George THOMAS Kunich

ACTUAL  RECORDS 

Claims SEAL TEAM 6                                                                                                    

Evans Man Fighting County Over Drainage Ditch

July 26, 2006 06:53 PM CDT


(Evans, NY, July 26, 2006) - - An Evans man is gearing up for a fight with the county over a ditch. Call 4 Action's Al Vaughters reports his neighbors are coming to his defense in his fight over the property.

George Kunich said, "If it just goes to our backyard and stops, then you're setting us up for a lawsuit from our neighbor!"

Decorated Navy veteran George Kunich and his neighbors preparing for a possible battle with the county over a ditch.

Highway officials want to take part of George's land for a drainage easement, but the retired Navy SEAL says it would ruin his property.

Kunich said, "There's nowhere for the water to go! You're going to give me everybody's water with nowhere for it to go. You're going to destroy my property!"

Bennett Road homeowners say they had to re-work the ditch a few years ago because their yards and basements were flooding.

They say if the county takes the easement now, their problems will start all over again.

Bennett Road neighbor Wayne Mollnar said, "Because these never did work right, the drain, because I can show you photographs of my mom and my dad, up to their knees in mud here, trying to harvest tomatoes."

And George's neighbors blame any drainage problems on the county's poor maintenance.

Bennett Road neighbor David Viscuso said, "You are asking these people to damage their house, because you guys do not want to maintain your drainage."

But county officials say an easement along George's property would promote natural drainage away from the road, and into a protected wetlands basin.

The question is: How do you move storm water more than 100 yards from the road to the basin, without flooding yards along the way?

Kunich said, "Everybody is willing to put a pipe in all the way back. I know he doesn't want to do that. He just wants to put in some little drainage ditch that goes back 20 yards and floods out my backyard."

Legislator Bob Reynolds wants county highway officials to take another look.

Reynolds, a Democrat from Hamburg, said, "With the county taking some budget cuts, and we don't have the drainage money we used to have, and we're trying to put it in the key areas right now."

Legislator Reynolds told us highway officials might have to plot out new maps to check out the drainage, while trying to keep a lid on costs.

Of course, the Bennett Road folks say they can save a lot of money by leaving the drainage as it is.

Stay tuned.

quote

Since original reports - he faked his own death.  To add some more color to the fanciful tale, he 'died' heroically, pulling his wife from a burning car with a broken back...after a head on collision. Three months later, he had the audacity to re-invent himself as George Kunich Jr, ( grandson of the hero ) and start up the BS spinner once again. This time, he failed to get the capital and backing of his 'board' because his family betrayed him, sold the controlling interest and kicked him out on his ass... oh... and George Jr. came home from the war to replace his grandfather in the family company... George Jr carried on the fine family tradition of (lying), being a member of the armed forces... as a Ranger... 

end quote

To: "'P.O.W. Network - Chuck and Mary Schantag'" <info@pownetwork.org>
Subject: George Kunich - NOT A SEAL
Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2007 10:11:35 -0500

Dear Sir or Madam,

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), I ceased to work for that organization in any capacity in late 2004.

If the name you provided is spelled correctly, I do NOT find a listing in the SEAL database for anyone named GEORGE KUNICH. Be aware that I have also examined possible alternate spellings, and names with similar pronunciations.

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 GEORGE KUNICH 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.

The only men who can legitimately call themselves SEALs are US Navy sailors who have completed the entire SEAL training program which lasts approximately 2 years and who have received a formal/official designation as “Combatant Swimmer [SEAL]” with an attendant entry in their military records of a specific Naval Enlisted Classification Code (NEC). There are no SEALs in any other branch of the US military armed forces. While many units of different branches of the military services are called upon from time to time to work “WITH” the SEAL Teams, it is incredibly rare for any non-SEAL to ever be engaged in an operation as a part of a deployed SEAL unit. These rare exceptions generally involve members of highly trained Special Operations Forces from those other branches of service or ‘other government agencies’ involved in gathering/evaluating intelligence information. Non-SEAL Navy units and other branches of the US military services do occasionally send men to the SEAL Teams for brief training sessions. Those training sessions do NOT confer the qualifications for being a SEAL on any of those ‘students’. Such training is most generally intended to facilitate a familiarity with the way SEAL Teams operate, and are intended to make cooperation between different units easier and more effective when they are in the same area of operations.

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.

Mr. KUNICH’s false SEAL claims came to the attention of members of the Naval Special Warfare community when the news paper article first appeared in July 2006, and several former SEALs contacted the reporter who authored the article. Follow up investigations were undertaken, though no additional information has reached me personally regarding the outcome. I recall that Mr. KUNICH claimed duty with “UN Peace Keepers in the Middle East”, and that there was great suspicion attached to the circumstances under which he obtained a Purple Heart – apparently he told a politician (Congressman [Rep.] Jack Quinn) that he’d been wounded but had never received the award, and the politician was instrumental in giving Mr. KUNICH the award long after the claimed incident (which never actually occurred). Congressman. QUINN has reported been succeeded by Congressman HIGGINS who provided this overview information to the reporter responsible for the original article (and for digging into the details after-the-fact).

Thank you again for your concern in this matter, and for your assistance in upholding the honor of the US Navy SEAL Teams. As noted in my opening paragraph, I am a private individual and am in no way affiliated with the US Department of Defense or the US government. The responsibility for reporting the individual named in your inquiry to the federal authorities rests with you and with anyone else who may have personally heard or received these claims from the individual himself.

Very respectfully,