Lewis David Lowrimore – NOT a Navy SEAL
The folks at Military Phony sent us their work on this David Lewis Lowrimore fellow.
Lowrimore died on March 22, 2019 and was 68 years old when he passed away.
In his obituary, it said he served in the US Navy and was a Navy SEAL.
This same obituary, and by proxy the Navy SEAL claim, was carried across several newspapers.
Folks in the Stolen Valor community were contacted to verify the SEAL claim so the BUD/S-SEAL database was checked along with other resources. His name was not listed anywhere as being a Navy SEAL.
Lowrimore’s military records were ordered through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Well, as you can see – the official military records also confirm no SEAL training or SEAL assignments.
He served for four (4) years in the Navy when most wouldn’t. He served during the Vietnam-era.
It’s a puzzle how the Navy SEAL claim made it to his obituary. Was his family under the mistaken impression that he was a SEAL? Why? That’s pretty specific.
To have honors bestowed upon someone is not fair to those that not only earned the title of SEAL and went through the training, but have lost brothers-in-arms that chose to go in harm’s way.
We just wanted to set the record straight because years from now people will see Lowrimore’s obituary and assume he was a Navy SEAL because it is right there printed in black and white. Lewis David Lowrimore was NOT a Navy SEAL.
Category: Fake SEAL, Phony SEAL
Looks like he took it to the grave with him.
Where he will be shaming his family for years to come….
He WAS awarded the prestigious much-sought-after NDSM, so there’s that…///
That’s right. They don’t just hand that out to everyone!
Got mine at the gedunk at Bainbridge in Days of Yore.
What a Monday morning start.
These are always difficult. We may never know if the wishful thinking was on the part of the family alone or if he lied about his service. Either way, at least some members of the family may face additional hurt by the lie.
Or not. The family may have the same whatever it is that prefers the delusion to reality. Again, we may never know.
Sad that what appears to be honorable military service is forever sullied by a lie.
I can’t imagine a family member making this up out of whole cloth. The simplest explanation is usually the correct one – if his family had “Navy SEAL” put on his obituary it’s likely because he told them that’s what he was.
There are some creative and indirect ways to lie that posers seem to excel at.
I think the most common is to splatter their walls and/or the back of their vehicles with certificates, stickers and other bling that asserts a SEAL connection and then, when asked directly ‘what did you do in the service?’ to cryptically say “I don’t like to talk about it” (while rocking the patented ‘300 yard stare.)
This way, when they get busted, they can say “well, I never TOLD anyone I was a SEAL” and in their own twisted minds, at least, they are right. They didn’t TELL anybody, they just dropped a breadcrumb trail to an incorrect conclusion and then when the other person made that incorrect conclusion, they stayed silent and didn’t correct it.
I call it “Leading a horse to water and taking no responsibility for it drinking.”
“I can’t imagine a family member making this up out of whole cloth. The simplest explanation is usually the correct one…”
While what you say is technically correct, what is usual is hardly always true. How many times is a very innocent statement of fact misinterpreted by those who are either simply ignorant or perhaps willfully opting to misunderstand? It happens frequently among media types as well as ordinary folks.
So, we are left with best guesses, a whole of research, or just never knowing which it is. Can’t imagine a family member making it up? Yeah, well, they do. Sometimes they guess wrong and just don’t want to do the research.
Lowrimore legitimately earned the coveted NDSM. Alone that prestigious service award should’ve been enough to quietly shuffle off this mortal coil without the need for embellishment and falsehoods.
Only four years and he was already an E3.
No good cookie either.
Looks like his service was a couple days short of 4 years – IIRC the Navy didn’t go to 3-year intervals for their GCM until some time in the early 1990’s so while the E-3 at discharge doesn’t look all that great, I’m not sure we should read too much into the lack of a GCM.
The change occurred in 1996. Before 1996, four years of good conduct was required.
I signed up for a 4 year enlistment the end of 1966, but due to cutbacks, as we started inching our way out of Vietnam, I finagled a 6 month early out, and therefore didn’t rate the GCM. Years later I found that the GCM would be awarded for 3.75 years of good behaviour (or at least for not getting caught breaking any rules) but my 3.5 was not good enough, and the 1990’s 3 year time requirement was not retroactive to my era. So yes, SEAL wannabe Lowrimore may have qualified for the GCM.
I wonder how many servicemen sat in the jungles of Vietnam and wished they were in Keflavic Iceland… and vice versa?
This case and others like it are murky as far as the ethics concerned. What family member would insert Navy SEAL into their loved one’s obituary knowing it was not true? If they made a mistake and ‘misheard’ how can it be that specific?
If anyone takes offense to the sunshine being brought to this – ask yourself why was it important to put ‘Navy SEAL’ in the obituary in the first place? Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, should be concerned about accuracy.
Pat Tillman’s parents were told he died a hero charging some hill. He was killed by friendly fire which doesn’t take away from the fact he was a hero, but the point is that his parents persisted in wanting to know the truth.
He looks the Unabomber in that pic.
Condolences to the family for their loss however. But that’s what, FOUR fake SEALs in the past week? They’ve HAD to have taken the lead in the pool this year, haven’t they?
I was thinking he looked more like Captain Phil Harris from Deadliest Catch
I damn near died while I was stationed in Iceland. I should have received hazardous duty pay.
Blue eyed blonde women behind every tree and alcohol of any kind was a nickel a gallon.
I strained something that may never heal over that tour of duty.
If any of you ever go there an run into a woman named Freya… you have never heard of me.
Heh. One of the roughest rides I ever had in a P-3 was on the deck in Kef, in a Condition 2 Whiteout. Pilots kept all four turning and would not turn the plane for fear of flipping it over in the gusts.
Good times.
As for our phony SEAL, seems he was quite the scholar, lasting an entire month in AE “A” School before being dropped.
Dave, I would imagine the struggle was real. Bet you can’t go pass a yeller haired girl now without having flashbacks. You poor thing, no wonder the Soviet can make you “do things.”
As far as this character, as posted above, someone had the idea he was a SEAL. No evidence of fake book or other claims? Many of them do have the family convinced of their derring do, without showing any evidence. Pity.
BTW Dave wasn’t the giving up of a stripe due to something in Iceland, and did it have anything to do with blue eyed, yeller haired girls and $.05 a gallon distilled spirits? Asking for a friend.
Returning to Conus from West Germany, we landed at Keflavik. I seem to remember snow, lots and lots of snow, piled next to runways and taxiways, and ice. We were on the ground for 30-35 minutes, when the stew opened the door to let a couple of Airmen on, it was so cold no one wanted to get off for a few.
I wouldn’t have wanted to be stationed there.
There have been reported sightings of an Icelandic creature that walks around in what looks to be a fuzzy pink bathrobe.
Legend has it that it’s the “Rainbow Yeti.”
1st OBSERVER: Look, I think that’s an abominable snowman.
2nd OBSERVER: But Yeti’s pink.
And that’s how rumors get started.
I had a buddy on embassy duty in Iceland said it was great
Did you get a valor medal ? Lol I can get you one lol I know people at the clothing and sales store lol
Maybe he wore the Navy Seal on his jacket. There’s a big pin with a fake gold band around the edge for that.
That’s another way posers rock the lie without actually saying it. They wear the SEAL baseball cap, jacket, ring, polo shirt, and jockstrap and then when asked “were you a SEAL?” they say “I can’t talk about it” and wink.
Once again off the subject,but I have a question.I would like to know what ribbons I rate that are not on my dd214.I recently read a book that said I have one more than I knew about.In other words if they were awarded after i was discharged do they show up somewhere?I don’t mean a personal award of course,but unit.The only one I ever saw was a good conduct.Family pressure.They seem to care more than I do.
Got to go MR.ED just came on the telly.out here in the middle of noplace thats a big deal.
“Lest we forget.” Thanks Ex-PH2& everyone else that posted the linkys!
If Powers Funeral Home ever does have occasion to publish the obituary of a SEAL, it would be nice if they used all caps, instead of “Seal”.
Kind of ironic that this phony SEAL got “small cased” in his obit.
NOT in his defense BUT I read the obits everyday …. such bullshit … who is wrong the family … the deceased ? We can’t have all raised the flag on Iwo Jima 😉
Unless it can be shown that he lied, let the dead man rest. Correcting the record for his family is needed, but not more than that.
I feel that this sets the correct tone.
I used to think we should have a fake SEAL of the month competition for the most outlandish SEAL poser. But at the current rate of at least three a week, maybe it should be a weekly competition.
I had a buddy on embassy duty in Iceland said it was great
What a shitty time in history when we have to have newspapers do a background check prior to printing an obituary. People are scum. There’s a good chance someone performed military honors at this guy’s funeral.
I’d been in USN for 6 mos @ NAV HOSP Orlando and a “hot fill” surgeon was needed for Kevlavik, Iceland. I immediately heard Julie Andrews singing “Sound of Music” and went. Was dark side of the yr there and everything was wet, dark and constant dripping of water as ice melted off car bumpers, roofs etc. It was freezing. Early AM I was curled up in bed, fingers, toes and nose bluish from impending frost bite..exhaling steam from one exposed nostril emanating from under the covers. Walking in is two 6 ft Viking maids, each with a thin milk maid dress on, bare calves and Ward Cleaver sweaters on rolled up to the elbow smiling. I mean tough ! I stayed long enough to go to Reyjkavik where it was like “It’s a Small World” at Disney, attend a NAS Keflavik “Beach Party” (several sunlamps in an apartment where everyone wore beach attire, listened to surf music and got tanked.. and get pneumonia. Overweight enlisted females with purple zits and cellulite had guys waiting at their doors. Good for them. Never went back. Was Adak the same ?? Always thought PCS to Keflavik NDSM ought to have a small sunlamp device centered on the yellow.
For a few years, my former assistant went to Iceland every couple of months. I asked him if he had family there. No, none what so ever. It came down to the fact that he was getting laid a lot. Said he was going to move there once he finished off his student loans. He shared some of his pictures with me. Don’t blame him.
I guess being in the military in some locations can be miserable if you don’t want to be there. However, if you want to go there, it must be heaven.
Dave Hardin, report in USMC Life magazine, Nov. 26 2018. Stolen Valor, Cary Falon Blake Haerlin, DD-214 listed as Haerlin, Cary F. E-2, Less than Honorable discharge, 1986, altered DD-214 made to look as hero and also many other items. Posted Vietnam Reflections-The Post Exchange yesterday.
Good Morning, Outcast.
FYI. Have a Great Day!
https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=83113&cpage=1
First we had Ike “No More” Densmore.
Now we have Lewis David “No More” Lowrimore.