{"id":87332,"date":"2019-05-24T08:01:35","date_gmt":"2019-05-24T12:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=87332"},"modified":"2022-01-13T20:31:53","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T01:31:53","slug":"mark-steffener-phony-seal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=87332","title":{"rendered":"Mark Steffener – Phony SEAL"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The folks at Military Phony<\/a> send us their work on Mark Edwin Steffener.\u00a0 Steffener lives in Seminole, Florida and is 57 years old as of May 2019.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Steffener was a Navy Seabee – and continued in the Navy Reserve after he completed almost 9 years of active duty.<\/p>\n

It was while he was in the Navy Reserve that he was called to active duty and sent to Iraq with his Seabee unit. In a span of just a few days in late April – early May 2004, seven men from Steffner’s unit were Killed in Action.<\/p>\n

Mark Steffener was wounded around this same time period and was awarded a Purple Heart on June 2, 2004.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

His command held a ceremony for the seven men killed and Steffener spoke at the ceremony.\u00a0 In the writeup, he was introduced as being a SEAL.<\/p>\n

The ceremony included the playing of the national anthem followed by an invocation by LCDR Lulrick Balzora, Chaplain of NMCB 14; Commanding Officer, CDR John Prien; Command Master Chief (SCW), Kevin Trost; Chief Construction Mechanic (SCW) Benjamin Slaughter; Construction Mechanic 1st Class (SEAL) Mark Steffner all spoke of their fallen comrades. The 21 gun salute, taps and the final good byes finalized the memorial commemorating the lives of FOURTEEN’s fallen brothers.<\/p>\n

SOURCE: https:\/\/www.public.navy.mil\/seabee\/nmcb14\/Pages\/history.aspx?fbclid=IwAR1CWGz29QNgEcwAG7oXdWKJa3176yOr1fSfSvvSAoE1LzSabzsNBInUb1U<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

An official U.S. Navy photo captured Steffener as he rendered a salute to the Battlefield Cross.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
040515-N-2219H-071
Iraq (May 15, 2004) – U.S. Navy Seabee, Construction Mechanic 1st Class Mark Steffner pays his final respects with a salute to his seven fallen shipmates at a memorial ceremony in Iraq. Naval Mobile Construction Battalion One Four (NMCB-14) lost seven members of its battalion in two separate encounters with Anti-Coalition Forces in Iraq within a 72-hour period. NMCB-14 is a Naval Reserve Seabee Battalion headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla. U.S. Navy photo by Ens. Tony Hollobaugh (RELEASED)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SOURCE: https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:US_Navy_040515-N-2219H-071_U.S._Navy_Seabee,_Construction_Mechanic_1st_Class_Mark_Steffner_pays_his_final_respects_with_a_salute_to_his_seven_fallen_shipmates_at_a_memorial_ceremony_in_Iraq.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n

They spelled his name wrong – it should be ‘STEFFENER’ vs. ‘STEFFNER’ and you can see it is spelled correctly on his nametag, as well as see the Navy SEAL Trident on his uniform.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
CM1 Mark Steffener – Hand Salute<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Steffener went into the Army National Guard after leaving the Navy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was determined that Steffener was not on the BUD\/S-SEAL database so his official military records were ordered through the Department of the Navy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Steffener has an impressive military record.\u00a0 He was a diver and qualified in underwater construction.\u00a0 He was awarded a Purple Heart.<\/p>\n

He was assigned in a support role to SEAL Team Six, but he did not go to BUD\/S and did not qualify as a SEAL.<\/p>\n

Not sure how this got by admin clerks, yeomen or personnelmen, but that U.S. Navy photo is inaccurate since Steffener is wearing an unauthorized SEAL Trident.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Navy Office of Information (CHINFO) has been notified about the photo and we expect it to be pulled soon.\u00a0 https:\/\/www.navy.mil\/local\/chinfo\/<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s a shame, too.\u00a0 It is a symbolic photo and a tribute to the men that lost their lives in Iraq, but perhaps Steffener should have thought about this before stitching it on his uniform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The folks at Military Phony send us their work on Mark Edwin Steffener.\u00a0 Steffener lives in … Mark Steffener – Phony SEAL<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":667,"featured_media":87333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[320,393,339],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fake-seal","category-navyposer","category-phony-seal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/667"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87332"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87348,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87332\/revisions\/87348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/87333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}