Steve Maurer – U.S. Navy SEAL, Retired Navy, LT, Corpsman, Silver Star, Purple Heart, Blog of Shame

militaryphonies

6 years ago

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BACKGROUND

Steven Louis Maurer comes to us from Grants Pass, Oregon. Maurer is 59 years old at the time of this writing – December 2020. He often goes by the nickname “Blue” or simply “Steve.”

On one of his Facebook profiles he refers to himself as a “retired” and “dissabled veteran at Unitd States Navy [sic] 1977 – 2002.”

The dates are reinforced here.

In another Facebook profile, Steven Maurèr – spelled with an accent on the “e” – he claims he was a medical corpsman, which is an enlisted rating.

However, in the following photo Maurer is seen wearing the rank of a Navy Lieutenant (O-3) – along with a Navy SEAL trident, a Silver Star medal and a Purple Heart medal.

Here is the same photograph enlarged for clarity. He also has an Army Air Assault Badge above the Navy SEAL trident.

Since this photo appears to have been taken at a school, it is plausible that Maurer is wearing the rank of Lieutenant as part of some kind of Sea Cadets or local pre-military preparatory program.

There is also a patch on his shoulder that is hard to read. Here are some possibilities…

The patch on his shoulder may be an old Sea Cadets patch, but if it is he is wearing it on the wrong uniform. It should be on a Sea Cadet and not an instructor.

EDIT – NOTE: Mystery solved with the following photo.

However, apart from the patch, I don’t think the SEAL Trident, the Silver Star, or the Purple Heart are authorized as part of any pre-military prep program.

In a post, he signs himself as an S3 Lt Ret (Retired) so this does not support the theory that the rank is for a Sea Cadet-type program.

Maurer reinforces the SEAL claim with various uniforms. Here he is in “chocolate chips” which was the camouflage style in Operation Desert Shield/Storm (ODS/S).

Here is Maurer in a jacket with patches signifying the Purple Heart and Navy Retired on the left in the photo and the Navy SEAL trident on the right in the photo.

Here is the most likely possibility for the Purple Heart patch if not easily identified in the above photo.

In a series of Facebook posts about a deer kill, the deer is tied to the back of a jeep that we presume to be Maurer’s, and it has a Navy SEAL bumper sticker.

In a Facebook post, a friend of his is under the impression that Maurer was a Navy SEAL. Maurer is referred to by his nickname “Blue.”

In this post, Maurer appears to reference his military career which includes references to being in many conflicts and retirement from the military.

Mauer also refers to his deceased friend and service buddy in the below post, but signs it as a retired S3 LT. Here he also uses his nickname “Blue.”

Above, we mentioned the possibility of Maurer being in some capacity of working with children in either the Sea Cadets or some kind of pre-military youth training. This may be the case since he has lots of photos of him around school-age children. He often wears Navy “bling” which includes the Navy SEAL references.

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ACTIONS CONDUCTED BY MILITARY PHONIES

After contacting the UDT/SEAL archives and checking the UDT/SEAL database we found that there is NO record of “Steven Louis Maurer” or any other variation of his name ever completing BUD/S Training or assigned to any SEAL teams during the time he was in the Navy. There were a couple of Maurer’s, but they graduated in 1947 and in 2004. Different first names. No Steve Maurer.

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Steven Maurer’s military records were ordered through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Since he said he served until 2002, we filed with both the Department of the Navy which maintains records from the mid 1990s-present and the National Personnel Records Center which maintains Navy records up until the mid-1990s.

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FOIA RESULTS

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY (DoN)

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NATIONAL PERSONNEL RECORDS CENTER (NPRC)

The NPRC is operating at a reduced capacity due to COVID-19. As such, we filed a FOIA request but won’t get results for months – possibly into the summer or fall of 2021.

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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE MANPOWER DATA CENTER (SCRA)

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NAVY DEPARTMENT AWARDS WEB SERVICE (NDAWS)

A search of Steven Maurer in NDAWS produced nothing. This reinforces that there was no later service in the 2000s.

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OTHER RESEARCH

HIGH SCHOOL

We were able to identify photos from the Grants Pass High School yearbooks that show that Steve/Steven Maurer was in high school during the years 1978, 1979, and 1980. This would not be compatible with his claims of being in the Navy from 1977 to 2002. It would also not account for the Delayed Entry Program (DEP) where one signs up for the Navy while in high school and reports to duty later. Under current regulations, one can remain in the DEP for up to 365 days. We are not sure what the parameters were back then but believe DEP would not have gone beyond one year prior to reporting for duty, and certainly not three years.

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SILVER STAR

Maurer is not in any of the Silver Star databases where we would expect to find him if he was awarded the Silver Star.

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DISCUSSION and SUMMARY

There is no record of Steven Maurer attending BUD/S-SEAL training and no record of him serving with a SEAL Team.

Maurer’s official military records are not available at this time but circumstances do not support his claim of being in the military from 1977-2002, or being an officer or having the Silver Star.

The other claims will have to wait until his official records come in, which may be months.

That said, it is hard to identify what conflict he would have been in from 1985-1988 where he would have been wounded and received the Purple Heart.

If Maurer has used these claims to gain anything of value – especially the combat, Silver Star and Purple Heart claims – he may be in violation of the Stolen Valor Act.

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