was *RESERVED* for Samurai who were military nobility in Asia/Japan and did actually serve the emperor and nobility.
CERTAINLY in no way is that kind of class or honor bestowed on these cowards, as is seen by their ultimate choice.
Maybe we can modify “Death Before Dishonor” for these fakers and their new slogan can be “Death AFTER Dishonor”.
This site is as much to blame for the death as my pistol is to blame for criminal behavior. Some people make bad decisions, and then others seek to blame anywhere but the person.
I’m sorry for the loss the family suffered, though.
First I’ll say that this whole thing is very sad. Ike obviously made some terrible mistakes by claiming he was a decorated SEAL, but no matter how you look at it, it’s always despairing to see someone live so many lies, that once exposed, they feel the only way out is to take their own life.
With that being said, it should be noted that Don offered Ike Densmore a way out of his situation, as he does with most phony SEALs he encounters. If Ike would have pulled his resume apologized, and immediately stopped claiming to be a SEAL, then there would have been no Phony SEAL of the Week video, no media chasing him, and it would have been a far more painless thing that would have ended then and there.
But Ike didn’t do that. In utter defiance, he stuck to his guns about his lies. Not only that, but he corrected “Navy Accommodation Medals” to “Commendation Medals” after Don confronted him and called him out on that mistake.
This guy reminds me of Lance Armstrong. All along he aggressively denied being a cheater, lied to his fans, his own kids, and threw people under the bus to escape accountability. It took overwhelming and undeniable evidence of his misconducts to finally get him to admit he was cheating after all, and now where is he? He is NOTHING now. Stripped of all his Tour de France titles, all his sponsor ships, his foundation, his fanbase, all destroyed.
Is it the fault of the people who exposed Lance Armstrong for cheating? No, it’s Lance Armstrong’s fault, and his alone. Same goes for Ike Densmore. He dug his own hole of lies, and when the opportunity came to get out, he dug it even deeper. It’s his fault and his alone. Not Don Shipley’s fault, and not this blog. No one ever wanted to see it end like this, and it’s saddening. You always want to look for the good in someone, and hope that they learn their lesson, clean their act up, and move on from there.
Ill put this in a basic argument without any emotion.
1)Guy chooses to lie.
2)Guy’s lie gets exposed.
3)Guy kills himself.
How many of those things did he have direct control over? 1 and 3. He had the choice to not lie and he had the choice to not end his own life. Now the thing about lying is that inherently it is a crime against another person because you are taking away their ability to make a choice. He committed a “crime” against people by taking away their choice to make a decision about his character due to whatever need he had to feel special. Now due to his bad choices his family is left to pick up the pieces. He lied to people and got exposed, so this site did nothing more than tell the truth about the man. It is unfortunate that his family and friends have to live with his bad choices. Now I could put what is about into a logical form, but it wouldn’t make sense because it isn’t a valid argument. People are hurt because he screwed up his life.
Look, I have my fantasies, too, but I turn them into something that I hope will amuse other people and make them want more. I don’t tell people I was in the Olympics just because I have a picture of me and my horse over a 5-bar oxer. I know better.
Karmic law is plain: the energy from everything that you do goes out into the universe and comes back to land on you nine times over. You reap what you sow.
So whether or not Densmore slipped and fell, was pushed, jumped or whatever is immaterial. He’s dead, so let’s wait and see what the ME says about it.
He went to the beach looking for a war and found one I guess.
Of course it was all inside his head but hell, it was the only war he had.
I bet he gets a VA headstone!
A man pretends to be that which he is not, creates a persona based on lies with which he promotes himself for employment. He goes as far as to fake college degrees, and to even attempt to add himself to a list of SEAL Graduates….when confronted with his lies, (as anyone should) be his world of lies begins to collapse. Instead of seeking help, r just owning up to his mistakes he instead takes the cowards way out and kills himself to get away from responsibility. He was not killing himself to escape the horrors of War that he lied about seeing, unlike so many of our Brothers who are losing that war in their heads. No this guy was a morally deficient coward who took the cowards way.
So to those sniveling a’holes blaming this Blog or any individual involved in exposing the faker, the liar, the dishonest honor thief… STFU, he killed himself. He lied! He systematically created a web of deceit. Not this Blog or anyone else. He did it to himself.
I just hope nobody finds out that I never actually landed on Hoth.
@17 or anyone discovers that all the women in and around Ft. Benning from 78-79 were not, in fact, super models….
@12 or anyone discovers that all the taxi drivers around Ft Benning are really not retired SF.
I meant #17.
What a shitbag. Even in death.
I’m glad the cesspool of the internet was so able to so quickly rush to defend the shitbag. I wouldn’t expect anything less.
I look at it like this:
If he took his life because he dishonored his family – Good on him!
If he took his life because he had self pitty for himself – Good on him!
Either way, I do not care that this man took his life. However, I would say that it is tragic if there are children involved.
If I sound so insensitive … I am not. I cry for real warriors, weeps for the spouses and children left behind, and celebrate with pride the accomplishments of our honored men and women in the armed forces!
Play stupid games … win stupid prizes! See ya Densmore!
Often people like Densmore are layered, like an onion, pull back one lie and character flaw you will find others underneath. Whatever led him to his death had been part of his mentality long before he wrote his phony resume or was exposed on the internet. I’m sure no one intended for him to take his outing to the point of taking his own life, but protecting the honor, well-being and livlihood of real veterans is more important than not revealing frauds that milk a reputation or our veterans. For those that want to whine about his death and other phonies like him I would opinone this. For every fraud that is so shamed about being exposed they take their own life there are scores of real veterans who commit suicide or experience financial, health or mental hardship due to phonies who de-fraud the VA, Veteran’s Charities and attain jobs based on false claims.
@17.
Sure there were super models. They were all at the Traffic Light Lounge.
Frankly, I don’t feel sad. I’m not ecstatic. I take no pleasure in reading this.
Usually people who pull this sorta crap are unhappy with their lives to begin with. Often they’ve made mistakes, some cases those are mistakes that negatively impact the lives of innocents.
From one of the articles: “His LinkedIn account also states he had received a business degree from the University of Kansas. KU spokeswoman Jill Jess said she could not find any record of Densmore attending the university.”
Ok, so let’s say he got jobs because he faked being a Seal. And it appears he faked having a business degree. No harm in that? What about the person who didn’t get those jobs? What about that person’s family?
I don’t see any particular regaining of lost honor in this act. Looking at it from the outside, he committed suicide to avoid his well-deserved shame. I take no pleasure in his death, but I don’t mourn him either.
@23 Thanks for the affirmation, I was afraid there were more water buffaloes than hot wimmins….no need to tell the leg hold trap story today….
Same here, Nik. If – and it’s still unproven at this point – Densmore offed himself, that was his own choice.
In Densmore’s case, his lies weren’t some meaningless “little white lies” told to make others feel better. Rather, they were lies carefully crafted and intentionally told to benefit Densmore to the detriment of others who were equally or more deserving. They – and the family Densmore left behind – were the ones injured by his dishonesty.
Like you, I won’t revel in his passing. But neither will I mourn him.
He obviously chose his lies over his life.
That was his choice.
People that expose liars like this are not to blame. And the people who are trying to lay the blame at your feet are the ones that really have no respect for the dead man. It was his choice to do this, it can’t be undone, maybe they should show some respect for this guy’s last ( although bad) choice, hmm?
@17/@23 They were all supermodels at closing time.
Y’all haven’t seen a “Supermodel” unless you have been in a Hopkinsville bar in the 60s. They could talk a GI out of his wallet faster than he could talk them out of their panties.
#8…..he didn’t jump off the cliffs. His death involved a shotgun and zip ties…
Dead or alive he is still a phony. Look for the phony obituary along with a fraudulent funeral detail.
I have seen a few comments referencing Don Shipley. Apparently some folks don’t realize how necessary it is to “out” these idiots who earn VA benefits, jobs, and other perks based on the lies they tell. We can only speculate at this point, but if Ike killed himself based on his shame, he could have sought counseling. I do feel horrible for his family, but he really needed to be “outed”. How he reacted to being outed was on him. Nobody else is responsible for his outcome.
Ali: care to provide a source backing that claim?
Korean BarGirls were the slickest “pros” when I was there 92-93, they would even clean the lint out of a lonely GI’s wallet!
Hondo….I live here and I work for the NCMMC so I am on that beach everyday. I talked to the Deputies out there investigating and asked if he had been killed perhaps by falling debris from the cliffs ( they are extremely unstable) and they said definitely not. Then the person that found the body said he was ” face down with a shotgun next to him” and a source in the fire department mentioned the zip ties. The shotgun was along side him, not in front.
I know full well how dangerous that beach can be between the ever falling cliffs , dangerous surf, and the kooky drug addled ” people” this county is full of.
So I asked a lot of questions because I admit it..I was worried about another random killer running around here.
I was thinking TAH should set up a memorial wall under the phonies page to remember the fallen Phony Vets and recount their phony exploits and phony valor awards…
What? Too soon?
Ike “No More” Densmore.
Time to move on.
Ma’am, on behalf of the President of the United States, the United States Navy and a greatful nation; please accept this flag as a symbol of appreciation for your loved one’s faithful and honorable service….NAH, I’M JUST KIDDING! You get nothing…..
His death was officially ruled a suicide today.
(Eureka) Times-Standard story
Ali: thanks for the update. I’m assuming this is the story:
http://www.times-standard.com/ci_22479370/officials-centerville-beach-death-fake-navy-seal-was
Trying to keep lying even in death. Geez.
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_22479370/officials-centerville-beach-death-fake-navy-seal-was
Damnit, Hondo. Beat me to it.
Mustang: hey, if I recall correctly you got the last near-tie. This was my turn. (smile)
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