Robert Edward Dolan
aka Hardbite

ACTUAL MILITARY RECORDS

August 2006 - 
Dolan SUPPOSEDLY stepped down as the Patriot Guard Riders State Captain but he still rides with and is still a member of the PGR today. 

Dolan has been given the honor of escorting (former LA Dodger) Rick Monday and his family while they travel with the American Flag that Rick saved from burning at Dodger Stadium in April 1974. 
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07/06/2006

I greatly appreciate your interest in upholding the honor of the US Navy SEAL Teams, and your search for the TRUTH. Before answering your questions I must make clear that I am a private individual, not affiliated with the US Dept. of Defense or any other government organization. Additionally, although I worked for/with the AuthentiSEAL verification organization for several years as an Investigator (and later as a Special Investigator dealing with the media), the members of that organization elected to formally disband in 2005.

If the name you provided is spelled correctly, I do NOT find a listing in the SEAL database for anyone named ROBERT EDWARD DOLAN. Be aware that I have also examined possible alternate spellings, and names with similar pronunciations. While there are four (4) men listed in the SEAL database with the last name DOLAN, two (2) of them are Korean War veterans with Underwater Demolition Teams (UDTs), and two (2) of them joined the SEAL Teams AFTER 1989. None of the men has the first/middle names “Robert Edward” or anything even similar.

Unless he has undertaken the unlikely action of a legal name change (an action for which there would be court documentation) since his claimed service with the SEAL Teams, and based upon the information you have provided, I can state conclusively that ROBERT EDWARD DOLAN has NEVER completed SEAL training, and he is not now, nor was he ever a US Navy SEAL or UDT “Frogman”. Please be aware that the SEAL database includes the names of all men who served with the Underwater Demolition Teams (“Frogmen”). Since 1983 when the UDTs were all re-commissioned as SEAL Teams it has been the convention within the Naval Special Warfare community to use the modern term “SEAL” when referring to all men who ever served in any of the SEAL ‘precursor’ units.

When members of the Naval Special Warfare community meet others who claim similar service, but whom they do not recognize, there is a conversational exchange of information that establishes the bona fides of each to the other. There is no set formula for this exchange, nor for the information that is exchanged, but it ALWAYS takes place, and the REAL Naval Special Warfare members can ALWAYS spot a phony as a result of this exchange. I urge you (or those who may have contact with him) to ask Mr. DOLAN three questions:

(1) What was his BUD/S class number?

(2) Where did his training take place?

(3) When did he graduate from Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training?

The answers to those three questions may then be compared to hard, firm, comprehensive documentation to absolutely verify his claims. Real SEALs spend six months shouting their class number in unison at the top of their lungs, many hundreds of times every single day. The graduation from SEAL training is one of the most sought after and hardest to achieve accomplishments of any military man, anywhere in the world… and a man’s class number is a key part of that graduation activity.. The date of that event is engraved indelibly in every participant’s mind. They are more likely to forget their own name, the names of their loved ones, or their own birthday before they forget their training class number or their graduation date. There are many other questions which could be asked to further establish the level of veracity or untruth regarding his claims, but those three questions are absolutes; the answers are totally UNCLASSIFIED, and every real SEAL will gladly provide that substantiating information upon request. If Mr. DOLAN offers you any specifics which he claims answers these questions (or if he offers reasons why he cannot answer them), I would be very interested in learning about it.

It is quite common for those making fraudulent SEAL claims to cite a “secret” training class, “special selection and skills which allowed them to bypass BUD/S training”, or “secret missions” as an explanation for the lack of military documentation to back up their stories. SEAL imposters also tend to claim their military records are “sealed” and cannot be accessed. Occasionally inventive imposters claim their records were destroyed in a fire at the National Personnel Records Center. While that facility did experience a fire, no Navy records were involved, damaged, or destroyed. I would caution you that despite anything the man might have told you, there are NO secret SEALs. Before any classified operations may be undertaken, a man must first successfully complete the totally unclassified BUD/S Training program; the names of all those who successfully graduate from that training program are compiled in the SEAL database. Later participation in classified operations has no impact on whether or not a person is listed as a graduate of the training program. No one gets to the SEAL Teams without completing BUD/S training; there are NO EXCEPTIONS! The graduates of that training program are listed in the SEAL database – an unclassified document which is nonetheless considered “highly sensitive” and therefore not available for general public circulation. There are records of every man who has qualified for the title of “SEAL”; there have been and will continue to be secret missions, but there are NO secret SEALs… we know them all.

I might suggest that you present Mr. DOLAN with a copy of this message. You might also ask him to specifically identify WHICH SEAL Team(s) he served on, and when. I am in direct contact with several hundred of my SEAL Teammates whose collective experience covers virtually all time periods from the Korean War to the present; I can quickly contact those individuals to verify any specific names, events, or other claims offered by Mr. DOLAN. If he feels that his name has somehow been mistakenly omitted from the SEAL records, I’d be pleased to speak with him and hear details of his service which would serve to validate his claims. The Director of the Naval Special Warfare Archives – a close personal friend and SEAL Teammate – is only a phone call away and standing by to amend the records if this is ever found to be true. However, I’ve made the same offer to more than 3,500 SEAL imposters in the last five years… and none of them ever turned out to be valid SEALs. If Mr. DOLAN subsequently suggests to you or others you know that he has contacted me, the Department of the Navy, or “the government” in some way and “straightened things out”, I’d be very interested in hearing from you again.

If Mr. DOLAN has made a practice of claiming to be a former Navy SEAL, and he has been imprudent enough to make those claims in writing on his resume and/or job application, he may be liable for termination by his employer. Most employers take a very dim view of someone offering any false claims or “creative writing” exercises on resumes and/or job applications in order to positively influence the prospects of their being hired. You might offer to share these findings with Mr. DOLAN’s current employer; I will be pleased to offer them any additional assistance in this matter if requested.

No member of the Naval Special Warfare community – i.e. no one in the SEAL Teams or any of its predecessor units – has ever been captured, detained, or held as a POW. You may confirm this fact with the POW Network. I checked the Department of Defense list (provided to NAM-POW, Inc) of all Vietnam War U.S. Military Prisoners of War Returned Alive. There is no one named “DOLAN” in that list. Thus Mr. DOLAN’s claims of being a Vietnam POW are also false.

You may contact the Special Operations Association (www.specialoperations.org ) to request assistance with determining if there is any veracity to the man’s claims of being involved with the “Studies and Observations Group” – SOG, although since he didn’t even have the meaning of the acronym correct, I suspect that his claims of being associated with any SOG mission is as bogus as his claims of being a Navy SEAL. Send your inquiries to the webmaster of that organization ( info@specialoperations..org) and I’m certain that he will forward your question(s) to the appropriate individuals. If you can provide members of that organization with details of the “mission” which Mr. DOLAN claims to have carried out, then they will be able to check with their very extensive membership to determine if such a “mission” was ever undertaken, and if so, who was tasked with its execution. Keep in mind that one of the hallmarks of imposter claims is the re-use of accounts which they find in various ‘war memoir’ books. As a result, there is a good chance that some elements of his claimed mission may actually be similar to one or more real wartime operations. The least clever imposters don’t even bother to “file off the serial numbers” on such stories, and are generally content to simply retell the tales with themselves substituted in a participatory role. The more clever imposters will change details somewhat, or combine several stories, to create a completely ‘new’ story that isn’t immediately recognizable as having come from any one particular source.

My personal assessment would be that the telling of two intentional falsehoods – Navy SEAL, and Vietnam POW – are probably a good indication that all the other claims made by Mr. DOLAN are equally suspect and very probably false. You may obtain absolute confirmation of the true nature of Mr. DOLAN’s military experience and training by filing a form SF-180 with the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO. If your inquiry is filed under the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), then you will NOT need his authorizing signature to learn the true nature and extent of his training, tasking, awards, commendations, overseas assignments, etc. The POW Network files a dozen (or more) of these FOIA inquiries every calendar week, and they can assist you in obtaining the information about Mr. DOLAN’S military experiences (if any).

Thank you again for your concern in this matter, and for your assistance in upholding the honor of the US Navy SEAL Teams
 

Very respectfully,

Steve Robinson

USN 1970-1978
SEAL Team ONE
Inshore Undersea Warfare Group ONE
UDT-SEAL Association
Special Operations Association
POW Network Advisory Board
Naval Special Warfare Archives - SOF Analyst/Contributing Journalist
Disabled American Veterans - Life Member
FORMER Special Investigator - SEAL Authentication Team
Author of the book NO GUTS, NO GLORY - Unmasking Navy SEAL Imposters

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