Personally I have told a few lies in my life - who hasn't?!? This story reveals a few things about lying that I did not know. This retired SEAL said he deals with this all the time, priests and clergy lying about military service to enhance their speeches. Who knew that the clergy lies? I did not know that, and it is passed around here like common knowledge. A trick to build up the flock? You're fucking kidding me right? They do that? Damn!
And then finally, the newspaper said it doesn't matter what the guy says, they don't ask for "proof of service" (so much for journalism). I could walk in and say I killed 150 Viet Cong and they would just say "okay." No proof of service required. Any guy who called would not "lie or dishonor" anything by lying or dishonoring anything by lying.
I am skeptical, but I love you all.
In the wake of the dramatic Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden's compound earlier this month, it was perhaps to be expected that some expansive soul would step forward to claim the prestige of a fabricated tour as a SEAL for himself. Such tall tales are not uncommon, after all, amid high-profile military actions.
This time the exposed fabricator was a preacher--though at least one person who monitors this brand of public lie notes that members of the clergy are often tempted into such misrepresentations. More curious still, the prevaricator in question seems to have lifted at least some details of his account from the 1992 Steven Seagal SEAL-themed blockbuster, "Under Siege."
Yes, as his area newspaper, the central Pennsylvania Patriot-News, pulled together a dispatch on the exploits of the elite Navy operation, Jim Moats, the pastor at Christian Bible Fellowship Church in Newville, Penn., spun some fantastical details of his alleged time as a Navy SEAL during the Vietnam War.
Moats told his church for five years that he was a former SEAL, and even once wore the elite program's gold Trident medal around town. He elaborated on that tale when his local paper contacted him last week as it was reporting a story about the rigors of SEAL training in the wake of the SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden's compound.
Among other things, Moats said he was subjected to waterboarding when he trained at Little Creek Amphibious Base in Virginia Beach in 1971 and was assigned dishwashing duty for his bad attitude. "I had almost no discipline. I was as wild as they came. That was my nemesis," he told the paper. "They weren't looking for a guy who brags to everyone he is a SEAL. They wanted somebody who was ready but had an inner confidence and didn't have a braggadocio attitude."
Several former SEALs wrote into The Patriot-News casting doubt on the reverend's account of his service.
"We deal with these guys all the time, especially the clergy. It's amazing how many of the clergy are involved in those lies to build that flock up," said retired SEAL Don Shipley. Shipley also speculated the waterboarding and kitchen details came from the action depicted in "Under Siege."
Moats fessed up to his whopper, and admitted he bought the Trident medal at a military surplus store. "I never was in a class, I never served as an actual SEAL. It was my dream. ... I don't even know if I would have met the qualifications. I never knew what the qualifications were," he told the Patriot-News. Moats did serve in the Navy from 1970-74, but did not fight in Vietnam.
The paper, meanwhile, is unapologetic for printing Moats' prevarications.
"The Patriot-News regularly interviews veterans to tell their stories. We do not regularly ask those we interview for proof of their service, believing these men and women would not lie and dishonor those who have fought bravely defending our country," the paper said in a special note to readers about the incident.
[yahoo! news]
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