New Mexico SEAL

[Mike]

Was Sen. Bill Payne, R-Albuquerque of the New Mexico State Legislature, a Navy SEAL?

[Fred]

Ensign William H. Payne graduated BUD/S in 1976.

[Mike]

Thanks. BTW, is posting a list of every BUD/SEAL graduates a OPSEC violation? If I was a GRU spy, I can compiled a list by reading Navy Times and checking the stories and the promotion lists from 1950 to now, say.

[Fred]

I only entertain individual verification requests, in the interest of making it harder for phonies to perpetrate their garbage. On that note, divulging the entire list at once would allow the more resourceful phonies to "borrow" identities, if you get my drift.

[Mike]

yes, I got your drift. I recall someone procided a list of BUD/S graduateds with his name and was exposed as a fraud later.

[Mike]

Fred, was Bill Bruhmuller (Bruhette), a retired Navy SEAL? His name was mentioned in the article below.
Thanks.

Washington Post
January 13, 2000
D.C. Weekly Pg. 3

Military Matters

By Steve Vogel, Washington Post Staff Writer

Pigs Wearing Dresses . . . and So Much More--Hogettes' Military Connections

A funny thing about those Hogettes celebrating the Washington Redskins playoff win Saturday at FedEx Field: If you look underneath those dresses and pig snouts,
you're likely to find a military man.

The Hogettes, a familiar sight to Redskins fans for well over a decade, have a decidedly military flavor. Six Hogettes on the 11-pig roster have military backgrounds,
as do six former Hogettes (known as "missing links").

The founder of the Hogettes, Michael Torbert (Boss Hogette), is a former Navy officer who served on the headquarters staff of Adm. Hyman Rickover, the father of
the nuclear Navy. "If the old man could see me now," said Torbert, who sported a black-and-white polka-dot dress for Saturday's game.

Another member of the squad--Dave Spigler, the Hogette known as Spiggy--is deputy maintenance officer at the Naval Force Aircraft Test Squadron at Patuxent
River Naval Air Station in St. Mary's County.

Something else not commonly recognized about the Hogettes is that they are a fund-raising dynamo and do a lot of work to raise money for children's charities.
Working events throughout the year and soliciting contributions from across the region--and even donating the money from their Ford commercial a few years
back--they have helped raise more than $60 million for 22 charities during their 16-year history.

"Our whole program is about raising money for charity, even though people think of us as buffoons at football games," Spigler said.

Indeed, the Hogettes were inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame last year in a new category honoring fans.

Torbert has several theories about the preponderance of military men among the Hogette ranks. "They're secure in their self-image," Torbert said. "Because it's not
an easy task to put on a dress and go out in public."

"They're all men of action versus just talking about it," he added. "They're not afraid to go into a hospital and make a sick kid smile." Among the military Hogettes are
Ralph Campbell (Grandpaw), a retired Navy master chief, and former Army men George Maxfield (Big Georgette), Joe Varnadore (Joevette) and Howard
Churchill (Howiette).

Then then are the former Hogettes who did their time in service, among them Frank Gensiak (Frankette) and Boots Bagby (Bootsette), both former Army Rangers;
Bill Bruhmuller (Bruhette), a retired Navy SEAL; Jack Stevens (Jackette), a retired Army aviator; George Conway (Little Georgette), a retired Air Force lieutenant
colonel; and Rod Bell (Rodette), former Army.

The military experience comes in handy when the Hogettes go on the road to unfriendly stadiums, particularly in New York and Philadelphia, Torbert said. "When
we encounter hostile activity, we can convert into a commando-unit mode real quick and exit the hot zone fast," he said.

Spigler was in the Navy for 20 years before retiring in 1985 and going to work at Patuxent as a civilian Navy employee.

"If you'd told me when I was active duty I'd end up wearing a dress and going to football games, I would have said you were out of your mind," he said.

But Spigler, who grew up in Washington and has been a Redskins fan all his life, was a self-described "Hogette wannabe" for years and eventually found himself
donning Hogette-style garb for the entertainment of relatives.

"I learned I had a lot of ham in me," he said.

In 1992, after Spigler met the real Hogettes, "they voted me in," he said.

Saturday's 27-13 victory against the Detroit Lions was Spigler's first playoff game as a Hogette, and after a six-year drought, it was a big deal for the entire squad.
"It's a chance to get our snouts out there," Spigler said.

The Hogettes live a life of relative anonymity most of the time. "Nobody knows us when we get out of our snouts," he said.

Still, Spigler's extracurricular activities are pretty well-known at Patuxent. In October, the base put out a news release headlined, "Force maintenance deputy
doubles as philanthropic pig."

[Fred]

yes