Deputy Secretary Armitage was not a US Navy SEAL.

[oneighty]

But he says he was a counterinsurgency officer which is close to being a SEAL (Paraphrase).

Richard Clark on page nine of "Against All Enemies" says Armitage was a US Navy SEAL. Armitage being a "Wannabe SEAL" likely told Clark he was a SEAL.

Wanna be SEALs make the real SEALs look bad. Phony people these chicken hawks.

180

[mouse7]

1. What was Jesse Ventura?

I've heard that he was a SEAL, and he just pretended. Never heard the final word on it.

[lebkuchen]

4. All bald men claiming Navy Seal status are suspect

[oneighty]

6. Jesse

Is a graduate of (BUDS) Basic Underwater Demolition School. He is a member of the "Fraternal Order of UDT/SEAL". He is considered by some to be a SEAL. But I doubt it. Google "SEAL Wall of Shame."

180

[Viking12]

23. I believe Jesse pre-dated the offical formation of SEAL

but his UDT training was the the equivalent of the SEALs at that time.

[lebkuchen]

2. There are probably more Navy Seal and Delta Force wanna-be's

than Bush has functioning brain cells.

[mouse7]

5. Hey, I took out a SEAL in a paintball game.

This was my runner-up for that "male moment" thread.

A bunch of friends went to a paintball course VA for the day and, quite literally, a SEAL team showed up to play too.... with thousands of dollars in custom equipment. We all had field pistols. We got trashed all day. We had so many paintball splotches we looked like leopards on acid. Finally, I climbed into a blackberry briar bush just off a trail and got one walking by about 6 feet away.

[oneighty]

9. No shame there

Real SEALS are good, very good.

180

[lebkuchen]

12. Why isn't that your Numero Uno "male moment?"

What tops "whacking" a Navy Seal?

[mouse7]

15. Combination of misable day and hurting for a week after

They really made us look bad that day up to that moment.

I also hurt for a week from all the paintball welts and briar scratches.

[Nailzberg]

19. I went paintballing on a bachelor party for a Ranger.

Needless to say, there were several other Rangers there, and they kicked our asses. I feel your pain.

[MisterP]

11. of course there are more than three!

[Amerpie]

3. Hmmm

Am I close to being a Green Beret because I live near Ft. Bragg?

[oneighty]

8. Yes Amerpie, close sometimes counts

Hee Hee!

I believe at least half of the USN graduated SEAL training.

Sure they did.

180

[mouse7]

13. Yeah... Special Exterior Application Leadership

APPLY THAT EXTERIOR PAINT TO THAT HULL, SAILOR!!! PAINT, DAMMIT, PAINT!!!

[bluestateguy]

7. That's nothing

I had one conservative student last semester who insisted that Dick Cheney was a former Navy Admiral.

[Amerpie]

10. That's the bathtub Navy

and I'm sure he had his hand on the throttle

[yardwork]

20. Ok, that cracked me up!

[trof]

14. I was a SHARK

When I graduated from YMCA swim school.
I started as a GUPPY.

[Panelboy]

16. Jesse apparently was a SEAL

http://www.authentiseal.org/jesse.htm

Where's the evidence that Armitage ever claimed to be a SEAL? Just more crap from that Clark loser.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Panelboy]

24. Are you talking to me Mouse7?

Disrupted? Just stating and looking for facts. Armitage's official resume posted above makes no claim that he was a seal.

[Another Bill C.]

18. Official Armitage résumé

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/2991.htm

[yardwork]

21. I don't think this paragraph tells the whole story....

Born in 1945, Mr. Armitage graduated in 1967 from the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was commissioned an Ensign in the U.S. Navy. He served on a destroyer stationed on the Vietnam gunline and subsequently completed three combat tours with the riverine/advisory forces in Vietnam. Fluent in Vietnamese, Mr. Armitage left active duty in 1973 and joined the U.S. Defense Attache Office, Saigon. Immediately prior to the fall of Saigon, he organized and led the removal of Vietnamese naval assets and personnel from the country.

What exactly were the "riverine/advisory forces," and surely it was unusual for an Ensign to be fluent in Vietnamese? He sounds like he was in some kind of special forces, but I don't know much about the military.

Reading between the lines, what is this really saying? If he were a SEAL it would say so, right? But does it imply some kind of intelligence work?

[pfitz59]

25. Black Ops interrogator....

Evil slimy spook.....

[Another Bill C.]

26. Riverine Forces

This might have been Kerry's outfit. I'll check.
http://www.mrfa.org/riverine_assault.htm

on edit:
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/interviews/int2004-03-10.htm
Kerry found himself on Riverine duty as the war went on.
Check out this site -- a good read.

[Bluebear]

22. Armitage the trained seal

I could picture him bouncing a ball on his snout.