I PMed Longtabber some time ago to get his words on what I thought might have been a mistake by Joey Donuts, whom I also know, and I had no response. Then I saw in a PM from someone else the proof that he was making it all up.
I guess I haven't really weighed in on this matter on this particular board yet where the Bigfoot community is concerned.
Kit, you have no idea how much I wish I had been wrong about him. I was waiting for some kind of proof from him, specific units, former commanding officers, places he'd been stationed at, anything at all that would have proven his story.
I would have been first in line to issue an apology and vouch for him to anyone that wanted to hear it had that been the case.
Instead, a flood of insults and derision. When that began, I was even more sure he was someone that had fabricated this particular aspect of his persona. I still didn't know for certain, though.
When I contacted various people that were in the three U.S. Army Special Forces Groups during the timeframe Longtabber claimed, nobody recognized his name. Furthermore, they found his claimed "operations" to be ridiculous and highly suspect.
Still not enough, though. It was possible, however infantile and unlikely, that he moved between
three seperate SFGs and never crossed paths with any of the people I contacted. He did claim to be 1st SFOD-D (Delta Force) and I'm still not sure of their organizational structure within USSOCOM.
The folks at the POWNETWORK were as skeptical as I was, and did some more digging to uncover his name, which I won't share here. A records request with the National Personnel Records Center returned no records of any sort of any kind of military service. This seems like a grevious invasion of privacy, but when you're suspected of impersonating a member of the US Armed Forces for any reason, this is the hammer you bring down upon yourself.
What is apparent is that Longtabber PE has a very impressive depth of knowledge ABOUT the military with reference to places, things, technology, and organizational structure. All of it can be come across through careful open-source research, Jane's, Global Security, and other such publications.
It is still possible (and extremely unlikely) that Longtabber was in the military under a different name, and personnel of three different SFGs still did not know him. Given that he claimed also to be an E-8 with a PhD, we're dealing with almost ZERO probability. An enlisted servicemember with a doctorate? I bet you can count those on one hand. Surely people would have remembered such a person, given the leadership roles intrinsic to being an E-8 of any service.
The real kicker for me was when I dangled Eric L. Haney's name out there. He was the former Delta Operative who went on to write a book and assist with production of The Unit. Of course Longtabber claimed to not only know him, but to be a close associate.
Eric L. Haney, despite being a confirmed Been There, Done That - is something of a pariah in the Special Forces community because of his publishing noteriety. No real operative name-drops him.
I suppose it also goes without saying that Special Forces operatives are referred to as "Quiet Professionals" for a reason.
ETA: Apologies for the derail. I won't be commenting further on this matter in any threads here. Feel free to PM me if anyone would like more information.
You never fail to make me laugh.
