Robert Hammell is not a Navy SEAL
Someone noticed an obituary in which Robert Hammell was memorialized and whoever wrote it thinks that Robert was a Navy SEAL;
However, he wasn’t a Navy SEAL according to Don Shipley and the US Navy;
I have no proof that Robert ever made the claim that he was a SEAL. Often, confused family members write things in an obituary that aren’t true. The same goes for Funeral service providers. So, I’m not calling this stolen valor. I’m just correcting the historical record. Robert Hammell was never a Navy SEAL.
According to his records, he spent three years in the Navy. He served on the USS Cayuga – Cayuga did see some action in Vietnam when they provided support to Operation Song Than, a Marine Corps amphibious assault in support of the defense of Hue City in May 1972. Cayuga was on the receiving end of some North Vietnamese Army indirect fire which earned the ship the Combat Action Ribbon. However Hammell didn’t join the crew until about six months later in December, 1972, so he is not an actual Vietnam veteran with service in the area. He’s a Vietnam-era veteran.
Category: Who knows
Dead men tell no tales?
Perhaps someone confused “Seaman” with “SEAL?” A reach I know.
honestly, I could see that, particularly in the types of communities that don’t have a lot of formal knowledge of military, particularly the Navy. I have also seen “Seabee” confused with SEAL too, and it was an innocent mistake soon corrected.
If there’s nothing out there giving evidence that he himself claimed to have been a USN SEAL while alive then I tend to think maybe a friend or family member came up with that and I choose to leave him at rest.
Same here. Sometimes the family is either confused or exaggerating. For example, I know that my uncle retired from the Air Force as a major, but my late grandfather insisted that my under had retired as a “full bird colonel”
my uncle not my under … oh, brother
Autocorrect can really be a Mother Forklift from time to time!
*uncle
You “choose”.
You’re an internet troll.
Jonn , Dave and Mary toil long hours.
REAL contributors have been vetted, all verified combat vets.
Stolen valor tipsters bring in suspected vultures.
You endlessly comment on homosexual acts,
calling people homos.
like the mike sleeper thread and numerous other threads on here.
You’re the second most obvious closeted gay dude on here, after the guy who fantasizes about being an FMF pecker inspector.
(real HM’s mostly dispense betadine for foot fungus. Its not a very gay job. Fake HMC would be disappointed if he had enlisted. Sorry charlie tuna!)
Even Jason dodge has 6 months more time in uniform and
I guess everyone contributes what they know. To each their own skills.
For you its bags of d”””” ks.
Lol, Nancy. you “choose” to let the deceased vet off the hook.
Troll infestation.
This sailor didn’t lie unless Jonn says there’s evidence that he did.
Now run along and suck on that bag of… youre always Moist about.
Even Jason dodge has a DD214 and served briefly. You?
LOL
Timmy, you need the crying closet. And quickly.
I think Timmy is still upset that Lassie ran off an left him in a patch of poison ivy.
She was tired of his verbal diarrhea.
Someone whizz in Timmy’s cheerios this morning?
Dude….
Timmy, you’re just another Bony Eared Assfish, now go run back to your Mommy’s place for a peanut butter sandwich, some Kool-Aid and an afternoon of XBox in your room in the basement of her house and I heartily suggest that you stop huffing glue and spray paint before you post!
How will GB score this one? If this is just a correction, then it doesn’t seem to me to be worth adding to the phony SEAL count, and let Robert Hammell rest in peace.
I’m scoring this as a mistake on the part of the family of the deceased, and not stolen valor. Scores for the week coming soon.
Fair and just. Thanks, GB.
The bullshit came from someone, we just don’t know who. If it came from a family member, that person did this Veteran no favors by dressing up his service. It’s never enough for some people that they or a loved one served the nation honorably through military service. And that sucks.
I ETS’d honorably 26 years ago from Army leg infantry. I started civilian skydiving a few months before ETS and continued in the sport for about a decade. Last year a cousin of mine (National Guard infantry vet) and I were visiting. Long story short, he thought I was in the Ranger Regiment during my service. I was shocked and asked why he thought that. Turns out, from the skydiving years, and the participation in Just Cause (7th ID), he had deduced that I was a Regiment dude who participated in the 0100 jump the Regiment conducted. I realigned him with the truth and we had a good laugh. It made the hair stand up on my neck though that someone thought that. Thank goodness he’s not war story chatty and never felt the need to say “My cousin blah blah blah…”
Fair Winds and Following Seas Robert Hammell, I have no qualms with you.
Had a similar instance strike a little close to home recently. I guy I’ve known since the early 80’s passed away recently, and I’d heard a lot of people say he was a SEAL in Viet Nam over the years. I never once heard Bob make the claim, but I do know he was Navy and was in Viet Nam. No mention of being a SEAL in his obituary. Always wondered if what I’d heard was true. He wasn’t one to brag about his service.
Interesting to see the number of Navy Seal obituaries that are online by using this Google search:
Navy Seal site:Legacy.com
The obituaries I looked at from this search are much more detailed about the nature of the Seal’s service as opposed to saying “Navy Seal in Vietnam.”
Rest in peace all of these fine men.
If it was done by mistake by a family member, so be it. I have no issues with Mr. Hammell. May he rest in peace.
he must have told somebody he was a SEAL for them to post it in his obit
At my 40th High School Reunion, I found out that I had been killed in Viet Nam. I’ve never been to Viet Nam. (Never been killed, either.)
There was a SEAL named Hammerli who served with ST-2 and did AT LEAST one tour – possibly more – in Vietnam, but he was much older and more senior than I, thus I only vaguely remember him. He definitely was not this person. The Hammerli who served with ST-2 would have been at least 10 years older than this guy and, of course, looked nothing like him.