Mike Kavanagh, Fake SEAL, EOD, Vietnam Vet
3712/11/2017 by tangomike147
Mike came to us by way of a popular military page on Facebook. He made a claim that most took to be a threat to the VA.
It took very little time before two actual Navy SEALs that write for Military Phonies noticed the post and started asking questions. By asking questions I mean they called him out on the spot.
Mike is the only one in the thread that hasn’t a clue.
He did send a link to Navy NEC Codes basically proving my point that his talk of MOS was wrong. He did get around to sending what he claimed was his DD214.
Since we learned he spent most of his time as a Diver I would hope this isn’t a brag about how many of them he killed. Talk about a crappy safety record. I wonder if this means he brags about combat?
What the hell is Special Projects?
Here is a Vietnam Special Projects claim. So we have EOD, SEAL, and Vietnam veteran in his claims.
So now to the records that we requested with a Freedom of Information Act Request.
This is the DD214 he provided
As we wander through these records we can come to a few conclusions. We have found at least three Navy NECs awarded. He attended an EOD Scuba Diver school in Key West and was given NEC 5345 (Scuba Diver). A follow-on school called EOD/Technical Escort is next on the list but shows an N/A in the completed box with no NEC awarded. He then reports to the USS Bowen DE 1079 for duty as an Electricians Mate third class. Two years later (1973) Mike goes to Second Class Diver school and earns the NEC 5343. He was an E5 in 1975 and by 1978 he was earning NEC 5311 (Saturation Diver) and it appears his records show him as an E6. During that year his records show him receiving two blocks of dive training with one being 17 weeks long and the other 14 weeks in duration. That’s why its confusing that he would be released from the Navy the following year. Those types of schools usually require an extension of guaranteed service. His official records show he was discharged as an E4. The DD214 he provided to us shows he was discharged as an E6. We have no explanation for this discrepancy. There is no record of Kavanagh ever attending SEAL Training or even being near a SEAL Command. He shows no SEAL or EOD Navy Enlisted Codes in is records. He also shows no record of service in Vietnam.
Another phony Tupperware SEAL!
Wow.. that’s one tall sea story little Mike has.. he has more shit then a septic tank.
There was special projects in the 80’s not sure about 70’s…17 week would be first class dive school and 14 2nd class school and in the 80’s you signed a pg13 volunteer extension…you were not held to the time for school but if you got out you would receive a R 4 enlistment code….I am a 1st class diver and I can speak on this…having friends I specwar..I can understand the frustration of phonies
SCUBA Diver, 2nd Class Diver, Saturation Diver – all good quals and I’m sure some arduous work. UDT/SEAL training/NEC? – Don’t see it. I wasn’t in the Navy until you got out but other than EOD working WITH the SEAL Teams or SEALs going to EOD school, and subsequently being awarded their EOD pin – the schools were very separate and awarded NECs separately…at least that’s my experience. Douche much?
Apparently mastering spelling and grammar is not a requirement in becoming a Navy SEAL. That observation is based on his postings.
LOL! “You had to be EOD or UDT to go SEAL in 1970”. Funny, I joined in 1971 with a SEAL guarantee. Of course I didn’t make the tryout, but I sure wasn’t EOD or UDT either. 🙂
Coincidentally I was in Key West the same time as he was the beginning of 73. I was on the USS Quillback (SS424). Wonder if we ever butted heads at the EM club.
I was at EODMU-3 in Coronado – TAD – until my BUD/s class started. I think there was a guy there who had also gone through SEAL Training and was awarded his Trident but – he also went through EOD Tech school separately.
Master Blaster at Two was dual qualified but it was rare. He was still there when you arrived
John Kirby. Excellent Command Master Chief.
We had a guy at 4 that was a 5 pinner, SEAL, EOD, 2nd class diver, ESWS and Airdale
Impressive, but was he (SS)? lol, hey us bubbleheads needs some love too. 🙂
Looks like he wasn’t even in “Blue Water”, since his ship was a Right Coast ship.
There seems to be a fair amount of missing information above. Mike is my dad, and we lived on both coasts while he served. I don’t know why it says place of separation is Norfolk, because that’s not right (we did live there for a bit). We moved from San Diego where he was still active, to another state in the early 80s after he got out.
Its never easy to find out a family member has lied about his or her service
The only thing missing is any proof of your father’s lies. He has lied to you your entire life. The author and i are both SEALs and would never disrespect another SEAL if he was one. Mike was never a SEAL
That’s the sorta odd part – growing up I don’t remember him ever saying “I’m a SEAL”. I know he worked with them a lot, and I assumed he was on a team (but as a kid, that’s probably movie influences or whatever maybe), but he also never said he wasn’t (I never asked the question directly, “are you a SEAL? Yes/No?”). A couple years ago he started seeing this Dr at the VA, and I think it was after that when the whole thing came up. She gave him the hat in that picture, and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen him wear anything about the SEALs openly. He’s always been more understated in his accomplishments or doings, rather than overstated. If you met him in person that would make sense.
I certainly don’t feel lied to as a kid because it just wasn’t a topic. I knew he was a Sat Diver and a lot of other stuff, the word SEAL just was not really mentioned as a kid relating to his title. It was sort of ambiguous – maybe he was, maybe not, I just didn’t know and didn’t ask.
Someone someplace else mentioned that sometimes people find it easier to say they were a SEAL if they worked with the teams rather than to try and explain the intricacies of support and special projects personnel and attachments and whatever (I have a friend currently attached to a Team and while he said he’s on the team when he got the assignment, he’s not a SEAL – I got confused and asked him to clarify, which he did). That doesn’t make claiming to be a SEAL ok by any means, but I think a blurred line might be possible depending on the audience. Again, not ok to say you’re something if you aren’t – you guys who went through all the rigors of becoming and serving as a SEAL deserve that credit, and you alone.
No one in the military claims a job they didn’t do for ease of conversation. He was a diver. Simple to say. Just not as cool as saying Navy SEAL. What part of ease of conversation would have him say he was a SEAL who fought in Vietnam with Special Projects. Does that sound easier to say than Navy Diver. As a SEAL I was taught to dive. I have never claimed to be a Navy Diver to make it easier to explain. I would be lying because I never went to Navy Dive school
[…] partners at Military Phonies share their work with us on this fellow Mike Kavanagh who claims to be a Navy SEAL in social media […]
Interesting read considering Mike is my dad. I’m Kevin Kavanagh
I don’t know about what everyone shows here as proof, but growing up (born in early 70’s), all I knew was dad’s job is a secret and that means we don’t talk about what he does outside of the family and the small group of lunatics that was our Navy family (all guys that when I saw them in uniform had big gold eagles on their chests that seemed to be carrying too much stuff. To be fair, I was young and I’m recalling this through a pretty old lens. I do recall that no one else seemed to look, act, talk or do anything the way he and his friends did).
The teams these days don’t seem to be as much of a secret anymore, so I guess it’s ok to say something about it now – you all already know more than I do on paper anyway, but to call him a phony is wrong. I can’t count the number of times I went to bed at night and woke up in the morning to mom saying ‘dad had to go to work’ and he’d be gone for days or weeks. I thought that was normal for all Navy brats, and it seemed so with the few brats I knew. It wasn’t until meeting other Navy brats as an adult that I learned how odd my childhood was.
I can appreciate a site like this keeping people honest, but the very few fragments of stories I’ve heard, and what I observed as a kid, leave no question in my mind of what he was part of. That and when I had to call a certain government agency to let them know he was helping me get my daughter back by enforcing a court order the police didn’t want to (different jurisdiction), after the captain got off the phone with said agency, they just asked my dad, ‘how can we help you Mr. Kavanagh?’
FWIW, good luck all – I hate a faker as much as you.
Your dad never was a SEAL. It is unfortunate that he spent a life time lying to you. There are no secret SEALs.
Couple of things you can do. Contact the PAO in Coronado who would also tell you he was never a SEAL. You could contact the UDT/SEAL Association to ask them if he was a SEAL. We know who has gone through training back to WW2. No secret classes or secret SEALs.
Kevin, Do you find it odd that your dad doesn’t have any SEAL friends? None on Facebook, none that he ever visits, none that come over to the house. If he was really a SEAL, he would have made life-long friends that would have popped up throughout his life.
It seems that the older I get my memory and something else that I’m very fond of keep getting shorter.When Seawolf was ‘converted’ to a Project Boat I remember that there was a “Parent Command” that was in charge of the Sat Divers but I just don’t remember what it was called. I do remember that they were in a Bldg. that did not exist on the Base/ Shipyard Map.
Most, of the Saturation Divers, at one time or another were with DEVGroup. So, That said, they would have been on the U.S.S. Seawolf, U.S.S. Pogey, U.S.S Parche, or the U.S.S Richard B. Russell. I don’t see any of them on his DD 214.
He was out before that was a thing
The “Sea Puppy” was the first. It was in is era.
DevGroup era? He was out before 1980
The “Wolf” was ‘converted’ before 1980. Conversion done at M.I.N.S.Y.
Are you talking Seawolf SSN 21?
NO, SS(N) 571.
575, and my comment was more in line with DevGroup not being around before he got out of the service. Which was what I was originally saying.
A-HA! Got it. You could be right about that. I don’t remember when it came along. Not sure what it was before it was DEVGroup.
It wasn’t anything. It was a new command when it was commissioned with a new mission.
OOOOOPPPPPPPSSSSSS! I ment S.S.(N) 575.
“Sea Puppy” sounds familiar (maybe just because they’re common words jammed together?). Do you know where and when that happened? Some of the bases we stayed on and the years don’t show up in that report (the report puller has acknowledged this and is requesting a more complete file). I can say we were up and down the right coast (as far south as FL), the Gulf of Mexico, and ultimately in Coronado before we left the Navy.
Sea Puppy is what the Crew called the Seawolf SS(N) 575. It was always a Left Coast Boat. It’s Homeport was always Mare Island, Vallejo CA. If you read the book Blind Mans Bluff you’ll have some insight to it’s Mission, after it’s conversion to a Project Boat. The conversion was done in the early 70s at M.I.N.S.Y.’s Dry Dock #3. The Sailors that were attached to the “Project” were not part of the Crew and were not subject to taking orders from the Boats Capt., nor did they have to Qualify, nor did they wear Dolphins.
Kevin, I knew your dad when he was a Second Class Diver on the Gilmore in Sardinia. I left there and went and completed EOD School. Spent 18 years in EOD, retiring as a Chief Warrant Officer. He was never in EOD. Feel free to tell your dad.