HARRISBURG, Pa., May 11 (UPI) -- A central Pennsylvania pastor has admitted lying to a newspaper about serving as a Navy SEAL in Vietnam 40 years ago.
The Rev. Jim Moats, 59, pastor of the Christian Bible Fellowship Church in Newville, told the Harrisburg Patriot-News he did serve in the Navy during the Vietnam era. But he was not a SEAL and got no closer to Southeast Asia than the Mediterranean.
Moats said his father was wounded while serving in the Navy during World War II, and his sons served in Iraq. Being a SEAL, he said, was a "dream."
"I don't even know if I would have met the qualifications. I never knew what the qualifications were," Moats said.
Moats said his sons made him a plaque honoring the SEALs and members of his congregation started assuming he had served as one. He did not correct them, and he claimed to have been a SEAL when the Patriot-News reached out to him after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Don Shipley, a retired SEAL in Chesapeake, Va., said some of the details in Moats' interview came from a Steven Seagal movie. Shipley said he called Moats Saturday to tell him he had been unmasked.
"We deal with these guys all the time, especially the clergy," Shipley said. "It's amazing how many of the clergy are involved in those lies to build that flock up."
Moats apologized to his congregation Sunday.
