Our position on the current “transgendered” publicity campaign hasn’t changed: if you decide you’re Jesus, they put you in the room with Neoprene wallpaper, but if you decide you’re Janet, they try to alter the world to comport to your delusion. Both of these reactions can’t be right, and it’s our opinion that this is just a phase the press and Hollywood are going through on the way to where they really want to be — call it the “full-NAMBLA.”
So we’ve been a bit dismissive and sarcastic towards the retired SEAL who’s going around selling himself (we hope, not literally, but there’s some weird stuff on backpages.com) as a “Warrior Princess.”
Well, we apologize abjectly to all our frogman brethren for ragging on their Warrior Princess, because we now have an outed 18 series Rent Boy. We do always say, “It takes all kinds to make a world” — but who knew it was happening in our own Regiment, and even, in two of the three Groups we served in?
A former Green Beret led a secret life as a gay prostitute named “Swedish Steele’’ who married his wife just to get a green card, his jilted ex says in new court papers. Roe Garrido, 48, of Manhattan was sued by her Army ex earlier this year for allegedly stalking him.
Now, she’s swinging back, claiming in court papers that her former husband, Iraq War vet Jacob Ivancev, told her he worked construction — when he was really peddling his body on the Web site Rentboy.com and working at city strip clubs such as Splash and Gaiety.
We saw what they did there — “swinging” back. Nyuk nyuk nyuck.
“I was stringing her along lying to her, and I never loved her,” Ivancev, a native of Sweden, even admitted in an e-mail, according to the documents. “The truth is I was married to somebody just for the green card.”
This is pretty common, and, it’s one more facet of immigration law that the immigration cops are under pressure not to enforce or investigate. We live in interesting times. No too long ago, an admission like that might have gotten a guy bounced from the USA. (Our personal opinion is that, whether his initial green card was fraudulent or not, and no matter where he chooses to, uh, dance, the guy’s served at least one combat tour for the USA, so he’s earned his green card now).
Garrido’s $7 million suit against Ivancev comes seven months after her former husband accused her of being a violent stalker in his own $4 million lawsuit.
The couple met in 1999 at Yorkville’s Pumping Iron Gym and got married in 2003. They divorced in 2011.
In case you’re wondering why chicks like to have gay friends, here’s one reason: the gay friend can drop a dime on their husbands if hubby’s living a double life:
A mutual friend told Garrido about her husband’s bad-boy behavior before the pair split, her suit says.
The pal told The Post that while Ivancev was a hunk who shook his booty in construction boots at the strip clubs and had “the largest endowment I have ever seen,’’ he also “had no rhythm and was technically a terrible dancer.”
via Former Green Beret hid secret past as gay prostitute: ex | New York Post.
Now, of course, this is where the Equality police will tell us, Ivancev’s marital troubles and dancing difficulties aside — he and his ex both sound like a couple of drama queens to us — he’s living proof that gay guys make great soldiers.
Except that the former team sergeant who flagged me to this article and remembers Ivancev well doesn’t remember a gay guy or a great soldier. Ivancev’s personal life didn’t interfere with his soldiering, but his personal character did. He left active duty’s 10th Special Forces Group under a reputational cloud, having been bounced off of multiple ODAs for multiple reasons. Indeed, at one time they were considering revoking his SF qualification and Tab (a very, very serious and once-rare thing, although more widely used in recent years, especially for CM/FM law violations). His company sergeant major, who had run out of ODAs that would take Ivancev, did stick up for him enough that he was able to ETS (End Term of Service, i.e. leave with an honorable discharge when your time is up) with Tab intact.
That’s when he came to the Guard SF. Another company sergeant major picked Ivancev up off the waiver wire, even after hearing his old senior NCOs drop a dime on him. (More like a whole change drawer). He was bounced off his first ODA there, too, although the deck was probably stacked against him because the team sergeant did what team sergeants do when an unknown quantity New Guy shows up: shake the trees and see what his reputation is. So from the first day in the Guard, Ivancev started with a bad reputation.
“Was it because he was gay?”
“Nobody knew he was gay, that wasn’t his problem. He was incompetent. That was his problem.” The team sergeant was able to get rid of him after he demonstrated that incompetence — even the hard-headed sergeant major accepted it.
Here’s a thought for you: most SF teams are a little shorthanded most of the time. There’s often room for one or two more guys. And here’s a guy that at least four teams who tried him decided they would rather run shorthanded than take along.
Update 16 Oct 15
Jacob Ivancev has commented elsewhere (comments on posts here close after a month) to defend his record, and deny every charge that his ex has laid against him, as well as the criticism a former team sergeant passed on to us. You can read Ivancev’s response to this post at this link. We welcome the opportunity to put his statement on the record, and it’s certainly plausible that his ex-wife made false accusations against him. That’s only happened to, well, everybody, it seems. If time permits we’ll probably seek out both Ivancev and the former team sergeant to reevaluate the whole thing. It is certainly possible that we have a false impression of the guy, from a news story and a couple of phone calls.
Kevin was a former Special Forces weapons man (MOS 18B, before the 18 series, 11B with Skill Qualification Indicator of S). His focus was on weapons: their history, effects and employment. He started WeaponsMan.com in 2011 and operated it until he passed away in 2017. His work is being preserved here at the request of his family.
20 thoughts on “Time to Stop Making fun of the SEALs’ “Warrior Princess””
Hey, the SF didn’t like him, but he had friends up the ass.
I love the line where the guy says he’d had the biggest unit he’d ever seen but he was a lousy dancer. Just proves my theory that guys, gay or straight will put up with a LOT of shit when it comes to a piece of ass.
And that picture. Is it me but does his head seem a wee bit too small for his body?
Woah. You’re totally right…
Not to be difficult, Hog, but I really don’t agree that it’s time to stop making fun of anybody yet.
Human beings are absurd critters, we should all be made fun of.
To include present company, lest we get too full of ourselves, yes.
That dude was the 2nd dumbest SOB I met during my 21 years of active service. Might of been one of the strongest dudes in 10th Group though.
I worked with a guy who was his senior 18B for a while who said he was straight up worthless and should have never made it through the Q-Course.
Just got an update for ya, Tom. That guy that you know was Our Hero’s senior Bravo in 10th, got him binned from that ODA, and then got out and went Guard after ~3 tours with 10th and one in legland. (10th Mountain maybe?) So there he is in 20th, senior B on a new team, and the company SGM brings around “a new guy right off active duty,” and yeah, it’s our bad dancer. He (senior B) threw a unit record tantrum but the SGM just thought it was brilliant putting two teammates back together again. (Particular SGM is not gifted at reading people). Ultimately the 20th team binned him, too, and I think he left the unit after that.
“Man whore” what’s his thoughts on the F-35, he might have a career after all.
To be fair to Beck, he was very good at/on the job. He made it to The Death Star and worked there for some time, and that tells you he was no slouch when it came to being a SEAL.
He was a little ‘quirky’ when not working or training, this sent up some flags with some guys, but nobody ever made anything of it (that I heard of) because if you can do the job well…’what was the problem again?’
What bothers the guys is how he broke the news, when he broke it (regarding effects on his family), and his ‘activism’ since and him making certain the Budweiser is front and center at every opportunity.
As a much more well spoken/written former Teamguy said to him – “The only reason you are extra newsworthy is the community you were a part of and that community’s reputation, and that reputation is not yours to ‘do with as you see fit’”.
All the joking and shit talking from SF dudes, Marine FR Bros, etc. – it is to be taken in stride in my opinion because they earned the right to talk a little smack and have an opinion.
I’ve had a couple of ‘macho talk but never shipped off to boot’ acquaintances make wise cracks directed at him for having his sexual wiring all crossed up and I delighted in pointing out that as weird as he was in that category, he made it through BUD/S, earned his Bird, and got selected for and made it through Green Team, and bar managers and insurance salesmen should probably remember that when it comes to jokes about manliness, deadliness, masculinity, and so on.
He packed a gun for America at the pointy pointy end of the spear on the Dark Side of Democracy for some years. Outside of all the activism and publicity nonsense, I wish him all the best and a happy life. He earned it.
opinions are like sphincters, everybodys got one and they all stink. And everyone is entitled to voice his or hers whether they “earned” the right or not. No disrespect, I appreciate your service and all.
I use to be a homophobe when I was younger, also being terrified of what might happen if a gay person pursued me, but later actually had one close friend that showed me SOME gay people can be perfectly decent human beings (and that being “hetero” is not a free pass either) and then there was Wartard’s report on historical gays in the military which I suggest for consideration…
http://wartard.blogspot.com/2010/12/dont-ask-dont-yell-can-gays-fight.html
Not impressed. I’m reminded of that book that Randy Shults (sp?) wrote about how all the great military leaders were gay, etc. etc. He had about five VN vets quoted in there and I think hardly any of them were actual VN vets, and all of them lied about what they did in the service.
Certainly gay people can be decent human beings, and individuals probably have always gotten away with it, discreetly, in the military. But the idea we’re going to have (or already have) a General Gaylord’s Homosexual Brigade threatening the enemy with Death From Behind is a favorite of writers in the NY MFA writerly world and has been a favorite of that crowd for decades. Like most of the ideas in that little microcosm, it’s flaky.
Hmmm. I’m not familar with Randy Shults (sp?) book at all, but I think you and I would agree that not all of the great military leaders were gay. Nor would we take any time to try to identify any great military leaders who may or may not have been gay. It’s too bad if “Shults” used the quotes of liars because the dishonesty would certainly undermine the credibility (although the unknowing would not know to question the dishonesty in the first place?)
On the other hand, I enjoyed reading many of the blogs written by “wartard” and based on what I have read of his writing, that was the only time he wrote about gays in the military. But then, he has not written very often, his most recent post is 8+ months old!
But getting back to the specifics in your original posting, I think we would also agree that in this particular incident, being gay does not immediately make someone a good soldier!
Nope, I think that the fact that this guy was gay (which his teammates say they did not know) and the fact that he was no good as an 18B (which his teammates were painfully aware of) were not related in any way, except that both apparently applied to this one guy.
Don’t worry about being pursued. Just remember you’re not gay if you don’t push back.
Thankfully, I never had to “be in that position” :-p
It’s only gay if you make eye contact…
I’da though the time to stop making fun of the Team “Warrior Princess” woulda been about the time COL David Schroer became “Diane” or whatever name he uses.
Well, he was always a girly man even when he was a guy.
So says a SF friend who had the profound misfortune to work for him/her…