Cautious Recommendation
Why is it that you never hear about fake submariners, but fake SEALs pop up all the time?
Probably for the same reason you don’t walk into a bar as a submariner and instantly have some drunk guy try to fight you (more than usual, that is)–SEALs just look studly and have a tough rite of passage, so they occasionally get this kind of challenge, as well as the “bar SEAL”.
(Hey, if I liked that SOF stuff, I’d try being one too. I just would rather eat donuts than do pushups, thanks. It’s like flying–much as I admire the man-machine interface machine and slipping the surly bonds, I’d rather hang out with a bunch of smelly guys in a big metal tube and kill wholesale vice retail. I’ve accepted that I’m a good bus driver.)
When a SEAL is in a bar and lies about what he does for a living, by the way, it can be really funny. You’d not believe the things they said to impress the ladies…
As the SEAL CO said on the boat one day as we discussed the differences between cultures, ours is at the core a team sport, theirs is at the core an individual sport, and that drives many of the cultural differences.
Anyhow, there are lots of fake SEALs out there. The first time I worked with reservists, there was one older fat guy who came in wearing the SEAL insignia. He and the other SEAL got to talking, and it was easily apparent that the other guy didn’t know the people our guy knew. The fake disappeared in the dead of night…
I’m cautiously skeptical, but Hugh Hewitt’s website cited a new blog by a former SEAL. He’s up front about his BUD/S classes, so it may pan out. In any case he’s knowledgeable about various SOF type things, so it’s an interesting read. In the five or so posts he’s put up, several lambast a presidential contender for various claims.
Link is here.
2 Responses to “Cautious Recommendation”
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August 17th, 2004 at 11:34 pm
I’ve always found the true SEALs to be the ones that don’t tell you much about what they did – I had a former subordinate (now peer) that was a SEAL based in Little Creek for some years in late 80′s or so – he worked for me for well over a year before that even came up.
He’s still in the reserves doing some intel thing down that way….
Bryan
August 18th, 2004 at 9:56 am
Good post – we had a guy on my last carrier, also a reservist as I recall, that was telling his wife he was a SEAL “in disguise” aboard the ship. The whole thing spun out of control on him, he even started wearing the budweiser or his uniform (he definitely did _not_fit the mold, until one day he had a little session with our SEAL LNO and one of my guys who had been an enlisted SEAL prior to commissioning in one of the fan rooms. Nothing physical, but no doubt pretty intimidating. The budweiser vanished, and they helped him “clear the air.”