Retired “Navy SEAL” Rescues Man that Drove Off Cliff

| April 23, 2021

Several news outlets are reporting that William Schulberg, a resident of Oceanside, CA rescued a man trapped in a car after it plunged off a cliff in Carlsbad, CA which is a short drive from Oceanside.

The headlines and the video make a point of Schulberg being a retired Navy SEAL.  However, a former SEAL checked the BUD/S-SEAL database and didn’t find Schulberg listed.

To be fair, Schulberg is not quoted as being a Navy SEAL so it may be a case of overzealous reporting.  He does say he has experience with “search and rescue” so that may have gotten lumped in by the reporter as being a Navy SEAL.

Retired Navy SEAL rescues driver who plunged off cliff

CARLSBAD, Calif. — A retired Navy SEAL sprang into action Tuesday when he saw an SUV plunge off a Carlsbad cliff, landing on the beach below.

“It was literally you saw vehicle, sky, water, cliff. That’s how high and how hard he bounced and went in,” William Schulberg said.

Schulberg said he and his wife, Grace, just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

In another article…

Retired Navy SEAL rescues driver who plunged off California cliff

CARLSBAD, Calif. — A retired Navy SEAL sprang into action Tuesday when he saw an SUV plunge off a Carlsbad cliff, landing on the beach below.

[NOTE: Same text as the previous article.]

In another article, it claims he was a Navy Hospital Corpsman, which makes more sense with a claim of having experience with search and rescue.

Retired Navy corpsman helps rescue man who drove off Carlsbad cliff

CARLSBAD, Calif. (KGTV) — An Oceanside man said he didn’t hesitate Tuesday afternoon when he saw a driver plunge off a Carlsbad cliff.

William Schulberg tells ABC 10News he was driving with his wife to the Carlsbad strawberry fields when they saw the car drive through a guardrail, a bed of plants, and a fence before falling down the cliff.

Schulberg, retired Navy corpsman, said he and his wife called 911 and he then rushed in to help, climbing down the steep cliff.

We’ll get to the bottom of this, but it may take until the end of today to get Schulberg’s military records, but at this point we’re certain he wasn’t a Navy SEAL based on not being listed in the BUD/S-SEAL database.

It is probably important to give Schulberg the benefit of the doubt until a direct claim emerges since it could be the reporting that is at fault with an error.

============== MILITARY RECORDS ARE IN ==============

Category: Navy, Search and Rescue

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Fyrfighter

Wait, what??? A reporter might spout stupid shit without doing the appropriate research, even as little as asking the guy involved??? Say it isn’t so…

Lol, that being said, I hope that’s all this is.. Dude stepped up and made a grab when he didn’t have to. It’d be a shame if he shit all over that with lies..

The Other Whitey

Years and years ago, an old battalion chief I worked for was dealing with an annoying jackass reporter at a roadside-start veg fire. The jackass kept asking for the cause, Chief kept repeating “It’s under investigation, we’ll let you know what we come up with. Jackass tries “off the record.” Chief says “Off the record? It’s under investigation.”

So now the jackass tries “Just between you and me, what do you think caused it?”

Chief, now fully in fuck-this-asshole mode, replies “Well, I think an ignition source was introduced to a receptive fuel bed via means we haven’t yet determined. That ignition source initiated a self-sustaining process of rapid oxidation of the fuel releasing heat and light.”

Jackass eagerly writes down every word and, as expected, repeats it verbatim while naming Chief’s name in front of the camera not ten minutes later, certain he got some kind of exclusive scoop. Every firefighter in San Diego County who sees that broadcast laughs their ass off, and jackass’s network gets a call from the SDSU chemistry department explaining what he actually got.

The chief in question, who today is a semi-retired division chief, remains a God Among Men.

Fyrfighter

That is truly epic TOW. It’s great when you get a chief like that, instead of the ones that would make the reporter look good by their douchebaggery..

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

TOW, Fyrfighter
Nice comments and the Chiefs “Hypothesis” on the cause/determination of the job. My favorite was the Instructor out at the Nassau County Long Island Fire Service Training Academy back in 1977 when I joined my first Volley FD. We were training on extinguishers and the Chief says that we shouldn’t use the can on energized electrical equipment because the first thing that happens when the water hits the energized source as you are standing in water is that your balls bang together as they play stormy weather and flames shoot out of your ass hole.

KoB

😆 😆 😆 Great story TOW! I’ve been interviewed on many a time by both print and broadcast video reporters. And they ALWAYS get it wrong…or put their own spin to it. Even when they’re given a cheat sheet synopsis of the subject matter discussed. Or they’ll do a voice over while showing your image talking. Dumbasses!

BZ to the man jumping in to save the fellow. Be interesting to see the follow up. For right now, I’ll go with the reporter did the embellishing.

Poetrooper

My experiences with print and broadcast media mirrors yours, KoB.

They ALWAYS get it wrong…

RGR 4-78

Nicely done.

MarineDad61

Fyrfighter,
Someone should get the explanation from the horse’s mouth.
That horse being Ashley Jacobs.
The author of both stories above,
AND 1 story 2 days prior.
ALL 3 now have the correction with an editor’s note.

Knowing HOW and WHY Ashley Jacobs ran with that SEAL shit
should be interesting.
https://fox5sandiego.com/author/asjacobsfox5/

E4 Mafia 83-87

Isn’t everybody in the Navy a SEAL? It seems like, no?

5JC

Only if they can swim.

If he said he was a corpman I would go with that. You can’t belive anything reported in the media these days, never really could.

MarineDad61

E4 Mafia,
Not everyone, according to Fred Emmart in West Virginny.
Just Fred.

I haven’t even bothered to Google Fu his dumb ass today.
A career cook, talented too… but that wasn’t enough.
He just had to be the Rambo of Lynndie England land.
What a turd bucket.

[Fred Emmart – Fake Combat Veteran, SeaBee, BM, and Special Boat Operator.
Sock Puppet Whitney Chimes In.
| February 6, 2020]
https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=95208

MarineDad61

OMG…..
Fred Emmart’s Boog of Fage.

He MOVED…. to Jacksonville, North Carolina.
That’s Camp LeJeune and MCAS New River territory.

Good News,
Fred now highlights his CULINARY experience on his Boom of Fame.

Bad News,
Fred is still rocking some SEAL TEAM and froggy shit photos.
https://www.facebook.com/fred.emmartii

MarineDad61

Wooops…
Check that.
Here is Fred’s newer FakeBook page.
Inactive since before his outing on MP and VG.
Likely still in West Virginny…. (unknown)
and still some questionable stuff here.
It looks like he gave up FakeBook,
but left some of his photo shit up.

Still digging.
Ugh, that turd.
https://www.facebook.com/fred.emmartii.12

MarineDad61

Whoa!
Fred Emmart on FinkedIn.
— top secret clearance DOD
Issued Sep 1993 Expires Mar 2020
— hand to hand combat
navy

Top secret cook? In 2020?
Combat over doing the dishes?
Where does this shit end?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/fredemmart

Daisy Cutter

To the reporters, it is like the game Six Degrees of Separation.

Q: What were you in the Navy?

A: Search and Rescue.
LOGIC: S=Search, A=And, Rest=whatever -> Navy SEAL

A: A cook.
LOGIC: Cook->Steven Seagal/Ryback/Under Siege -> Navy SEAL

A: I wasn’t in the Navy, but I fed seagulls on the beach once.
LOGIC: Seagull -> Seagal/Ryback/Under Siege -> Navy SEAL

You know what we’re doing here.

Green Thumb

He did help / save a man.

Their is honor in that.

Let’s wait and see what the records say.

Forest Bondurant

Good thing he isn’t a cop in either Oceanside or Carlsbad, or a CHP trooper, otherwise he’d be accused of causing the accident.

//sarc off//

5JC

You don’t need a sarcasm filter for that post.

5JC

I did find his Facebook page and while there is a motorcycle and a vest involved there isn’t any Navy Seal Bling that I saw. There are a few blocked posts. There is some Corpsman bling though.

I am thinking the reporter is an idiot.

ninja

In a 20 June 1999 Austin-Anerican Statesman (Texas) obituary, Schulberg was identified as being a HM1 (Hospital Corpsman First Class) with a Navy unit from the Naval Air Station in China Lake, CA.

Schulberg served as a Pallbearer for a Naval Test Parachutist who died in the line of duty in June 1999 in California City, CA while stationed in China Lake, CA.(equipment failure).

Sparks

Good on him for saving the guy.

ChipNASA

At least Obama isn’t recognizing him…

A Proud Infidel®™️

I’m betting that it was stupidly on the part of the urinalist, most of them only care about getting a “hot scoop”.

Reaperman

You can’t luck out too much better than having an HM right there when you go off a cliff, whichever flavor of HM it turns out being. That guy’s not wearing a vest covered in patches, so my initial feeling is he’s probably pretty okay.

KoB

Thank you Good Sir! Once again a reporter, just like the weather person, will get it all wrong EVERY.DAMN.TIME! But the pay’s the same, right or wrong.

tshe

I hate to suggest this but what if the man purposely drove off the cliff to commit suicide?

I wonder how he’d feel about being rescued? Maybe down the road he would be grateful.

Mason

I’ve saved people that were trying to or thought they had committed suicide. From my experience, they aren’t too pleased with the intervention.

The Other Whitey

Been there a few times. One that stands out was a lady who drove up to the Lagunas, picked a spot to go Dukes of Hazzard off of Sunrise Highway, then regained consciousness a few hours later, discovered she was still alive, and decided she really did want to stay that way, at least for the time being. Two broken legs may have had something to do with that.

We wound up having to pack the gear about 600 feet downslope (almost as much fun as packing it all back out again), removed her from the vehicle, and had the Huey hoist her out. Luckily it didn’t require any major extrication, because packing the Holmatro toys down that hill and back would’ve been an unprecedented level of suck.

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

BZ HM1 Schulberg.

Mason

Not a SEAL, but his records show he’s no joke. Lots to be proud of there. FMF corpsman, aircrew, and a CAR. That’s a 22 year career to be proud of.

I’ll agree with the other posters that this is the “journalist” mixing things up.

QMC

It probably happens more often than not.

“Oh, you were in the Navy?”

“This man was a SEAL!”

Claw

Sarc Alert:

BZ to the Doc, but somebody needs to slap the Yeoman who prepared Schulberg’s Retirement DD-214 upside the head for referring/listing the NDSM as a “ribbon”.

The Brotherhood weeps.

MarineDad61

It’s Google Fu time. Updates, everyone.
Good News – Both Fox5 & KRON4 have CHANGED their headlines
from SEAL to Corpsman.
But the news story URL links remain “seal”.

Bad News – Other echo chamber news sites and Books of the Fake
still have SEAL on this story.

https://www.google.com/search?q=William+Schulberg+navy+seal

https://www.google.com/search?q=William+Schulberg+navy+seal

Slow Joe

And then they want us to trust the media, who cannot even get this story right.

The legacy media has not future.

The Other Whitey

And they want us all to believe Joe’n’Hoe are the most popular presidential candidates in American history, nothing illicit happened when Republican poll watchers were barred from observing vote counts, and the Capitol was “stormed” by people who were encouraged to enter the building by the cops guarding it.

Slick Goodlin

If his DD-214 is correct,he’s not a
Seal, but he’ll sure as hell do till one comes along.