Once-revered ‘war hero’ turns out a fake

Thursday, June 22, 2000

By Tom Hennessy
Long Beach Press-Telegram

Regarding him with reverence was almost a reflex. "That’s David David," I once heard someone say in awe. "He was a Navy SEAL. Won a Silver Star in Vietnam."

At a dinner I attended last year, David’s presence seemed to fill the room even though he sat in a corner and said little. For years, maybe as long as three decades, David L. C. David has been a fixture at area military events, including Long Beach’s annual Stand Down to help homeless veterans.

"He’s always been there for us," says Stand Down chairman Gus Hein. "He’d spend nights at Stand Down. He was an extremely reliable, conscientious volunteer."

But for all his volunteerism, David was more admired for his sterling war record: six combat years in Vietnam, a Silver Star, six Bronze Stars, the Soldiers Medal, three Air Medals, six Purple Hearts, plus the trident symbol earned as a SEAL.

"His house was a shrine to Navy SEALS," says a friend who once visited David’s Long Beach home.

It was a record David would acknowledge in boyish, self-effacing fashion; sometimes proffering a calling card that identified him as a former chief storekeeper and a retired SEAL with the nickname "Iceman." (SEALS are Navy commandos with expertise in underwater demolition.) If a committee were selecting Long Beach’s most admired veteran, David David would certainly be a nominee. But earlier this month, I received the first of several dozen e-mails from veterans who said the man with the double name is a hero who never was.

Steven Waterman, South Thomaston, Maine, put it bluntly: "The man is a notorious phony SEAL."

'Iceman' unmasked

David’s alleged military persona began to unravel when Jim Wade, a Stand Down volunteer who publishes a newsletter for veterans, set out to organize what he said would be a Father’s Day tribute to David. Wade appealed for information from other veterans. He got plenty, but not what he expected.

"David L.C. David is a fake and a phony," e-mailed Michael Anderson, a Vietnam combat veteran now living in the Philippines.

Others are echoing Anderson and Waterman.

"This guy is a 100 percent fake," says Todd Willebrand, assistant public affairs officer for the Naval Special Warfare Command in San Diego. "You’ve got a real live one on your hands."

Says retired Navy Capt. Larry Bailey, Fairfax County, Va.: "David L. C. David is one of those individuals who is a master of deception. For years, he hoodwinked the public into believing that he was a man among men. In so doing, he created a legend that held up only for so long as it took for him to come to the attention of those who knew better. In the end, he turned out to be a latter-day Walter Mitty whose imagination, translated into lies, overwhelmed him."

Bailey says he has a database of those who have served as Navy SEALS, and that David’s name is not on it.

These mounting allegations have stunned Bob Delzell, a Long Beach veteran and friend of David’s for several years. "Apparently, David is a total fraud," Delzell conceded late last week. After arriving at that conclusion, Delzell says he phoned David, who recently moved to Tucson, and urged him to come clean. On Friday, David did so via an Internet letter to "friends and veterans."

Admits deception

"I want to sincerely apologize for my past actions regarding the gross misrepresentation of my past military service," said David. "My motives were not meant to harm or dishonor those who have fought and bled for this country. My motives were quite personal and at times painful ... "I have come to the conclusion that, for whatever reason, living this daily lie was born out of a tragic need to be someone people looked up to and admired ... I did this out of a need to fill a hole in my heart and not to harm anyone or any veteran who served this country."

Whatever David’s motivation, those who know him say he carried out his deception almost flawlessly and over a long period of time. Says Delzell, a former ranger and an authentic Silver Star winner: "I kind of had a few doubts about his exploits, but no doubt about his combat experience. He could talk the talk so well. He talked to me all the time about being a SEAL. That was his major personal identity."

On one occasion, says Delzell, David showed him a group photo of young Navy SEALs, and pointed to one he said was himself. "It didn’t look anything like him," says Delzell. "I questioned that, but David said he looked different then because he was so young." Delzell also recalls David asking to borrow the certificate Delzell had received with his Silver Star. He wanted to make a copy and insert his own name on it, saying he had lost his original and was having trouble getting a duplicate from the government. Delzell did not hesitate. David, he says, was that convincing.

Whether David, who has said little beyond his apology, has ever served in the military remains unclear. Critics and veterans organizations in which he is a member, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Military Order of the Purple Heart, are seeking his discharge papers, if any, through the Freedom of Information Act. Getting them, however, may take weeks.

Role model

Stories of David’s impersonation are almost as stunning as his stories. Tracy-Paul Warrington, of Vacaville, says he was a student at Center Junior High in Simi Valley in 1971 when David lectured students about his experiences in Vietnam. "He went on to explain that he was in a Navy SEAL base camp one time and had to kill a 3- or 4-year-old child because she had explosives strapped to her body with the fuse burning. He went on to describe various operations; kill-or-be-killed, buddies dying in his arms ... You could have heard a pin drop in that classroom. The teachers were moved to tears."

Warrington himself was touched, and he says David steered him toward a special operations career in the military. "It’s kind of ironic that a phony was one of the influences in my life and career," says Warrington. "There were other more positive influences that also helped, but David figured prominently."

Warrington is now a civilian software engineer at Travis Air Force Base.

Under fire

As stories about David circulate, he says he is being harassed via phone calls and e-mails from veterans angry over his deception. "I don’t know how much longer I can endure this," he told me via e-mail Sunday. "My sanity and mental well-being are at stake. I cannot sleep very well at night. I do not work, so most of the day... I think about this hell I’m living in."

When I suggested he let me interview him, David promised to come to Long Beach on Tuesday. But he did not contact me Tuesday. Friends of David say he may be hoping that his apology will stem the tide of opinion against him.

"I hope you can look to the good I have tried to do and remember that my sham has brought me great shame, as it should," his statement read. "I am finding it difficult to forgive myself and ask you all if you can find a place in your heart to forgive me for what I have done and let me go on with my life with this new albeit soiled identity."

Wade, who took part in exposing David’s deception, says he does forgive him. "If I don’t then I have no right to expect God to forgive me for things I have done."

Delzell adds, "David is not a terrible, malicious person. In fact, he’s done a lot for veterans. He’s been selfless in his volunteerism for them. But for whatever reason, he’s chosen to be someone else. He’s done something that is totally inappropriate."

But Waterman, the first to suggest to me that David was an impostor, has no tolerance for those who pose as war heroes. "Most every honest citizen I have met is appalled and looks at me with disbelief when I tell them of the depth and breadth of this outrage of phony veterans."

Waterman belongs to a group of Navy veterans who maintain contact via the Internet, and are dedicated to ferreting out people using false military identities. "The fake SEALs are the easiest of all to expose, next to the fake Medal of Honor recipients," he says.

Gus Hein, the Stand Down chairman, is perplexed by it all. "I’ve been trying to reconcile the David David who always comes out to help us with the David David they are now all talking about." He adds, "There probably isn’t one of us who hasn’t at some time wanted to be something that we are not. David carried it to an extreme."

There is speculation that David might show up at this year’s Stand Down, which takes place Friday through Sunday, and apologize to fellow volunteers. However one vet says, "Personally, I don’t think he has the courage to do that." If he were to do it, Hein says, the venue would be appropriate. "I like to think of Stand Down as a place of healing."