SEALs have been spotted in improbable places like a church in Pennsylvania, on Greyhound buses, in Wal-Marts and at fastfood restaurants.
A man who identified himself as Gene said on a chat forum on US Navy SEALs, an unofficial website that posts videos, sells T-shirts and has chat forums about SEALs, that he has met "so-called SEALs on a Greyhound bus (a kid barely 19), at Wal-Mart (had a trident pinned to a golf hat), and at Taco Bell.
"Funny, I never knew SEALs weighed 300 pounds (140 kilos)," Gene wrote.
A woman on the chat forum said her mother is dating a man she met on MySpace who claims he was "the commander of Team Six when bin Laden was taken out.
"He is overweight, has a bad knee, and tells her EVERYTHING about the 'missions' he gets sent away for," wrote the woman who signed herself "Skeptical Daughter," wondering if SEALs really behave and look that way.
In an interview published in a Pennsylvania newspaper, preacher Jim Moats recounted his heady days as a SEAL during the Vietnam war.
Moats said he was waterboarded during training to toughen him up in case he got captured by the North Vietnamese and was put on dishwashing detail after getting into a fight in a club.
If it sounded like it was straight out of a movie, it's because it was -- Steven Seagal's 1992 film "Under Siege".
Retired real SEAL Don Shipley called the newspaper and told them Moats was a fraud. The pastor fessed up to the paper and to his parishioners that he had been lying about being a SEAL for years.
Prior to the raid that killed bin Laden, Shipley was investigating 15-20 fraudulent SEAL claims a day, he told AFP.
"Now I'm getting upwards of 40-50 a day. Since the bin Laden thing, everyone's a SEAL," he said.
Since the May 1 raid that killed bin Laden, faux SEALs have been coming out of the woodwork, trying to bask in the glory of the real heroes, Shipley said.
"You want to meet a SEAL, go to a truck stop. SEAL's are everywhere these days," Shipley said.
But not in Virginia Beach, the seaside town where the SEAL's elite Team Six, which took out bin Laden in a near flawless mission, is based.
Ask a local here where you might meet a SEAL or someone from Team Six and they tell you bluntly that you won't. Or if you do, you wouldn't know it.
"A real SEAL isn't going to tell you that they're a SEAL," Dilsat Dorsey told AFP at her jewelry stand on the Virginia Beach boardwalk.
But a faux SEAL would, because many of the wannabe heroes make up their glorious past to impress women or get someone to buy them a beer.
Someone who walks around in camouflage clothing covered with medals and tridents, or someone who brags about killing scores of people on their latest SEAL mission is probably phoney, says usnavyseals.com, which in 2009 posted a list of 10 ways to spot a fake SEAL.
"A Navy SEAL will always shy away from an in-your-face display of his credentials," the site says.
The number of fake military heroes parading around the United States is likely to go up when Americans mark Armed Forces Week next week and on Memorial Day at the end of the month.
"There are usually many more cases around these holidays because individuals either wear fake medals or talk about how they served in the military when they didn't really do so," Lindsay Godwin of the FBI Washington field office told AFP.
Godwin also noted that posing as a member of the military is a crime, punishable by up to one year in jail.
But that has not deterred the pretenders, and claiming to be a military hero when, really, you're not, is rampant in the United States, Godwin said.
It also happens elsewhere.
The Australian and New Zealand Military Impostors website has on its homepage a photo of a "dapper ex-sailor" posing at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, his blazer heavy with Britain's highest military decoration for valor, the Victoria Cross; Australia's Cross of Valor for civilian bravery, and medals from Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Netherlands.
(한글요약)
짝퉁 특수부대 요원들 기승
미 해군 특수전부대(NAVY SEAL.네이비실)가 오사마 빈 라덴을 사살한 이후 가슴에 삼지창 모양의 장식인 실의 `트라이던트’ 배지를 단 `가짜‘ 특공부대원들이 갑자기 늘어나고 있다.
펜실베이니아에 있는 교회나 월마트, 패스트푸드 음식점과 같은 뜻밖의장소에서 실 요원과 심심치않게 마주칠 정도다.
자신을 `진’이라고 밝힌 한 남성은 네이비실의 비공식 웹사이트에 있는 대화방 에서 “관광버스인 그레이하운드 버스 안에서, 월마트와 타코벨 매장에서 겨우19살 도 안 돼 보이거나 골프 모자에 트라이던트를 단 이른바 실 요원을 만났다”고말했 다.
한 여성은 대화방에서 자신의 엄마가 빈라덴을 물리친 일등공신인 네이비실 `팀 식스(Team Six)‘ 요원이라고 주장하는 남성과 소셜 네트워킹 사이트(SNS)인마이스 페이스에서 만나 데이트를 하고 있다고 전했다.
이 여성은 “그 남자는 뚱뚱하고 무릎이 좋지 않으며 자신의 `임무’와 관련한 모 든 것을 엄마에게 말한다”며 실 요원들이 정말 그렇게 행동하는지 궁금해했다.
짐 모츠 목사는 펜실베이니아 신문과 인터뷰에서 베트남 전쟁 당시 실 요원으로 활약했던 이야기를 꺼냈다.
그는 북베트남인에게 붙잡힐 경우를 대비해 물고문 훈련을 받았다고 했다. 하지 만, 이는 1992년 스티븐 시걸이 주연한 영화 `언더시즈‘의 내용과 비슷하게 들린다.
진짜 퇴직한 실 요원인 돈 시플리는 신문에 모츠 목사가 `가짜’라고 주장했다.
결국 그 목사는 자신이 신문과 교구 주민들에게 거짓말을 했다고 자백했다.
시플리는 빈라덴 사살 작전 이전에는 실 요원이라고 사칭하는 사람을 하루에 15 ~20명가량 조사했으나 이제는 40~50명으로 늘어났다며 “모든 사람이 실 요원”이라고 말했다.
