Who is the real POS here
PCS sends us a link to the latest “reportage” (and I use the term ever-so-loosely) from Erica Perdue, who started this whole Anthony Vanderhoof thing. Here’s the link, and a screen shot (because ABC12 has just removed the video and the link to their article, so I’m back to pirating screen shots to maintain the integrity of this blog.
Now, I’m pretty sure that the Navy has no records of Vanderhoof selling trinkets like the headline says, why would they? I’m aware that editors usually write the headlines of articles, Erica’s editor needs to be fired.
In the meantime, Terry Camp who wrote the article in the ABC12 website told me that he was going to address the issue with his editor. It appears that the editor’s solution was to pull the video and the story and running this tiny little disclaimer leaving Saginaw with the impression that a Navy SEAL is homeless on their streets.
Of course Vanderhoof is still claiming he’s a SEAL. With dunderheaded reporters (and their editors) like these, why would he stop? They should have reinterviewed him with a couple of Saginaw’s finest in attendance.
Category: Phony soldiers
It seems like people claim to be Navy SEALs when they’re not way more than people claim to be Army SF, Army Rangers, Marine Recon, and USAF PJs combined. Maybe it’s the movie that just came out that inspires this, and for the older dudes like this guy maybe Charlie Sheen motivated them.
Could well be the case, BB. The SEALs are the “hot” SOF folks right now in popular culture/the media. As I recall, some years ago that was Delta; before that, SF. It would be interesting to see/analyze data relating confirmed posers, sorted by SEAL/SF/other categories vice year. I suspect we just might see the effect you postulate.
Hondo
Along your vein I wonder what this POS was posing as back in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s….We probably have your case study wrapped in this one craptastick turd smuggler….
Better than the secret squirrels that claimed to be former residents of the Red Roof Inn after those Chuck Norris movies came out in the 80s. Hell, there was one asshat at the local VFW here who claimed to have done a stint in Delta but didn’t know what the Red Roof Inn was and didn’t even know where the JFK Special Warfare School was at. The guy was really Army, but that was the extent. He was a fueler.
Hondo, I don’t know how many people have been charged under the Stolen Valor act, but that could be a guide, couldn’t it? I forgot about Delta, or CAG, or whatever they’re called now, but I bet they have a bunch of posers, too, though I never see any.
You know, I actually met a SEAL. Or rather, a former SEAL. It was Stu Smith, the workout guru, and he, along with some other SOF personell, was teaching us about resilience in a class called WarOps after our tour to Afghanistan, and he didn’t come off as a douchebag like most of these posers do. In fact, if I saw him on the street I’d have thought he was a businessman and a family man.
I had the pleasure of working with several gentleman with large Red pinnepeds tattoed on their arms, and Forks on their chests. at The local Chow Hall I noticed a Young man(E-2)( No striker Patch) wearing said fork embellishment to Lunch with several attractive young sailors of the Female gender… Took Me a Week But I talked My co workers into having lunch with me at The chow hall. As the masterchief(dv,ss) sat at the table next to him he quitely took Off The Pin and Left the Chowhall… 400 Or so pounds of real “Navy Divers” convinced this young man to be more honest with his dates…
Ever notice no one ever claimes to be a messcrank?
Almost makes ya wanna put a .45 in the face of one of these phony douchenozzles and pull off a line similar to Ronin…”What’s the color of the boathouse Hereford?”
At some point one of these fucksticks is gonna get cut down very publicly and in a very humiliating fashion. Until then, and shit, maybe not even then–this kind of douchebaggery will continue.
It’ll simply continue, Sparky. Until there is some serious chomp behind the bite, that is all it is going to do. Oh wait, we got the internet, I fergot. We can slay ’em anyway….LOL!
BB – unfortunately, no. The Stolen Valor Act has only been in effect since 2005. We’ve had a poser problem much longer than that, as BG Burkett and Glenna Whitley documented in Stolen Valor (the book) almost 15 years ago. If you’ve never read it, it’s definitely worth finding and reading.
Goddamn you Sparky…
One doesn’t simply walk into the boathouse at Hereford.
Hey Hondo & BB….Incoming! the website is http://www.stolenvalor.com/
Yep. Amazon has the book too, but I think they only carry the hardback cover version now.
*ahem*
It’s…SEAL! Not Seal. Seal is a different kind of animal. If a knuckle dragging, simple-minded Marine like me can see that, why can’t they?
@13 …for the same reason LASER is now laser. Common usage leads to an acronym or abbreviation becoming a word.
@14 – True, but laser is a tool….SEAL is a calling.
@15 Yes, and I fully agree with your viewpoint. We tend to be as casual in our language as we are in our attire, and sometimes it isn’t right, even when everyone knows what is meant by what is said.
I am sure joining the Navy and all the SEAL training would take him all of two years to complete. ALL homeless dudes are not vets, most are just bums who probably have never worked a day in their lives.
Or they play a bum during the day and drive away in a new Maserati.
SCUBA = Self contained underwater breathing aparatus. Since we’re doing acronyms, heheh.