Mal Traylor or Malvin Traylor
Since at least early 2007, Mal Traylor or Malvin Traylor of Dark Gift Combat out of Houston, TX has touted himself to his students and peers to have come from a background of military training, in many cases Special Forces. This is evidenced through several accounts of direct witnesses and in the form of sales pitches, elaborate stories, and often referenced while teaching his “reality based martial arts.” The fact is however, according to the Federal Archives and finally by his own rare admittance, that he was never even in the military.
Malvin Traylor never actually listed any military training in his credentials in writing anywhere but there is a long list of his former and current students, as well as peers, that have witnessed his claims. This is not coming from just me. Hock has even talked to a few of the other individuals and has heard their accounts as well. So far the list of claims includes:
1. former Green Beret
2. formerly “attached to a Green Beret unit”
3. former Army Ranger/has had Army Ranger training
4. referenced his former “military training” on several accounts while teaching to
support whatever lesson or technique he was demonstrating at the time
5. actually wore a seemingly authentic green beret in public in conjunction with
civilian clothing
6. trained SEAL team 6 with Paul Vunak "back in the day" (Vunak denied it)
7. advertises he has trained several military, law enforcement, and government
agencies including the CIA, FBI, DEA, etc. (He is piggybacking off of Vunak's
advertisements but he doesn't make a clear separation between Vunak's systems
accomplishments and his own system's.)
8. passes himself off as a former military operator and tactical firearms instructor but
according to Hock, he admitted to known gun instructor Rob Hamic that he has
never even actually ever fired a live weapon. (Back then anyway. As of this
posting it appears that he has now qualified on a live firing range.)
When asked as to why he doesn’t list these "credentials", he explains that he was dishonorably discharged, so he doesn’t list it as it may just cause more potential problems than it’s worth. To top it all off he has a nice elaborate story to explain his dishonorable discharge. More than a few people have heard it and it goes something like this:
“I was on an operation where we were dropping in behind enemy lines. Our window of opportunity had passed and the mission was now in jeopardy because there was now enough sunlight to silhouette us in the sky and we would be easily seen by enemy forces. My commanding officer gave us a green light anyway and ordered us to drop. The enemy fired on us and a few of my men were killed (Notice by this account he was not only Special Forces but he commanded a team.) When I returned from the mission I decked my commanding officer, thus receiving a dishonorable discharge.”
If I was going to make up a story like that, first off, I wouldn’t pick one from a Steven Seagal movie.
In rebuttal, Malvin Traylor has claimed that all of this was “intentional misinformation” to see what his students would do with it. First, Bullshit. Second, why would you do that? And third, what kind of instructor, or person for that matter, would do such a thing? He has also claimed that I made all of this up because I am a local competitor and former business partner (more on that later). Well, again, there are several other witnesses and “victims” if you will; and, there are other “competitors” in this city that I get along with great. I am a *former* business partner because I wanted to disassociate myself with him for these and several other similar “career suicide” type practices.
The bottom line is that this is a clear case of using fraudulent military credentials (even if only used verbally) in order to promote one’s career and provide false credit and credentials. I am posting this because to this day Malvin Traylor is still referencing his “military training” and duping students and peers, and they along with any would be students need to be aware of it. If he is going to teach in the “reality based martial arts” market, or any other combat art or style, he needs to do it on his own credentials and accord (more on that in a bit) and not by crapping on the honor of the men and women who have actually served (many of whom have passed while serving). However, by now it is a credibility and character flaw issue.
I will be asking several of the other witnesses to come forward on this thread as well in order to provide evidence and further corroboration. I will be posting evidence and further claims on this thread as well, to include financial cons and fraud.
(Financial Cons Next... To Be Continued...)
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Topic: Malvin Traylor - or Mal Traylor Military Fraud, SpecialOps/Forces Fraud, Con-Man (Read 29812 times)