"Bachelor" Went Bali Hai, NOT Baghdad

It was widely reported that former "Bachelor" hunk, Navy Lt. Andy Baldwin, was doing his patriotic duty by trading his civilian Speedos to fight in Iraq. But it's not true -- turns out Baldwin was in the South Pacific! Did we invade Tahiti too?!

A Navy rep tells TMZ the tantastic muscle man was actually in Palau -- no, not competing on "Survivor" -- but as part of a recovery team doing an underwater excavation of a B-24J bomber that went down during WWII.

Sounds like a government sponsored scuba vacay to us!