When a Waukegan police officer studying for a graduate degree asked an acquaintance about teamwork for a school paper, the man spoke of his time as a Navy SEAL and described how he and his squad came under fire during a clandestine foreign reconnaissance mission, the paper says.
The man told a harrowing story about his SEAL team dropping by helicopter into an unspecified hostile country in the mid-1980s on a mission to photograph communications equipment, according to the paper and its author, who asked not to be named because he still works in law enforcement. The SEALs were attacked and narrowly escaped, the paper and its author say.
The man who in 1999 told the story of the perilous operation isn’t named in the paper. But the author said last week it was Robert Kerkorian, the longtime police officer who was named Waukegan police chief in May.
Kerkorian, however, now acknowledges he was never a SEAL.
His admission comes nearly a month after the Tribune first reported he wrote on his 1987 application to the department that he had been a “SEAL trainee.” Military records show he never entered the rigorous specialized training that a Navy official said is considered the key to becoming a SEAL.
Late last week, following inquiries from the Tribune about the school paper, Kerkorian acknowledged in a statement he did “misrepresent” his service during “idle banter” with another officer in 1999. He also acknowledged he has “attempted to deflect” questions about his service and said he “could have done a better job” informing people he never completed SEAL training.
Kerkorian admitted he had said he was “involved in military actions which (he) was not” in the statement addressed to aldermen, police officers and Mayor Wayne Motley.
While apologizing to police, residents and the mayor — who said prior to Kerkorian’s admission he was investigating the chief’s statements — Kerkorian said he is the right person to lead the department based on his history as an officer.
“We have more important things to focus our energy on today, like doing everything we can to fight crime and keep our community safe,” the statement reads.
The graduate school paper — which focuses entirely on the alleged SEAL mission — indicates Kerkorian talked in detail about the purported foreign operation. Kerkorian asked that his name not be used in the paper because he was discussing a covert SEAL operation, the author said.
Waukegan resident Mark Pleasant, a former investigator for the Lake County prosecutor’s office who first publicly called for an investigation of the chief’s claims, was not satisfied with Kerkorian’s statement. Pleasant said he plans to raise the issue again at Monday evening’s City Council meeting. The mayor said last week that he or the chief might also address it.
“How he can be retained at … this point with a straight face is beyond me,” Pleasant wrote in an email, adding that city officials did not immediately heed his call for an investigation.
“Both the Waukegan Police Department and the City of Waukegan deserve better. It’s disappointing and embarrassing.”
Kerkorian was in the Navy from August 1986 to February 1987 but wasn’t in the database of SEALs or servicemen who had entered the lengthy training demanded of the elite force, according to the National Archives and the Naval Special Warfare Command. Kerkorian would have been in the database if he’d served or trained as a SEAL, said Eric Erdmann, a Naval Special Warfare Command open records coordinator.
In his statement, Kerkorian said he was “selected for SEAL training” and sent to a base in Coronado, Calif. He served in a “pre-indoctrination class” before he was discharged “under honorable conditions” because of his “principled refusal to discuss matters involving non-military family members that (he) deemed unrelated” to his service.
The statement provides no further explanation of his exit from the Navy, and military records contain little information about his discharge, though they do confirm he was sent to Coronado.
Kerkorian insisted in the statement that describing himself as a “SEAL trainee” on his application was accurate. The city investigated his military past, Kerkorian wrote, and he noted that he was hired.
But the chief acknowledged he never started Basic Underwater Demolition School/SEAL training, or BUD/S, which a Navy official said is considered the core of SEAL training. When asked to verify claims of SEAL status or training, the Navy checks a database of people who either became SEALs or started BUD/S, Navy officials said.
Neither Kerkorian nor Motley could be reached Sunday for further comment.
Kerkorian told his story about the alleged SEAL mission when his fellow officer was taking a class toward a master’s degree at National Louis University, said the officer, who was not the person who gave the Tribune the paper but confirmed he wrote it and that it accurately represented what Kerkorian told him. The university confirmed the former Waukegan officer attended the institution.
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The paper’s subject said he was a SEAL in the mid-1980s when he, three other SEALs and an intelligence agent were dropped by helicopter onto foreign ground on a mission that nearly ended in disaster.
After leaving the helicopter, the group walked for two days toward their target, despite one of the SEALs having broken a bone in his foot, according to the paper. The group’s aerial and satellite reconnaissance had been dismal and the group learned upon reaching the target that it was heavily guarded, according to the paper.
Two team members were shot and wounded and had to be helped as the group retreated, the paper says. The squad escaped by stealing a truck and then a boat, according to the paper.
The paper concludes with a quote from its subject about whether he would again take the risks that come with being a Navy SEAL.
His answer, according to the paper, was, “Without a doubt.”
Kerkorian’s military service is just the latest issue to hang over a troubled department. Three officers have committed suicide since May 2011, and the prior chief, Daniel Greathouse, earlier this year attracted criticism by sending an internal email — later publicized by the Tribune — in which he wrote, “These suicides were about personal choices, selfishness and weakness.”
In one of his first acts after taking office in May, Motley, a former police officer, demoted Greathouse and replaced him with Kerkorian, saying the new chief had covered his back when they were on the SWAT team. Motley called Kerkorian “a very great friend.”
Bogus claims of service or heroism infuriate many veterans, and an informal volunteer force hunts down and shames people who invent their military histories. The SEALs, revered for their training and tactical expertise, are common targets for fakers, according to those who hunt military frauds.
Retired SEAL Don Shipley said impostors sometimes tell stories lifted from books and movies.
One man told a story involving a mission to kill a rogue military officer, Shipley said. The story, he said, appeared to have been influenced by the classic Vietnam War movie “Apocalypse Now.”