Daniel Greenwell – Phony SEAL and Fake PH & BSM

The folks at Military Phony sent us their work on Daniel Austin Greenwell.  Greenwell is from New Harmony, Indiana and is 32 year old at the time of this writing – Sept 2020.

As you can see from the first photo of him, he wears a Navy SEAL Trident on his Navy uniform.  On Greenwell’s Facebook page he says he was in the Navy from 2010.

On one Facebook post of him in uniform, he claims that he is stationed in Coronado, which is well-known as the base that Navy SEALs train and are based out of.

A church site believed to be the church he attends, also highlighted Greenwell’s military service as a US Navy SEAL.

SOURCE: http://firstumcmv.com/fumc__military_veterans__past__present

Before proceeding, we felt it was important to display a few pictures of Greenwell.  It will make a difference as we present this case.

His LinkedIn account seems to have gone away, but here are a few screen captures before it was taken down.

Greenwell has recently written a book titled “Monsters.”  In the book’s author biography, Greenwell makes many claims.  However, the photo does not appear to be him – even when compared with the above younger photos of him in the Navy.

SOURCE: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Dagreenwell

The range of claims in the biography are that:

• Greenwell is a combat veteran
• He served in “many different conflicts from Afghanistan to Iraq to other places he can never tell you about, he has been around the block”
• Greenwell was a Special Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman serving with First Marine Reconnaissance to being at MARSOC as a “Raider”
• Awarded a Bronze Star and Purple Heart in 2015 for actions he took during the “Second Battle of Sangin” in 2014

To see if there are any more claims inside the book, you’d have to shell out $999.99.  It is however, advertised as a work of fiction with the main character being named Michael Daniels.

The BUD/S-SEAL database was checked and “Daniel Austin Greenwell” or any variation of that name was not found listed.  His official military records were ordered from the Department of the Navy through a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request.

. . .

. . .

For added measure, the DoD Manpower Data Center database / SCRA was also checked.

Upon closer inspection, it appears that the photo in Greenwell’s biography on Smashword’s appear to be of a legitimate Navy Hospital Corpsman Silver Star recipient:

https://www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/604346/face-of-defense-corpsman-awarded-silver-star-medal/

. . . . .

DISCUSSION and SUMMARY

There is no record of Daniel Greenwell attending BUD/S-SEAL training and no record of him serving with a SEAL Team.

Greenwell’s official military records do not show that he was awarded a Combat Action Ribbon, or a Purple Heart, or a Bronze Star Medal.

There is no sea duty listed on his DD-214, nor is there a Sea Service Deployment Ribbon.  These awards would be present if he deployed to a war zone overseas.  In addition, Greenwell has a GWOT Service Medal vs. a GWOT Expeditionary Medal.  The former (Service Medal) if he was on active duty during the Global War on Terror and the latter (Expeditionary Medal) if he was deployed while on duty during the Global War on Terror.  This underscores the fact that he was not deployed.

Not sure what to make of his claims of being on active duty starting in 2010, it could represent a delayed entry claim.

If Greenwell has used these claims to gain anything of value – especially the combat and Purple Heart claims – to gain anything of value, he may be in violation of the Stolen Valor Act. State laws may also apply – Indiana has its own law on Stolen Valor.

Looks like ol’ Danny boi has some splainin’ to do.  He also seems to have borrowed a bit of the story from the legitimate hero and Silver Star recipient but apparently downgraded the medal to a Bronze Star, so there’s that.

Category: Afghanistan, Bronze Star, Fake SEAL, Iraq, Marine Corps, Marine Recon, Navy, Navy Poser, Phony SEAL, Purple Heart, Silver Star, Stolen Valor, Stolen Valor Act, Terror War, Valor Vultures