Daily Egyptian Politics Editor

A World Wide Web-based investigator and author is challenging SIUC’s director of Military Programs claim to being a Navy SEAL and further alleges he is using the claims to enhance his career.

Darryl Young, a former Navy SEAL and special investigator for the Naval Special Warfare Archives, is an authority on people who falsely claim to be a member of one of the most elite special forces units in the military.

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SEAL is an acronym for sea, air and land, the environments of a SEAL’s assignments, which means that a member of this military group is trained to perform operations in any location.

Young claims Thomas Beebe, SIUC’s director of Military Programs, has told students and co-workers that he was a member of this team.

As a member of NSWA, Young maintains a website at www.marsweb.com/~seal1/index.html that contains a Wall of Shame of people who falsely have claimed to be a SEAL or a member of other special forces units.

Young and three other NSWA investigators have exposed more than 500 people since last fall who falsely claimed to be SEALs, including the president of the St. Louis chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America and the president and district commander of the Texas Veterans of Foreign Wars.

In addition, Young has access to NSWA’s database of all former SEALs. The website has a link called Ask Darryl Young, which provides an e-mail form by which Young can be contacted.

Young, also the author of a book about SEALs called The Element of Surprise, said he was contacted by a former student of Beebe’s through the NSWA website. The student told Young that Beebe often told stories about his adventures as a SEAL.

In January, Young contacted Beebe and Margaret Winters, associate vice chancellor of Academic Affairs, to confirm whether Beebe had claimed to be a SEAL.

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Beebe told Young that he had not claimed to be a SEAL. However, several other former students contacted Young also claiming that Beebe had told wild tales of being a SEAL.

In one such story alleged by the students, Young said, Beebe claimed that during training as a SEAL, he had evaded a training session by diving into a nearby harbor, swimming underneath a large ship and finally resting on the opposite shore. Young said such a story would be unlikely.

His superiors never would have tolerated that kind of behavior, Young said.

After hearing multiple accounts mirroring the original story of the first student, Young asked Beebe for an apology. At the same time, he contacted Winters and asked her what the University was doing about Beebe’s alleged claims.

During the time in which Young had first investigated the claims of Beebe’s former students, Young had sent several e-mail messages to Beebe asking for clarification or an apology.

Beebe subsequently contacted SIUC Police, who contacted Sgt. Bruce Hennell, a member of the Ravalli County Sheriff’s Office in Young’s home county in Montana.

Hennell said SIUC Police wanted to know if he was aware of Young and if Young had ever been on the wrong side of the law. In addition, University police included a fax of the e-mail exchange between Beebe and Young.

Hennell said his office had no reports or complaints of Young. He examined the fax to determine if Young had threatened Beebe and determined that no real threat was included in the exchanges.

I don’t see a crime involving Darryl Young, though if I were writing the letters, I might have used a better choice of words, Hennell said.

Hennell also spoke favorably of Young, of whom has known for some time.

Darryl lived an unbelievably exciting, traumatic and violent few months while in Vietnam, he said. Some of his former teammates were killed in action, and others were seriously injured. He has taken great offense in someone pretending to be something they were not.

Beebe said he cannot talk about the allegations at this time.

This thing is being handled by legal, so obviously I can’t talk about it right now, he said.

Winters said the process of which Beebe speaks is an informal type of investigation.

We had allegations come in from the outside, so I asked them to send me proof. They have sent me nothing that is conclusive evidence, she said.

Young claims Beebe is falsely claiming to be a SEAL to further his career, but Winters said Beebe did not do so at SIUC.

When I heard the accusations, I went to look up his records right away, she said. I found nothing about Navy SEALs in them.

Young also has claimed that when he first spoke to Winters, she was under the impression that Beebe was a SEAL, but Winters refutes that claim.

Frankly, I had never even heard of the SEALs until this came up, she said.

Young said he is disgusted with the way the University has handled his allegations.

Thomas Beebe is a disgrace to all of those who have served in the military, he said. He is treading on the graves of those who have died serving their country.