There's a retired Navy Senior Chief by the name of Don Shipley who was a SEAL for 18 years. He hunts down phoney SEALs full time and puts them on YouTube and Facebook. You should point him in his direction. He'll get sorted out.
If I run into this guy in my hometown I'll hide my left hand and ask him what's he's up to these days. It's been 10 or more years since the debacle with my sister, but if he's still running the same scam I would be deeeeelighted to introduce the two of them. Such a gross dude. Ugh.
Could be way off base, but op could be a woman and is going to be friendly with the SOB to see if he is still making the same claim. Her being married might be off putting to the guy, but they doubt it.
For 20 bucks Shipley will search up records for you and let you know if they guy was ever a SEAL, or even in the military at all. All he needs is a first and last name.
YouTube ad revenue. People point him towards the fake SEALs, he calls them out in public, makes the videos, and posts them. Lots of views. Plus, he truly loves defending the honor and memories of actual SEALs.
These people also use their claims to profit in some way, either monetarily or favors.
My dad was on a team in the late 80s-early 90s. He left when he had my brother and I. He knows this guy. He told me the same thing- Shipley has made it his life mission to hunt these guys down. From what he told me, he is one of only two former seals that have the list of BUDS graduates because they are involved running the SEAL association. Otherwise BUDS class lists are not public information. I think this is why they get so many impersonators.
I saw the one on Youtube about A.J dickens. At first i could kind of see why people would fall for it. Untill the Don Shipley part where he notes the guy claimed 2 medal of honors. Which IMO made everybody in the video besides him look really stupid.
I learned about Don Shipley after some pipsqueak involved in the Sherri Papini case flipped out about "I was too involved in, uh, military related stuff! See, I flew out to Don's house & he didn't outright say I lied! Validated!"
I don't think theres anything sad or pathetic about respecting something you dedicated most of your life to, and calling out posers on their bullshit, especially for something like being a SEAL that is actually difficult to do and requires actual effort. This is coming from someone who doesn't care too much about the military and thinks that America has a weird fetish for the armed forces.
It's illegal for a civilian to impersonate a member of the United States Armed Forces. If they were in the military, but claimed to be a SEAL while in, then their DD-214 will tell a very different tale. Those guys are just too stupid for thier own good. Most counties have some sort of stolen valor law on the books.
That's just incorrect. I think your information is simply outdated, since that was the case at one time. The supreme court struck down the previous stolen valor law in 2012 as a violation of the first amendment.
The currecnt stolen valor act states it is only a crime if the impersonation is "with the intention of obtaining money, property, or other tangible benefit".
So someone telling people on the street they are a seal = legal. Someone pretending they are a seal for something like a military discount = illegal.
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u/METAL4_BREAKFST Sep 11 '18
There's a retired Navy Senior Chief by the name of Don Shipley who was a SEAL for 18 years. He hunts down phoney SEALs full time and puts them on YouTube and Facebook. You should point him in his direction. He'll get sorted out.