'Frog' Marching Phonies To The Confessional

October 1999
Precision Professional

"There I was, knee-deep in hand grenade pins..."

That's how Kent Dillingham, a retired Navy SEAL, describes the typically outlandish tales he hears all too often. Dillingham, the director of Latin American security operations for US International, oversees the oldest and most recognized Navy SEAL website. Though many parts of the "The Teams" website are sometimes "years overdue" for an update and "nearly overgrown with triple canopy vegetation", one of the most popular areas is frequently updated by a small cadre of volunteers in their spare time.

The Hall of Shame

According to Dillingham, the website generates more than a thousand pieces of e-mail every year from people all over the world wanting to know if someone they met is, in fact, the Navy SEAL he claims to be.

"The overwhelming majority are fakes," says Dillingham. "We've had maybe three or four bonafide SEALs who someone asked about. The rest are insecure liars who have seen too many movies."

Those who are found to be lying face the age-old prospect of public shaming by having their name published for all the world to see. Often specific locations and details of the perpetrator's false claims accompany the names. A few -- usually the most notorious "wannabes" -- have even had their photos included so there is no mistaking the Impostor.

On the surface, fabricating stories of danger and heroism as an elite Navy SEAL in an effort to impress friends and colleagues may seem a relatively innocuous, although somewhat bizarre behavior. However, look deeper and one can easily see a very real danger in what some have labeled "the phony phenomenon".

Dillingham's volunteers have amassed a surprisingly large database of politicians, government bureaucrats, executives, attorneys, police officers, bodyguards, security consultants, firearms instructors, martial artists and many others who have attained positions of trust and responsibility -- often due, at least in part, to their bogus SEAL credentials. It is not difficult to imagine a recipe for disaster when a bodyguard fails to perform like the highly trained Navy commando his client believes him to be. Or when a well-paid security consultant offers crucial counter-terrorism advice derived of his supposed lengthy career as a cunning and lethal SEAL. The tragic possibilities are as endless as the incredible stories which occur only in the questionable minds of the phonies themselves.

"These guys [SEALs] have gone through Hell and come back with the Devil's head on a pike," says John Nickersen, a CTP officer and part-time "backstage Phony Buster" at US International. "They sweat the blood so some 'been nowhere, done nothing' leech can come along and claim their pain and sacrifice. The only thing these phonies have done is soil the SEAL name with their ridiculous stories and put real people at risk by their fraud."

Nickersen says phonies are a hot-button issue in the Special Operations community.

"A former Marine recently said it for us all: '...boils my blood'. They're posing as SEALs, Recon Marines, Army Rangers and Special Forces, Delta operators -- you name it. God help them if they run into a real operator."

Indeed, David Kellerman, a Special Forces "Green Beret" and Charter Member of the Close Quarters Protection Operators Association (CQPOA) agrees that phonies are a very real problem.

Kellerman says that if everyone who claims to be Special Forces or SEALs were really a member of those illustrious warrior fraternities, they would outnumber the armies of several small nations.

An exaggeration? Maybe not.

CQPOA considers phonies such a serious issue that membership in the association hinges exclusively upon member referrals followed by background verifications and an assessment of professional reputation. No exceptions.

Still, the 'wannabes' outnumber the real thing by astronomical proportions.

Those who work to identify and confront the Impostors generally estimate that their databases and Internet lists reflect only a fraction of the actual number of bogus military veterans. With new inquiries daily and the ever-expanding presence of the Internet, that number is only likely to increase.

How to substantially reduce the tide of "wannabe" Navy SEALs and other elite force impersonators? Several real SEALs and other Special Operations veterans in the fight against the phonies may have a good idea: legislation that would make it a crime to impersonate a veteran -- any veteran. Already it is a federal offense to wear unauthorized medals and the FBI has given indications that it may be affording the problem more serious consideration.

Meanwhile, the "liars and losers", as Dillingham calls them, will continue to spread amazing tales of their imaginary courage and decorated glory, never once thinking about the real heroes who gave their lives so that even a 'wannabe' is free to spit upon their graves.