Spodofora sticks to his phony guns (Assignments Added)
We mentioned secret squirrel, John Spodofora, the mayor of Stafford Township, NJ earlier this month. He’s been sticking to his guns that he’s a Vietnam Veteran and his records are classified. Yet, here, they are;
Funny, no Vietnam Service medals.
From the Press of Atlantic City;
“I’m in a tough spot of violating military security because of the questions I am being asked. Right now, I feel like I’m being punished because I volunteered for a classified Naval position and these missions, knowing I couldn’t disclose certain things,” Spodofora said.
Yeah, he couldn’t disclose “certain things” yet he can post it on his campaign website.
The Republican mayor said he plans to address tonight, at Township Council’s 7 p.m. meeting, what he calls false accusations leveled against him by township Republican Club president and former township employee Martha Kremer. He says he won’t be able to tell everything, because many of his records remain classified.
Martha Kremer is the widow of a REAL Vietnam veteran who served in the 173rd Airborne, but she’s being made the target instead of this phony baloney airhead dickweed, whose email address is John.Spodofora@twp.stafford.nj.us. I noticed that his official website has been changed from describing him as a Vietnam Veteran to a Vietnam Era veteran, which is what his records show.
But all of the talk about him being a “spook” is ludicrous.
Here’s his assignment records. The only things that have been blacked out is his personnel evaluations (that’s not FOIA info). Click to enbiggenate;
Category: Phony soldiers
No BESS (Basic Enlisted Submarine School). No dolphins. No Navy Expeditionary Medal.
Ergo, he MIGHT (and I emphasize the MIGHT) have been a “rider” on a boat out on Spec Op, but given the lack of Navy Expeditionary Medal, even that becomes highly unlikely.
Yeah, I’m throwing the bullshit flag on this guy.
Additional: CTM is Crypto (Maintenance) which means it’s pretty unlikely he was a rider. Most of the “spooks” we had as riders were CTI (Interpretive) and CTR (Collection).
The rough Army equivalent would be a 35S.
I’d love to be at that presser tonight just so I can call it out.
Maybe, like in one of those spy thrillers, he’ll wake up in the middle of the night to find someone standing by his bed.
Nah…come to think of it, if that really could happen, he probably wouldn’t have said a word to start with.
This guy wouldn’t be holding a press conference if he couldn’t make up some bullshit to address some of the accusations. I’d love to have someone there from military records to actually call this doucheweasel out.
The council president says he’s a soldier and a ship’s captain, but then mentions Marine service… not many Marines I know refer to themselves as soldiers…
“Mr. Spodofora is a Vietnam Veteran, U.S. Navy with 7 years active duty serving Naval Intelligence, US Navy Submarine Service/UDT /Diver and a Vietnam War Medal of Valor recipient.”
FUCK HIM… and the ship he rode in on.
Beretverde–I love the UDT/Diver/shithotfuckinggodlikeindividual claim on the original page.
Granted, no documentation of any of those schools, either, but what the hell, right?
I would think that if he was a REAL sppok, he would’ve never mentioned being in Vietnam in the first place. Green Berets have a saying for that type of professionalism, “Silent Professionals”.
Where do these idiots come from. With the internet its way to easy to prove these guys are full of shit and it ought to be pretty east to build a semi-credible back story. How many people have met folks who have “classified” records? Or would admit to have classified records if they did indeed have them. There are very few organizations that wipe your shit completely…and those that do aren’t talked about. The folks I’m thinking about are never mentioned by the media. There are far to many websites that track this shit. I’ve said before here….my default answer to anybody who mentions military service is “bullshit”, prove it.
Yeah never got my dolphins but did get the expeditionary medal. Can’t see how he could be on a boat and not but…. Anyways though CTMs still get called spooks, underway it’s pretty much maytag repair man. Read, eat chow, sleep, repeat.
But gosh, he earned the Good Conduct Medal…doesn’t that make him something special?
I can totally see this guy if he was in the Air Force:
“We’re bombing the storage depots at Daiquiri at 1800 hours. We’re coming in from the north, below their radar.”
“When will you be back?”
“I can’t tell you that, it’s classified.”
OPLAN34A reference: Coupla times we had a crane drop a hut festooned with antennas midships filled with CTs.
I’m NOT buying this guy’s story (as presented), but CTs DID do some spooky stuff in Vietnam that didn’t involve subs or UDT. etc.
Check out the guy’s pic right underneath Spodofora, The Council President, Bob Kusznikow. His creds state he’s a “decorated combat veteran”, as well, and he might just be, but:
1. If he is a decorated Marine Corps combat vet, as stated, I’m wondering why he hasn’t thrown the bullshit flag and tossed Spodofora under the bus.
2. I’m also confused why he’s referred to as “a soldier”. While I’m a “Soldier”, few if any Marines mis-state their staus as “Soldiers”, and wouldn’t stand for that mistake on their web bio.
Bob’s a Legion member, but not a VFW member…hmmm? Maybe time for an FOI on Bob as well……….
soldier, ships’ captain, businessman, part-time male model AND former Navy Seal
A soldier, a ship’s captain, and a business owner, Bob is an incredibly well-rounded individual.
He and his wife, Susan, are 32 year residents of Manahawkin, where they own and operate several local businesses. Bob is a member of the Elks, the Moose, and the American Legion.
He is also a decorated combat veteran who served his country in the United States Marine Corps from 1966 to 1971.
Zero @13–CTs DID do some spooky stuff in Vietnam that didn’t involve subs or UDT. etc.
No doubt, Zero–but this “my records are classified” bullshit is just that–bullshit. I know plenty of guys who were on “smoke boats” and nukes during the Vietnam era, and none of them would bullshit about where they were/what they did. If any of them were anywhere close to Vietnam, they got the requisite ribbons, period. They just never said WHERE off the Vietnam coast they were. I’ve met plenty of CT’s back in my time, and none of them are the type to pull this kind of stupid shit, simply because they know what they can and can’t get away with.
And since when the fuck does a East Coast boat go all the way around to Vietnam? That would be like a Pearl boat going to the Med. Just ain’t gonna happen.
Like I said, this guy MIGHT (emphasize MIGHT) have ridden a boat, but never to Vietnam. No way, no how. More likely than not he was a shore-duty puke or did work from LaMad, Rota, Holy Loch, or the tenders there.
Yep, frickin’ M-brancher. NHS is right, he may have been a rider. If I see where he was stationed I’ll be able to tell you.
And, hmmm, my dad (CTMCM) would have been an instructor down here at Corry when this guy went through… I’ll have to see what he thinks 🙂
CTIC(SS)
Yeah, i didn’t post his assignments because they were little hard to understand, not like Army records, but here’s a summary of Spodofora’s assignments;
US Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, IL
Commander Submariner Flotilla TWO Staff
Commander Submariner Flotilla TWO
Combatant Unit US 6th Fleet, Atlantic
Commander Submariner Flotilla TWO
Naval Computer and Telecommunications Center, Pensacola FL
Naval Communications Station, Puerto Rico
Naval Security Group Activity, Puerto Rico
Naval Security Group Activity, Galeta Island, Canal Zone
National Security Agency, Philadelphia, PA
Yeah, you read that right, he was in the Atlantic. Last time I checked, Vietnam doesn’t touch the Atlantic. That might explain why there’s no Vietnam Service medals. I don’t care how “spooky” you are, you can’t be spooky from 4,000 miles away.
His buddy saw him get on a SUBLANT boat (USS Harder), so that’s good enough to claim that he must be a Vietnam vet. Any of us who were in the submarine service know where the line is for discussion, and “I was in Vietnam but didn’t get the stuff on my DD-214 because it’s classified” is far, far short of the line. A real bubblehead would give you his boat and the fact that he supported Vietnam ops, but not where specifically off the coast he was or what he was doing. We had an A ganger who wore his deep submergence badge vice the boomer pin, and we would talk. I know that he was on the Dolphin, beyond that, no clue.
“I don’t care how “spooky” you are, you can’t be spooky from 4,000 miles away.”
Lol, no doubt, though ‘Army Sgt’ might argue that point, lol.
The truth is; if he did have some classified shit in his records, the classified shit would be redacted, not his entire personnel folder.
NHSparky #15: I said as much, I think? [grin]
BTW, I saw a sub once… think it was a museum piece?
My point was to not use too broad a brush concerning CTs.
It is kinda like saying that members of The Tonkin Gulf Yacht club never got shot at, or fired a shot in anger, etc.
Just a thing, a small thing.
Jonn # 17: i didn’t post his assignments because they were little hard to understand, not like Army records
FU! Even my expert Google-Fu leaves me wondering just what you Army guys are talking about much of the time.
I figure you guys can carry on a complete exchange discussing The Art of War in acronyms… No wait? Delete The Art of War and replace with The Weather.
I think that Submarine Flotilla 2 became Submarine Squadron 2, located at Naval Submarine Base, Groton. Apparently his collection missions in Vietnam were so classified that they can’t be mentioned, but the assignment to the NSA is there for the world to see.
Submariner Flotilla TWO? I’ve heard of it but not up on just exactly how many boats that covers, although it may be the precursor to the current submarine organization.
And exactly what “Combatant Unit” we talking about here? That’s pretty vague. I can see being on the Mount Whitney, which is the 6th Fleet flagship out of Italy.
But yeah–looks like most of his duty stations were shore duty or support staff in nature. No hull designations, no ship names. Hell, this basically tells me I’ve got more underway time on the shitter at test depth answering a backing bell that this clown.
And for the record, Jonn–Zero, Tim, and I can translate Navy-ese for the asking.
Bobo–in the story at the link, one of his “buddies” supposedly “witnessed” him going from the Harder to the Trout to “depart on a secret mission.”
Only one problem–those boats were both out of Charleston, and even then the Trout changed homeport to San Diego in 1970. Oh, and it’s pretty rare we did ops out of homeport, although not unheard of. Most of the time we were on deployment (Med/Northern/Westpac) and picked up the spooks and their gear out of (in our case) Yoko or Guam.
About the only boats that did homeport-to-homeport spec ops were the “Projects” boats (Russell and Parche) and they were both out of Mare Island.
Thanks Jonn. He did ride. We do not associate specific named platforms with dates, thats why they do not ID the platform.
I have never heard of National Security Agency, Philly. I’ve heard of Naval Support Activity Philly tho.
Anyway, typical places an M-brancher would have served. If I had to guess, I would say he rode out of Puerto Rico… I think they had a DIRSUP shop.
“Giberson was on the USS Trout and said one day he watched as Spodofora crossed over the Trout to get on the USS Harder and departed for a secret mission.” Could the Harder have been the “Combatant Unit US 6th Fleet, Atlantic”?
I was a boomer guy and only did one thing that was slightly spooky, and involved no CTs, so all of this snoop and poop stuff is foreign to me.
John, the only thing you need to understand about Navy speak, is they have a poop deck.
Army uses the latrine 🙂
Did I put an “h” in there? dang, sure did. silly fer’ners and there funny names!
Jorge…concur he might have, but could have been a surface asset too. But Sixth Fleet AOR. RVN was most definitely Seventh Fleet. No way in hell this guy was ever near RVN.
Zero? It’s okay bro. If it weren’t for my old man’s time in the USCG & UMMS I’d definitely be for scratching my head wondering what the hell it is you water dogs and puddle pirates are talking about. *hehehe* And, instead of flushing the sewer waste into the sea boys, in the US Army we used to burn it with diesel and call it a day…
That was in the field….SORRY for forgetting to add that.
Now then back to this asshat going after the widow of a veteran of the 173rd “THE HERD”! Email sent….Lets smear this clown for five miles or better.
Mount up troops & sailors, Let’s go get him! She said her questions about the validity of Spodofora’s service first became an issue when his campaign brochure was released last year and stated he was a Vietnam veteran and Medal of Valor award recipient. Kremer said Spodofora’s campaign website also lists the award, but does not distinguish that the award is not from the U.S. Navy.
Here’s what I gather from his records: he was a guy who fixed crypto gear. His assignment to ComSubFlotTWO would be similar to my assignment to ComPatWingFIVE or, Commander, Patrol Wing Five. It was the umbrella organization that covered a number of assets.
For example, I was an analyst at the ASWOC, the Anti-Submarine Warfare Operations Center. I helped to brief and debrief missions, and analyzed the sensor data collected. I also did collateral duty as an instructor operating the 14B44 weapons system trainer sensor stations to help qualify flight crews for different missions. I also had to get my own flight hours in when I could by joining other crews from one of the six squadrons assigned to the wing. I also spent time as LPO of the Operations Control Division, made coffee, helped prepare the Commodore’s daily brief, and any one of a number of other things as required.
We had CT’s assigned too, and 2 of them were CTM’s, and they worked exclusively in maintaining the gear that the other CT’s used.
So, looking at his assignments, he was sent to umbrella groups and parcelled out to do repairs where needed on the assets of the commands assigned to those umbrella groups.
In between, he was sent to various schools and refresher courses, I believe.
Nothing wrong with that at all. Seems like the fellow was simply doing some resume enhancement and got called out on it.
Bingo, Tim. Looks to me like the period at the end of 1969 in P-Cola might have been a C-school or some such, but certainly not Dive School, BUD/S, or any other number of things that would have been required for him to claim UDT, etc.
Now, now. He could be real. Why, just look at that last entry for July 73.
I just betcha he’s gonna claim “NSA” is what we all know it is instead of the commonplace “Naval Support Activity”.
DId you
CarlS:
You know what? It’s still there too…
http://www.cnic.navy.mil/Philadelphia/index.htm
Quote:
“The NSA Philadelphia and Philadelphia Navy Yard Annex missions are to provide operationally ready, secure shore infrastructure built upon a streamlined shore installation management organization committed to quality of life to our military members and civilian staffs and quality of community developed through extensive interaction and involvement with the community. All of this will be attained within a safe working environment.”
I know a couple sub guys.
I’ve never heard bragging, I’ve never heard “I did classified things and I can’t talk about it”, I’ve never heard anything like that.
I heard basically “I was on USS X from year to year” and when asked if a specific thing I’d read about happened I was told “No”.
Seems like the instant somebody starts talking openly about classified stuff to people who don’t need to know it’s all safely assumed to be bullshit. As a friend once said, “The guy who says ‘I do classified stuff but I can’t tell you what’ actually doesn’t do anything. The guy who says, ‘Oh, I do helicopter stuff’ is the guy who knows where the stargate is”.
Tool bag. Keep on frying his ass.
Spade–hear, hear. Do we go out and do shit? Yup. What did I do when we went out and did shit?
I made the rock hot and cleaned a lot of fucking bilges. Oh, and I cranked my first underway. And training, too.
His rating was a CTM or Cryptologic Technician MAINTENANCE. He was what the Navy called a Matman. They repaired teletypes and crypto gear. Only reason he would have any clearance beyond Secret would be for the spaces the gear was in where he might have to work. He was not a spook. In the Navy, that would have been the CTO’s, the CTT’s, CTR’s and one or two more that I cannot recall.
And what the hell is a Chief Warrant Officer 4th class? I hever heard of that in 20 years of service. New rank just for this fucknuts?
I’m all for calling guys on exaggerated claims about their service, but some of the stuff in the comments here is pretty gross. For anybody who didn’t pick up on the significance of NAVSECGRUACT or NSGA, spookwise, I’d suggest they become better acquainted with the Naval Security Group and what it did. USS Liberty (AGTR-5), USS Pueblo (AGER-2), and EC-121M Deep Sea 129. I’d point out that the misinterpretation of NSA PHILA as National Security Agency came from Jonn. It struck me as unlikely as I read that, had Spodofora actually had an assignment to NSA, I believe it would have been identified as NSGA FT MEADE or the like. As to what CT’s do, all I know is that as I and my fellow Ground Radio Repairmen went through a school at Goodfellow Air Force Base (San Angelo, TX) in 1972 training for duty in the Air Force Security Service, whe had one CT attached to our class. He interpreted it as “Communications Technician”. As I recall, we talked some about the differences between ET and CT but I can’t remember what they were. I don’t recall having any discussion about what CT’s did beyond what us radio repairman did. The really spooky guy in that class was an airman who had been doing NRO stuff, though, despite everybody having Top Secret – Crypto clearances, he wouldn’t say diddly. Somebody mentioned the other day, involved with nuclear weapons I believe, that the form you sign when getting out of stuff like that do not put a date on when you can start talking about the secret stuff. I’d add that they don’t bother sending you updates as stuff becomes unclassified, “It’s OK to tell war stories about XXX now”. I say that just to make the point that just because a guy says he can’t talk about what he did or that some of his records are still classified isn’t sufficient evidence to conclude that he’s blowing smoke. The latter may be a good indicator that it should be persued further, though. Finally, a document like the summary of… Read more »
I say that just to make the point that just because a guy says he can’t talk about what he did or that some of his records are still classified isn’t sufficient evidence to conclude that he’s blowing smoke.
Okay, as a former Navy nuke and someone who has held interim TS clearances and worked with (as in they were riding my boat) CT’s, his summary is pretty clear as to what he did and didn’t do.
In this case, he never went to Vietnam, as he claimed. He never was a UDT or SEAL, as he claimed. He MAY (emphasis MAY) have been a rider on a boat somewhere, but given the fact he was a Squadron weenie (not squadron in the AF sense, either) means he more than likely dealt with a lot of the comm issues between the boats and command ashore, not more than that.
Again, nothing against what the guy did, as it is a tough rate to get in and stay in, but to embellish the way he did was completely unnecessary and uncalled for.
Just in case you missed it, STL Frank: Sodofora has since admitted he was never in Vietnam. See http://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=29212
Right. I have not asked my dad about M-branchers being assigned to SUBRON staff while they were in a DIRSUP billet. However, I think USMC Steve is right: He was attached to staff doing maintenance for crypto gear and may have taken the boat trip because no one else was available. Anyway, on the boat he would have been responsible for repairing the gear that the ops (CTI, CTR and CTT) used. The other two CT ratings (CTA, CTO) never deployed on boats, but they would have been permanent staff (along with some CTM’s) on surface platforms (OUTBOARD and SSES). I see that he was an ET early on, so he probably cross-rated to CTM. Anyway, no, he was not in Vietnam and that is the lie.
[…] John “Mayor/Aquatic Secret Squirrel” Spodofora […]
UPDATE: Brothers and Sisters, I need help and I need it fast. I am the Retired MCPO that assisted in exposing this phony. He nixed his election bid and has now re-entered the race giving me little time to plan launch a counterattack on his latest smoke screen. His latest ploy is to use a 70 yr old Korean War vet to announce that he got his record updated with a DD215 adding a Navy Expeditionary Medal to his record. Here is the article:
http://thesandpaper.villagesoup.com/news/story/spodofora-resolves-discrepancies-in-his-federal-military-record-forms/895435
I’m swimming the flood here and I know while I am a voice of one but represent many. I need you contact the Stafford Township Mayor’s office either by phone or email. His email is posted in a earlier post. Contact Congressman John Runyan-NJ as well as NJ Senator Chris Connors and demand that the Mayor resign.
C’mon fella’s help a brother out!!!
NavyE9r Sends…