Totally legit
Someone sent us this photo with no information to find his records, but he weaves a great tale;
Met this guy Memorial Day 2013 in Salisbury National Cemetery, North Carolina. He looked wrong. He didn’t have a name tag, no hat (cover), ribbons not in any order, and he had on black patent leather shoes instead of white. I approached him, and he had no ties to the area – he said he just decided to just stop by. I believe he said he was from the Kentucky/Tennessee area. He said he retired 2009 from the Navy after 40 years. He claimed service in Vietnam through Afghanistan. He had the ribbons, but they weren’t in order of precedence and his ribbon bars had spacing, which the Navy doesn’t do. His shoulder boards indicated Lt. (j.g.) (O-2), but he verbally claimed Lt. Com. (O-4). It seemed odd he was only wearing O-2 rank after 40 years. Also, with only retiring in 2009, why are all his ribbons out of order and his shoes the wrong color? With his ribbons, he claims Bronze Star and Purple Heart awards. He also said he still trains/teaches at the Navy Base at Little Creek and at Coronado.
Category: Phony soldiers
Get’em Shipley! sic’em!
@50: That’s it!! I’ll prove it as soon as my lawyer gets his security clearance to look at the school files (it’s super secret ninja squirrel stuff, ya know) and that will prove it!!
@30 Joe Williams
Regarding the pilot discussion:
Those are standard USN/USMC jump wings, despite their location the ONLY thing in combination with the trident, he got right…
If I’m not mistaken, Gabriel Gomez, the former SEAL who was running for the Senate seat in Massachusetts was also a Navy pilot.
@54 Jonn, you are correct. Gabriel Gomez was a Navy Pilot before joining the SEALS.
NO Sparky ,I wasn’t clear enoung .You are one of the restricted rates. No insult meant same as a pilot or anti submarine warfare rating. This excludes rotorheads Marines(me).
Joe, I seem to remember a discussion that I had with my detailer just before I ETS’d. I wanted to go EOD, detailer said hell no, can’t leave the submarine pipeline. I also very specifically remember them telling us at boot camp that those of us who volunteered submarines and were in submarine specific training programs would not be allowed to take the SEAL screening. So, back in the day (late 1980’s) bubbleheads were not allowed to leave for the special communities. It would be interesting to show up to a recruiter’s office now and see if they would offer me a rate that wasn’t followed by (SS).
Bad Monday , I will go clawl in a hole till Tuesday. Joe
Bobo @57,
I think that changing programs was a no-go for all Naval Nuclear Power Program sailors back during the Cold War days. Due to the Soviet threat, the need for keeping ships at sea, especially nuclear powered ships/submarines, was a priority. Combine that with the full steam ahead economy of the mid and late 80’s, meaning less and less smart(er) folks wanting to enlist, and the result was a relative shortage of bodies in the NP training pipeline. As a result, the sea/shore rotation for nukes was 5 years sea duty/2 years shore duty, while just about every other program/rating was looking at a 3/3 rotation (I don’t know what it is now). Plus no split sea tours (i.e., going to another class or type of ship/vessel midway through a sea duty period) allowed if I remember correctly. Probably the biggest reason why I didn’t stay. Despite the 25K or so SRB (Selective Reenlistment Bonus) being offered, pretty big money at that time.
Maybe he’s actually in the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps.
Bobble…30k. Both times I reenlisted. And then after I got out I heard of guys getting 90k checks. No shit. My “first tour” consisted of boat/overseas tender/boat which came to 7.5 years at sea before shore duty, at which point I was told my three choices would be 688 out of Pearl, 688 out of Pearl, or 688 out of Pearl. Guess he forgot option 4…bag ass.
Bobo and Joe…I seems to recall the SEAL miniseries where the class honorman was a forward ET1. Will have to look it up now. Obviously don’t know the whys and hows of his being accepted to BUD/S.
NHSparky @ 61 – Forward ET1 is a coner, a non-nuke.
turd