Mr. Rogers was a Navy SEAL?

There are stories circulating on the internet that say that Mr. Rogers, the fatherly host of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, was a Navy SEAL sniper in Korea or Vietnam who had several confirmed kills. Further, they say that the reason he always wore long sleeves and sweaters was to conceal the tattoos he got while in the service? Are there any truth to these rumors or are they just that, rumors?

In a word, no. Mr. Rogers was not a Navy SEAL, and he did not have any tattoos that anyone knows, and never even served in the military. How this rumor got started is anyone's guess, but it is just as incorrect as the rumor that says that he was a convicted child molester. Mr. Rogers was exactly what he seemed to be, a nice man who cared for children and taught them important life lessons.

We know that Fred Rogers never served in the military because he went to college directly after high school and began working in television directly after that. There were some periods of time during his career that he took a break from television, but he was busy attending the Pittsburg Theological Seminary and later the graduate school of the University of Pittsburg. He did not occupy that time in sniping Vietcong and it seems ludicrous to suggest that he did.

Furthermore, there is no way that he could have served in Vietnam. Having been born in 1928, he would have been 37 at the beginning of the war, making him too old to enlist. There is also the inconvenient fact that he began work on what would become Mr. Rogers' Neiborhood in 1963. The United States did not begin a serious ground war in Vietnam until 1965.

In 1968, while the United States was still involved in Vietnam, Mr. Rogers began work on "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood." For over thirty years, he was a familiar sight on children's television, won four Emmy awards, and was loved by millions of neighbors who really did "want to be his neighbor." After taping his final show in 2000, he was awarded the President Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush for his accomplishments in children's education. The company he founded to produce his program continues to produce a number of programs for children today.