William Joseph Mitiu; phony SEAL, phony First Sergeant

Someone sent us this fellow, William Joseph Mitiu who claims that he retired from the Army as a First Sergeant after a stint in the Navy. He claims at least two Combat Infantryman Badges, that he was a SEAL in the Navy and a special forces soldier in the Army with a combat parachute jump. The odd part is that his records support a portion of that. He spent four years in the Navy, during the Desert Storm era. He was assigned to the USS John F Kennedy which was the first ship to launch aircraft against Saddam Husein’s Iraq twenty-five years ago. But Mitiu’s assignment to the Kennedy seems to be preceded by a 5-month period of confinement at Naval Air Station Memphis.

There is evidence, however, that he was able to alter his records, or that some clerk altered his records, to add a SEAL Trident (Navy Special Warfare Insignia) to his records. Don Shipley tells us that he never attended BUD/S training, but there it is right on his FOIA.

Of course, that makes the rest of it suspect as well. Things like the Master Parachutist badge with a combat jump star, the Navy parachutist wings, the scuba badge and the rigger wings.

For example, the FOIA and his ERB say that he only reached the rank of Sergeant, but he claims to have been a first sergeant;

His ERB also shows that he was assigned to Service Battery, 1/214th Field Artillery, a National Guard unit in Georgia, not a special forces unit. It’s also not an assignment that would earn him a CIB, which he is wearing in the top picture on his hat along with a Special Forces Unit pin, but not supported by even his altered records. It’s possible and likely that he deployed to the war against terror – it looks like he was called to active duty twice for deployments in 2003 – 2004 and 2006 – 2007. So it looks like he did his part, but didn’t accomplish all he wanted to accomplish, so he made stuff up.

Folks who have known him, say he wears the third award of the CIB, but he doesn’t even have a first award of the CIB.

Category: Phony soldiers, Valor Vultures