Hey folks, I’ve got a nebulous question. I’ve just found out that a family member who was in the navy in the mid 90s did some secret/covert actions that he was not allowed to tell anyone about either then or now. He’s now suffering from PTSD and is having some other issues as well that are worse.
From what he has alluded to, he killed someone or several someones face-to-face while on these missions. It would normally sound like a tall tale, but this fellow has never been one to stretch the truth or brag about anything before this.
My google-fu is okay, but I haven’t been able to find anything in the mid-90s that could be either an incident or general conflict that he may have been involved in.
I’m certainly not expecting anyone to point to The Big Book of Secret Naval Operations Where People Were Killed, but any pointers in the right direction might help. I know it’s limited info, but I’d appreciate any insights.
There are allegations that US Special Forces (including Navy SEALS) were involved in the tracking and killing of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. That was in 1993.
Unless it was something spectacular like an explosion at a russian naval depot, covert means that you dont hear about it, even the em , host nation may not say anything about it due to embarrassment.
He could be hallucinating, from the sound of the OP. I have had one friend tell me of his deed of violence that he even went back to apologize for, and when he did, the ‘victim’ said ‘What are you talking about?’ My friend believed that the victim had a lapse of memory, and had forgotten the incident. This friend was not inclined to telling tall tales. He later was diagnosed as Paranoid Schizophrenic.
So he’s not allowed to talk about it except for it being Naval,in the nineties,in S. America ,a series of missions as opposed to a one off and it involved close Quarter killings.
My experience is if SFs are told not to talk about something then they dont.
AT ALL,let alone give away the wealth of detail that he has that any mediumly competent intelligence bloke could use to dig up a lot more…
And if he himself was trained for such an op he’d know that what to a civvy or normal outfit is no info in their perception is not the case for jobs like that.
I’m sorry but I’ve come across a multitude of people in all services in all nations in all eras who hint darkly at being Driller Killers but aren’t allowed to talk about it.
Well actually they ARE allowed to talk about it but dont because they’ve almost always never done anything in the least bit dangerous or out of the ordinary.
They join the ranks of the brigade groups of S.A.S. soldiers that have apparently served,the regiment of Paddy Manes drivers the twenty thousand people whos dads drove The Flying Scotsman and the medium sized city population of people who were held up by traffic crossing the road in Vegas and missed out on the last Elvis ticket by moments.
The PTSD add on is also classic for the serial BSers as a lure for soft hearted but fit females.
I’m sorry to sound unsympathetic becuse there is always the possibility that he’s telling the truth and if he is then I apologise unresrvedly.
But I would bet serious money that its all fairy tales.
And if that is indeed the case then god forgive him for trying to steal the achievments of those poor sods whoe got fucked,physically,mentally or vitally. REALLY doing the job
Was he a SEAL? Membership isn’t a secret. They even wear badges on their uniforms to show that they are in the SEALs. His family would have known about it at the time. He would have spent a lot of time training, getting selected, being in school…If not I find it very hard to believe that he was in close combat in the Navy. Except for the SEALs the Navy just doesn’t do that, it’s not their job. The only other possibility is that he was a corpsman (medic) attached to the Marines doing drug interdiction. That would mean being in action but not killing someone. If he was neither of these then I vote for delusions.