Walts, posers & wannabes (merged)

[Kilted]

Unfortunately, the US Military has privately awarded individuals various medals which makes this a more difficult process. That being said, the medals and ribbons that are present suggest that he served in the Gulf War and potentially had no other deployments other than possible sea duty.

 

[Booter]

Navy cross recipients are published- that would be a great starting point

 

[GR66]

Navy cross recipients are published- that would be a great starting point

I've seen a website listing all Navy Cross recipients post-Vietnam and doesn't appear to be on there, but as Kilted noted perhaps some medals may have been privately rewarded...no idea if that might apply to the Navy Cross.

 

[Booter]

Navy seal recipients are posted. When you meet say you saw his navy cross and you were wondering what happened that he won it- im sure the story will make everything clear

 

[Fishbone Jones]

How to Check if Someone was a Navy SEAL.

How To Check If Someone Was A Navy SEAL - Operation Military Kids

Ever since the raid on Osama Bin Ladens' compound, there has been an epidemic of guys claiming they were Navy SEALs, when in fact they aren't. It's gotten so bad that some estimates put it at 1,000 phony SEALs for every 1 real SEAL. The math works out like this: 2,450 Active Duty SEALs X

www.operationmilitarykids.org

 

[Kilted]

Sometimes, the give away with these things is not extra things that are present, but the things that are missing.

All Navy SEALs are required to complete basic para as part of their training. His jump wings should be below his medals.

 

[GR66]

Navy seal recipients are posted. When you meet say you saw his navy cross and you were wondering what happened that he won it- im sure the story will make everything clear

We're going to meet him at the end of the month. For the sake of my family member I don't want to come across as confrontational, but apparently he has "lots of stories" so hope to get a better sense then.

 

[OldSolduer]

Hi all,

Have a family member who has started seeing someone (Canadian) who claims to have been a US Navy SEAL. Haven't met yet and only have a first name (Todd), but do have the attached picture. I don't really know much about US Decorations, etc. but from what I can figure out at the time of the picture (2006) he'd have been a Lt. Commander with the following decorations:

Navy Cross
Silver Star
Bronze Star
Purple Heart
Combat Action Ribbon
National Defense Service Medal
Southwest Asia Service Medal
Navy Sea Service Deployment
Kuwait Liberation Medal (Saudi Arabia)
Kuwait Liberation Medal (Emirate of Kuwait)

Anyone claiming to be a former SEAL would raise questions from me, but that list of decorations is pretty eyebrow raising as well (although they do appear to be in the proper order of precedence any maybe not impossible for an actual SEAL?)

Anyone see anything else from the picture that jumps out as being obvious BS? The fact that it's time stamped (like a personal picture as opposed to an official portrait) and with a cheapo background seems very fishy to me but I don't know enough about US Navy uniforms/decorations to know if anything else is obviously out of line.

My family member says he's "a nice guy" and treats her well (and no indication that he seems to be Walting in order to gain anything specific based on his alleged past military service), but anyone that passes themselves off a something they are not would certainly set of major alarm bells with me.

Thanks,


View attachment 74140

I am the Dress and Deportment guy - yes I can be an asshole - but his ribbons are not correctly placed . And his BUDS badge is kinda crooked.

Having said this I don't know how the USN actually does dress and deportment, but if I were this guy's Master Chief I'd have kindly advised him to straighten his shit out.

 

[GR66]

How to Check if Someone was a Navy SEAL.

How To Check If Someone Was A Navy SEAL - Operation Military Kids

Ever since the raid on Osama Bin Ladens' compound, there has been an epidemic of guys claiming they were Navy SEALs, when in fact they aren't. It's gotten so bad that some estimates put it at 1,000 phony SEALs for every 1 real SEAL. The math works out like this: 2,450 Active Duty SEALs X

www.operationmilitarykids.org

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately those kind of questions might be a little too specific coming from a Canadian civy. I'm kind of hoping that he claims some Canadian military service before going into the USN as that kind of thing would be much easier for me to identify obvious red flags. Frankly, the Navy Cross sets my default impression as him being a Walt, but trying to keep an open mind for the sake of the family member.

 

[Weinie]

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately those kind of questions might be a little too specific coming from a Canadian civy. I'm kind of hoping that he claims some Canadian military service before going into the USN as that kind of thing would be much easier for me to identify obvious red flags. Frankly, the Navy Cross sets my default impression as him being a Walt, but trying to keep an open mind for the sake of the family member.

We have some folks in the CAF who have been awarded some pretty high valour decorations and MSC's with no announcement, other than to say that they were part of CANSOFCOM. Gazetting can be buried for those purposes.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Hi all,

Have a family member who has started seeing someone (Canadian) who claims to have been a US Navy SEAL. Haven't met yet and only have a first name (Todd), but do have the attached picture. I don't really know much about US Decorations, etc. but from what I can figure out at the time of the picture (2006) he'd have been a Lt. Commander with the following decorations:

Navy Cross
Silver Star
Bronze Star
Purple Heart
Combat Action Ribbon
National Defense Service Medal
Southwest Asia Service Medal
Navy Sea Service Deployment
Kuwait Liberation Medal (Saudi Arabia)
Kuwait Liberation Medal (Emirate of Kuwait)

Anyone claiming to be a former SEAL would raise questions from me, but that list of decorations is pretty eyebrow raising as well (although they do appear to be in the proper order of precedence any maybe not impossible for an actual SEAL?)

Anyone see anything else from the picture that jumps out as being obvious BS? The fact that it's time stamped (like a personal picture as opposed to an official portrait) and with a cheapo background seems very fishy to me but I don't know enough about US Navy uniforms/decorations to know if anything else is obviously out of line.

My family member says he's "a nice guy" and treats her well (and no indication that he seems to be Walting in order to gain anything specific based on his alleged past military service), but anyone that passes themselves off a something they are not would certainly set of major alarm bells with me.

Thanks,


View attachment 74140

Ask him if he's published a book about his time in the SEALs. If not, you have your answer

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Ask him if he's published a book about his time in the SEALs. If not, you have your answer

Don’t the SAS have a creative writing portion of selection, just to make sure that the book deal will work out ok?

 

[GR66]

Anyone know what formal education requirements there would be to reach the rank of Lt Commander in the USN? Would a degree be required or could you commission from the ranks? Any particular staff colleges, etc. you'd have to have gone through?

 

[daftandbarmy]

Don’t the SAS have a creative writing portion of selection, just to make sure that the book deal will work out ok?

Well, if they did, they'd probably have to dictate it to a 'Ghost Patrol' writer

 

[Kilted]

We have some folks in the CAF who have been awarded some pretty high valour decorations and MSC's with no announcement, other than to say that they were part of CANSOFCOM. Gazetting can be buried for those purposes.

Would those individuals be permitted to wear those medals in that case?

 

[Weinie]

Would those individuals be permitted to wear those medals in that case?

Yes

 

[Kilted]

Yes

I'm assuming that they would show up on their MPRR just in case the individual was accused/ charged with stolen valour?

 

[Blackadder1916]

Anyone know what formal education requirements there would be to reach the rank of Lt Commander in the USN? Would a degree be required or could you commission from the ranks? Any particular staff colleges, etc. you'd have to have gone through?

A minimum of a bachelor degree would be required for commissioning in any occupation in the US Navy, including for pers coming from the ranks. He'd also need to be a US citizen. While not in any way impossible, what strikes me as unusual about the individual's rack is the lack of some very basic awards. One would assume that with four significant personal awards, he isn't wearing any of the ribbons that would be expected of someone who made it to O-4. There's no commendation or achievement medals that would signify successful completion of a tour of duty (i.e. posting) nor any unit awards. And as a "SEAL", he should have easily been entitled to get the pistol and rifle expert medals (the USN have medals for marksmanship). If the top four ribbons from his array are removed, it could just as easily be a standard rack for an ex-swab jockey who happened to be on a ship during Desert Shield/Sword. And not a particularly good swab jockey; no Good Conduct Medal.

If you know his last name, you could do a search of the Senate confirmation of nomination. That could be laborious depending on how common a last name. As well that would only confirm (or not) if he had achieved a certain rank, not whether he had been a SEAL or had received specific awards.

Edited to add

An example of a Senate nomination search using "Todd"

https://www.congress.gov/nomination/107th-congress/2136?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%22Navy+Todd%22%7D&s=7&r=4

That list contains one Todd for promotion to Lt Cdr. He's not a SEAL though, he's a doctor.

 

[KevinB]

A minimum of a bachelor degree would be required for commissioning in any occupation in the US Navy, including for pers coming from the ranks. He'd also need to be a US citizen. While not in any way impossible, what strikes me as unusual about the individual's rack is the lack of some very basic awards. One would assume that with four significant personal awards, he isn't wearing any of the ribbons that would be expected of someone who made it to O-4. There's no commendation or achievement medals that would signify successful completion of a tour of duty (i.e. posting) nor any unit awards. And as a "SEAL", he should have easily been entitled to get the pistol and rifle expert medals (the USN have medals for marksmanship). If the top four ribbons from his array are removed, it could just as easily be a standard rack for an ex-swab jockey who happened to be on a ship during Desert Shield/Sword. And not a particularly good swab jockey; no Good Conduct Medal.

If you know his last name, you could do a search of the Senate confirmation of nomination. That could be laborious depending on how common a last name. As well that would only confirm (or not) if he had achieved a certain rank, not whether he had been a SEAL or had received specific awards.

Edited to add

An example of a Senate nomination search using "Todd"

https://www.congress.gov/nomination/107th-congress/2136?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%22Navy+Todd%22%7D&s=7&r=4

That list contains one Todd for promotion to Lt Cdr. He's not a SEAL though, he's a doctor.

JSOC units are off list, so if he was in Dev there would be no publishing.
Vanilla SOCOM units are published however.

Classified awards generally fall into two categories, redacted citations where a portion of the award criteria is not public and redacted awards (no public wearing or display of the medal(s) until a part of the citation is released).

Do they have a LinkedIn profile?

This is Brandt Feldman’s (a former DevGru LCDR) - you may note there ain’t a lot of about his SEAL activity

 

[Maxman1]

Woman who posed as sick, wounded Marine gets nearly 6 years in prison

Sarah Jane Cavanaugh used her civilian position in the Department of Veterans Affairs to fraudulently access over $250,000 in benefits and aid meant for veterans.

www.cbsnews.com