VTC, CyberSEALs BLOG

VTC stands for VIRTUAL TEAM COMPOUND, a SEAL-eyes-only password-protected online discussion forum where SEAL Teammates past and present who think alike. Where we can all interact and reminisce without concerns that their comments will be taken out of context, misquoted, misunderstood, or end up on the evening news. What is posted on the VTC, stays on the VTC !

Hooyah!

Steve "Moose" Robinson ~BlacksmithSEAL~ and Webmaster
USN 1970-1978 59wc, ST-1, IUWG-1
ST-1 Comm/ET Instructor, J,C,F Plts, SDV IMA
[secret identity of VTC ADMIN]

Steve Robinson class 59

my note: I emailed Steve regarding his forthcoming visit to R.D. and Pam Russell's home in CO. We were b/s'n back and forth and I told him I had seen Doug Bateman at Walmart. Capt. Bateman was in Steve's BUD/S class. I wrote steve that Doug had related to me a seastory about a boat crew in class 59 that filled their boat with HELIUM. Steve remembered that and told me how the guys got caught by the instructors and their punishment. He also related other stories about his class.

I asked steve to publish them here but here is what he wrote back: "I think it’s only proper to let my classmates recount their own experiences, both BUD/S adventures and after, as they wish. If you have not read my book, please send me your mailing address it will be my personal pleasure to send you a PRIVATE COPY of my book for your collection… as a personal gift from one old frogman to another!"

From: Steve Robinson
To: Doc Rio
Sent: Saturday, October 20, 2007
Subject: Try this amigo

Doc,

As for chasing phonies, I was the principal investigator with the AuthentiSEALs… working with Liz Logan, Steven Collins, Nasty Nash, Curtis Williams, Larry Bailey, CG Marshal… and others. I’m still doing it now, although the AuthentiSEAL group closed shop back in 2005 for lack of manpower. I currently work with RD Russell and handle some of the writing stuff for his Naval Special Warfare Archives, as well as being on the Advisory Board for the POW Network. They have been unmasking military imposters of all kinds for about 18 years. In that work I have a LOT of interaction with the FBI, the DCIS, and have provided SEAL verification services to law enforcement across the country. Yeah… it costs some money (mostly phone bills and some mailing costs)… but I owe it to our Teammates who didn’t come back home and cannot defend their own honor and integrity that the phony bastards try to steal for themselves.

Back in 2002 I wrote a book about all the imposters I’d been busting, and it did okay… but I had to self-publish the thing because no publishing houses were willing to take the legal risk; in the book I didn’t mince words, I didn’t sugar coat things, and I used the names of the imposters… which apparently scared away the publishers who were afraid of lawsuits. Now its 5 years old and ‘old news’. I’ve actually sold about half of all that I’ve had printed to Team guys who are absolutely amazed at how many poseurs there are. The rest sell to civilians who also had no idea how many liars and masqueraders there are. I constantly get letters from people who have read my book and they want to know why the imposters make such preposterous claims. I could probably write another book about that aspect alone… but that’s going to be a project for later.

I never made it to combat… and I’ve always regretted that, no matter how much my SEAL Teammates tell me that I was ‘one of the lucky ones’. I’ve always felt like a knife that was sharpened to a razor edge… then put on a shelf to get dusty and rusty. So now, 35 years later, it’s finally my turn on the firing line… taking down the phonies and defending the reputation of the Teams. I owe it to all of my Teammates, alive and dead… and I’ll keep doing it for as long as I am able. A guy can leave the Navy and stop being a sailor, but he never (NEVER) leaves the Teams and never (NEVER) stops being a SEAL.

HOOYAH!

Steve Robinson CLASS 59

"Those who undertake to impersonate US Navy SEALs, for whatever purpose, are a disgraceful insult to every man and woman who ever served honorably in any branch of America's armed " forces...quote by: http://www.navyseals.com/

With these words author Steve Robinson begins his account of the fight to uphold the honor of his fallen Teammates. Detailing some of the most ludicrous claims imaginable, former Navy SEAL, Steve Robinson, catalogs a wild array of bizarre tales and outlandish stories recounted by SEAL imposters in their attempts to manipulate family and friends, influenced employers, and impress employees. Including police officers who have used false claims of SEAL experience to gain positions on SWAT teams, teachers who have regaled their students with fraudulent tales of daring combat encounters, and con artists who have swindled women out of thousands of dollars and taken advantage of their trusting nature, these stories seem beyond belief, yet every one of them is true!

If you know someone who claims to be a Navy SEAL, this is one book you simply MUST READ!

----- Original Message -----
From: Steve Robinson
To: 'Doc Riojas'
Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2010
Subject: Your 2 pictures, Public Speaking and at Blacksmith shop

Brother Rio,
That’s one helluva page for the VTC… and you’re gonna make me blush with all the attention you have given me. The page should have more about the guys who are on the VTC!

I need to let you know that the two pictures at the top (side by side) wouldn’t load… dunno why. I’m guessing they are the two you most recently asked about… one of me at a public speaking engagement and the other in the forest outside my home blacksmith shop.

The 2nd photo down in that stack of pictures of my visit to Russia… the one where I’m putting flowers by an “eternal flame”. That’s the Ulyanovsk monument for WWII fallen, located there in the city of Ulyanovsk. The words on the wall behind it say “NEVER FORGET ANYONE, NEVER FORGET ANYTHING”. I was in Russia on their nation’s “Memorial Day” and I felt that as a military veteran it was proper that I consider honoring their countrymen who had died during a war when they were allies with America. I asked if it was proper for me to make a private visit to the memorial and the guys told me that it would be okay to do so. The TV and printed press media had been following me around like I was some kind of celebrity, and I didn’t want my visit to show up on TV or the front page of the newspapers… so we snuck out of the area near the blacksmith shop and stopped at a florist to buy some flowers, then drove to the memorial cemetery. There was no one else there at the time, and I took a few moments to place the flowers beside the eternal flame and then spend a few brief moments contemplating the monument and the 20 million Russians who died during WWII… a goodly number of whom were from the region around Ulyanovsk. My Russian blacksmith escort had been holding my gear, and he used my own camera to get a couple of pictures of me at the memorial that day.

The press never learned of my visit to the memorial, and no pictures ever showed up on TV or in print… but apparently the KGB (or their civilian counterparts in the MVD) were fully aware of it. In the weeks before that time I’d been looking for some Russian boots; I wanted to buy a pair to use when working in my own blacksmith shop, but we’d not been successful in finding someone to sell me a pair (we’d been visiting the local swap meets and private garage sales). On my last day in Ulyanovsk there was a knock on the door of the blacksmith shop. When the guys answered the door it turned out to be a Russian military officer who said he was looking for me! Everyone was a bit nervous as he came across the shop’s work area, especially me. He smiled (which made me even more nervous at first) and told me that he wanted to shake the hand of “the American Blacksmith”. I was happy to do so, and that’s when he presented me with a new pair of Russian Army boots… MY SIZE! As I looked at the boots – new, in the box – he told me quietly that my personal recognition and demonstrated respect for their fallen veterans at the memorial cemetery was very greatly appreciated and would not be forgotten. That’s the Russian officer shaking hands with me a bit further down the page.

During my entire stay in Russia I never saw anyone following me anywhere I went, and I never let my own boots out of my sight/possession. I lived in the private homes owned by the Russian blacksmiths who had invited me to their country and never went anywhere without one of them as an escort. I don’t have the faintest idea how the KGB/MVD knew I was at the memorial cemetery, or knew what I’d done there, and I’ll be damned if I can figure out how they knew my shoe size!

Steve