The truth about Discovery’s Dual Survival’s Joe Teti
A few weeks ago, we wrote about David Canterbury, a member of the cast of a survival show on the Discovery Channel, “Dual Survival”. At the time, someone brought up Joe Teti, the other fellow on that show. So being the cynics that we are, we got Teti’s records, too. Here’s what Teti claims on his website;
Most of that is true. He was indeed in the USMC’s Force Recon. He spent less than 4 years in the Marines and here’s his records of assignments;
And his schooling;
He was also in Special Forces – National Guard Special Forces- for five years, ending on May 1st, 2000.
So that’s where his military records end, so he could hardly be a “combat veteran of OIF and OEF” as he claims in his bio in the way that most of us understand the term “veteran”. However, he did participate in those wars as a contractor.
I spent about an hour or so, total in about four phone calls with Joe yesterday. He stands by the “veteran” tag in regards to the war against terror, although your opinions may be different. He tells me that he didn’t reenlist after 9-11 because he was already in the pipeline for a contractor job, which seems reasonable to me, and I have no evidence to the contrary.
I don’t disparage his service because he certainly accomplished more in his nine years than I did in my two decades, well, school-wise, anyway. There are rumors about him flying around the internet and I won’t engage in hearsay. Joe has sent me volumes of his records that I have promised that I wouldn’t post. Of course, all of it reflects well on him as a warrior.
I also understand that he became a target as soon as he took the job at the Discovery Channel, for whatever reasons, that’s the downside of being a public figure. I found him to be an affable fellow, even though he called me ‘sir’ more times than I was comfortable with. And he called me a “smart guy” several times – if only he knew.
So, I may be accused of being star-struck, but, without some real evidence to the contrary, I’m inclined to come down on Joe’s side. We thought that we had a real story here when we first started out, because the first set of records we got were of another Joseph Nicholas Teti who was a helicopter mechanic in the Army back in 1983, the same time Joe said he was in the USMC, but I got a little suspicious of that first set of records, which took us back for another shot at it, and sometimes, they are who they say.
Category: Who knows
Bill, he wasn’t a contractor, he was CIA. Which is why he has a Gold Star at Langley. If I pulled security on him and was killed there, would I have gotten a Gold Star at Langley? I think that cuts both ways, no?
And FWIW, the DynCorps guys I was with made $202,000 a year. That’s about 4 times what I was making. If we are all veterans, what in the holy hell was I doing serving in uniform when I could have quadrupled my paycheck, and apparently been the same thing.
I just read this string … with a nose bleed now, I will ask the question.
Who cares? His blatherings in post 19 pretty much somes it all up!
sums it all up
He prob coulda done a year in the irr or something and avoided the controversy altogether.
TSO
I tried to keep away from the salary thing, but it did stay in my mind when I was considering the whole thing.
Is the guy a veteran of the United States Armed Forces? Yes
Is the guy a veteran of combat? Yes
Is the guy a combat veteran of the United States Armed Forces? No
As others have stated, if he told me he was a combat veteran, probably my first question would be “yeah, what unit were you with?’
If he answered with “I was a contractor,” our conversation would shorten significantly after I corrected his inconsistency. I have no problems with government contractors. The ones we worked with were top notch, but again, they didn’t say they were combat veterans unless they had been in combat with a military unit. Therein lies the difference.
You gota remember, these tv channels want you and pretty much tell you to articulate(embellish) your record, of course you have to make everything look cooler on tv, furthermore, the cut and edit interviews as well..its entertainment
He was Marine Force Recon, and served with Special Forces. Aren’t they used for covert ops? Could he have served in a combat role somewhere other than OIF and OEF?
@58: Yes, he could have but there’s no record that he did. Nor does he claim to have done so.
And his SF time was in the NG. Prior to 9/11 NG SF units were not used for combat operations AFAIK. There were some NG SF who deployed to Haiti for OUD (they actually releived some of our units there in early 1995) but OUD was never officially considered “combat” by either DoD or DA, even though our guys traded more than a few shots and we had one KIA there (SFC Greg Cardott, 12 JAN 95 in Gonaives.)
It specifically says in his bio a combat veteran of OIF and OEF, and nothing else.
For those of you who think “contractor” should be excluded from claiming being a veteran of a war when they were in the box, please keep in mind that the two former SEALs killed at the Benghazi consulate were there not as uniformed military but were actually contracted bodyguards. Likewise, the Blackwater personnel killed in Fallujah (2004), and the KBR civilians killed on the road in Iraq (2004) were also contractors doing a dangerous job (albeit for a whole lot more money than the military) in support of our missions. I would say the distinction is between calling oneself a military combat veteran and calling oneself simply a veteran. If you are in the zone and supporting our mission in the line of fire, then you have my respect regardless.
If this guy was such a hard charger, why didn’t he come right back to the NG SF unit he left? Those NG SF units started deploying into Afghanistan in early 2002, if I remember correctly. Instead, if you Google him (like I did) you can find articles from Las Vegas where he is trying to sell his security services to the casinos right after 9/11. I don’t begrudge him working overseas (and probably making over $1250 a day), but he should just own his limited service career and admit that he was a contractor over there.
For a while they didnt Consider merchant marines veterans,and that changed.and most of those ships were private owned and contracred
Contractors make big bucks. Soldiers take big oaths. Fine hair on this one. Called a buddy who is former SF and has spent over 9 years doing contract work. He NEVER claims OIF/OEF veteran and said he sees many contractors that do. They pull the SpecOps line. Teti WAS in Special Operations (20th Group National Guard). Again…fine hair or slippery eel? I will say when you put yourself out there..critics come running out of the closets.
@64 I am well past the point of caring about whether he is or isn’t. What I am offended by is his “I contacted my lawyer” bullshit. Because there was nothing actionable here at all. And he fucking knows it. And calling on your lawyer is essentially an attempt to stifle all protected speech. And that has me pissed off.
And there it is #49, this POS blog owner comes out and again shows his true colors and biased, along with butt boy TSO….oooohhh I’m pissed off now because he’s mentioning about contacting his laywer…..really. You wanna be Pieces of s**t, par for the course with this lame blog, character defamation and speculative character assassination. I’d sue if I was this guy
Anonymous shit-slingers are cute. They post as if we’re supposed to give a damn about their opinions. Frankly if this blog is so lame, why waste the time and calories posting on it.
Oh, and don’t try the “Well I’m bored” line. That dog don’t hunt. Really, if you think this blog is lame, then why is your life so sad you have nothing better to do than to post on a lame blog?
I knew a few translators who weren’t in the military per se, but they did every thing that we did. I consider them veterans.
You should represent him @66, you are clearly a legal genius.
The money that paid for all those contractors was taken directly out of DOD COW. That is money that would have gone to the troops for training or other vital needs, and don’t tell me they were doing jobs that could not be done by the Armed Services.
@61 Contractors is a nice name for them, the are usually called Mercs. It is okay though because they were our Mercs?
You think any service member should put their dick on the chopping block for them, you are out of your mind. That is why the get the BIG BIG Bucks. What if those guys you listed were Russian or South African?
Numerous civilian contractor work directly for SOF units they even receive 4187s and orders for there jobs and such just as military personel do! So saying the guy can’t claim OEF or OIF is not for us to say, we don’t know the capacity in which he served! Jus sayin’
@66, did you even read the original post? Did you miss “without some real evidence to the contrary, I’m inclined to come down on Joe’s side” in the original post?
Much ado about nothing. He raised his right hand and served the interests of the United States in time of war. There’s a good 90% out there that can’t say as much.
I thought the original post was merely putting the truth out there and giving this guy the benefit of the doubt, while leaving the issue of combat vet vs contractor up for debate. Obviously there is nothing legally wrong with the post regarding this public figure. This guy could have come on here and represented himself professionally with some humility… Instead, he comes across as a jackass, and his “supporters” even worse. Yikes.
@ 72: “He raised his right hand and served the interests of the United States in time of war.”
I don’t think contractors take an oath of enlistment. They sign a contract.
I’m out here in Afghanistan again at the moment. All I want to know is can I have his paycheck in exchange for mine so he can call himself a combat vet? We could make it all legal and everything…
@75.
Nice. Well said.
@66.
Loser.
Who sues blogs?
Posers. That is who. If they even follow through.
Wow.
Clown you are.
Jeezus one nitpick after another all jumping on the hate bandwagon.
The guy’s a legitimate Force Recon and SF guy. How many guys out there could become either (who never were).
Just need that one little opening to start hurling insults and hate towards Joe.
Quite a few here are already labeling him as a phony and a fraud based on semantics, disregarding his legitimate training and schooling which far exceeds anything ever done by any of the countless phonies mentioned on this site, all put together. And remember, Jonn was understanding and saw Joe’s point of view in the original post.
@34 I am surprized no one else has mentioned it but that was the first thing I noticed. No Q Course between 971211 and 000501 his NG time. Didnt see Airborne in his Marine Records either. I had 3 or 4 Marines in my stick back in 1984…
MSGRetired: Obviously both are documented in his records, since both are on the ARNG FOIA report Jonn posted.
As to why no SFQC or jump school is listed? Dunno. Jonn didn’t post the Army school info for the guy – he only posted the record of assignments and awards parts.
I don’t think schools done “TDY & return” always show up under assignments (no PCS and no change of unit). I believe SFQC may have been done in “pieces” via TDY on the RC side during that time frame. Perhaps one of our RC SF/ex-SF readers can enlighten us here. Same could be true of jump school if he went while in the ARNG.
Not that knowledgeable on how the USMC does their records, so I can’t comment on why jump school isn’t on his USMC records if he attended while in the USMC. He indeed could have gone since he was Recon, and I’d have thought that jump qual would be in his USMC records.
The guy apparently was indeed “high-speed/low drag” when on USMC active duty and with the ARNG. However, I still have a bit of a problem with him billing himself as an “OEF and OIF combat vet”. In a military context, “combat vet” implies service in uniform in a bona fide combat zone. Teti didn’t do that. By his own admission, he worked as a contractor in a combat zone supporting OIF and OEF. That’s difficult, dangerous, essential, and honorable work – but it’s IMO also not the same as being a “combat vet” when speaking in a military context.
I see a significant difference between the two. YMMV.
Tman, Nobody was labeling him a phony per se. Most were just debating whether a contractor, even a trigger puller, should label themselves as a combat veteran. People didn’t get pissed until he came in here and left his lengthy reply. he could have come off a lot more professional than he did. On a side note I do believe that his talk of a lawyer was not aimed at this blog.
Who is Doc. ( Michael King ) from Classmates.com ?
Joe Teti on Classmates.com (Churchill Area High School, Class of 1982). He stated that he was a Stockbroker for Bear
Stearns.
Joseph’s Public Comments
Michael King said: Dude,
Is this the Joe Teti that introduced me to Angeles City, PI?
Doc King
Joseph Tetisaid: I was certainly not the most popular guy in my graduating class, as a matter of fact most of you who are reading this
probably dont even remember who I am. I was in the small group of guys that bused in from Turtle Creek. Wrong side of the tracks at
that time………possibly. Left HS and joined the Marines. Got out and was a stockbroker for Bear Stearns. When 9-11 happened,
enlisted in the Army and served 5 years in Special Forces. 3 Tours in Iraq, 4 in Afghanistan. Got out and the lord blessed me with
an opportunity that I still cant believe to this day. Currently President/CEO of my own investment company. Live on Lake Norman NC
Hey all,
It saddens me to read things like this. I know Joe personally and he is as stand up and patriotic as they come. He served, he raised his hand to protect our country. He parted ways with the military before 9-11. If he could have foreseen this coming, I guarantee his ass would have stayed in and did his part. He willingly went to these combat zones to do his share, he may not have been in and official military uniform, but he was indeed putting foot to ass over there in direct combat operations along side many well decorated brothers. Man, the word veteran carries many meanings:1. A person who is long experienced or practiced in an activity or capacity: a veteran of political campaigns.
2. A person who has served in the armed forces: “Privilege, a token income . . . were allowed for veterans of both world wars” (Mavis Gallant).
3. An old soldier who has seen long service.
adj.
1. Having had long experience or practice: a veteran actor.
2. Of or relating to former members of the armed forces: veteran benefits.
Why can’t folks just appreciate what he did and what he is trying to do to support his family and make a life for himself. he isn’t tearing anyone down, berating any fellow brothers and sure as hell isn’t looking down his nose at the military. He served and accomplished more than most everyday soldiers ever dreamed. I am proud to call him a brother and happy to see some success come his way! I wish that on all our military folks and their families…Contractors included! it’s a paycheck yes! But a damn difficult one to get! Shit is dangerous regardless.
Much respect to all, but please give Joe some peace and let him live a blessed life/career
Jim E: it’s a free country, and you’re entitled to your opinion. Some here even share it.
I don’t. While Teti’s work was honorable, difficult, and dangerous, he is IMO stepping over the line in billing himself as a “combat veteran of OEF and OIF”. He’s misleading people.
In a military context – which is precisely what Teti is using when he starts off listing USMC Recon and SF – Teti is NOT a “combat veteran”. He was not in uniform at the time he went to either Iraq or Afghanistan. He was a contractor. Some would call him a mercenary.
Contractors in-theater have an option folks in uniform don’t. If things get to them, they can quit and go home. Yes, it might cost them some coin and a job. But they still have that option.
If a person in uniform pulls that stunt, they do hard time. Then they lose some coin and a career.
Again: Teti’s work as a contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan was laudable. But he was well compensated for that work, not by the military, and could have quit without risking jail. He was there as a private individual. Calling himself a “combat vet of OEF and OIF” based on that work is IMO simply not legitimate.
YMMV, and based on your comment above obviously does. To each his own.
@66–Shut the fuck up, Donny.
@84–Jim: I was one of those who was willing to give Mr. Teti the benefit of the doubt, but when he came in all blustering and threatening, etc., pretty much any good will he had with me evaporated. Sorry, but his first impression was not a good one, IMO.
@Twist, I sent you an email.
No, Teti was threatning us directly, and even pulled a sort of “Don’t you know who I am?” bullshit by saying he was a public figure and way too important to be handling petty shit like this.
Dude could start a rock fight at a wake.
Jim E.’s post is one reason why I always capitalize the V in Veteran. If the last refuge of a scoundrel is to threaten a lawsuit, the second to last is to turn to the dictionary. It’s all gamesmanship.
TSO–true dat. And if you’re going to play the “public figure” card, you best make sure your shit’s squared away, because the nature of the beast these days is that people who DO know what they’re talking about are going to be taking very hard, close looks at your claims, and if they don’t add up, stand the fuck by.
YMMV.
Change your Bio. to include that you was a Marine Recon & National Guard Special Forces Veteran. and that you worked as a contractor in Iraq & A-stan during OIF & OEF. The way you’re Bio. is worded now, IMO, You’re stealing Valor from the Military combat Veterans who served in OIF & OEF. Hence that is called Embellishing.
@80: I was in a different battalion but in the same group (19th) from 83 – 84 and again from 99-01 and 02-03 (OEF deployment.) I was in the support co but IIRC the way it worked getting non-SF qualified troops to the q course went like this during my 2nd term with them (1999-01): After showing that they met all the standards for an 18-series MOS, they enlisted and were assigned to the REC (Readiness Enhancement Company) which was a part of the Battalion HQ. On drill weekends they would do PT, work on land nav, ruck marching, general tactical skills training (patrolling, map reading, reaction drills, etc) with the idea of getting them ready for the SFAS (Assessment course.) Once there was a slot open and the cadre decided he was ready, a student or students would be sent off to Camp Mackall for SFAS. Afterwards, those who were selected to go on to SFQC were then assigned to one of the line companies and I believe they were assigned to an ODA and drilled with the line companies (not 100% certain on that, though, they may have stayed with the REC.) Non-selectees who were deemed to need just a little more training were kept in the REC and given another shot at SFAS. Those who were deemed not SF material were given the option of finding another unit or finding a job in the support company. A lot of the guys stayed in support because a support company job, even though it wasn’t SF, came with pretty much a guarantee of jump school, which is tough to get in the National Guard. After being selected, the selectees would then go to Benning for jump school and then to Bragg for the full Q course, all 3 phases and language school, righ alongside their RA colleagues. Since some of the courses take a long time, and also because there are recycles, it wasn’t unusual to run into a guy who had been gone for 2 1/2 years and was showing up back at the unit after being discharged… Read more »
After reading all of the “opinions” of what you all think that you know, I just had to make a comment. There are other “units” that are made up of former SOF personnel that exist that take care of things that our great country chooses not to use US troops for. If you need more explanation about this, you are not quailified to make any more comments. Yes, contractors are used in combat roles. These men are former SOF. They contract for different agencies within the US government. You will not find any of this on a DD214 because they are not in the US military any more. Get off of Teti’s back and let things alone.
Well fuck, Bill told us what to think, guess we have to bend to his fucking will now, kids!
Nobody was on his back. Read what Jonn wrote. We had moved on and were debating if a contracter should be considered a veteran until Teti came in and took a giant shit on this thread.
I meant to say “combat veteran”.
I bend to no one. This guy is an embellish-er & will be exposed as such.
I just now read the rest of his website declaration, including this:
“He planned and conducted a broad range of special operations missions covering the entire operational continuum. These missions gave the President of the United States an option when overt military and/or diplomatic actions were not viable or politically feasible.”
Bwahhahahahahahahahaahahahahahah.
Bill, read the entire thread. Until then YOU are not qualified to make any more comments.
Bite Me: “Sir?”
obamaman: “I told you to shut up. Okay, what is it?”
Bite Me: “Sorry, it’s just that I have Joe-You-Know-Who on the phone.”
obamaman: Give me that! Hello! Joe? Big Guy here. Whaddaya got?…….I see. My options?…..I see…..Whaddaya recommend?…..Right. I like that. Let’s go with it. Tuna on toasted rye, lettuce and maters. Out.”
Well, “Bill” – it’s been my experience that most folks having truly sensitive jobs simply don’t advertise that fact, either directly or through a proxy. Often their family doesn’t know much about what they do. And they generally don’t try to attract public attention to what they do or did in the past, either.
But I guess there’s always a first time.
@ 99 nice!
As stated earlier … nose bleed is getting worse.
Again … based on the previous post … this guy would not last 2 hours at a BBQ with my US Armed Forces Combat Veteran friends!
@ Bill …
You say, in part: “After reading all of the “opinions” of what you all think that you know, I just had to make a comment. There are other “units” that are made up of former SOF personnel that exist that take care of things that our great country chooses not to use US troops for. If you need more explanation about this, you are not quailified to make any more comments. Yes, contractors are used in combat roles. These men are former SOF. They contract for different agencies within the US government. You will not find any of this on a DD214 because they are not in the US military any more. Get off of Teti’s back and let things alone.
I ask, in part: Are you serious? Your comments and orders … were they opinion, fact and/or fantasy? Specifically: “If you need more explanation about this, you are not quailified to make any more comments” and the order to “Get off of Teti’s back and let things alone.”
If fact, please tell us about your experience.
If opinion or fantasy … thanks for sharing!