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I just realized something. He has a concealed carry license and 4 guns. Can he have that if he went AWOL or had a dishonorable discharge?
I'm not trying to throw blame here, I know you're a civilian and honestly the media has not informed you of any of this; but people throw around the term "Dishonorable Discharge" way too frequently. Most people with DDs are still sitting in Leavenworth or something.
Other Than Honorable is the most frequent for AWOL/UA and maaaaybe Bad Conduct Discharge; but in the Marines I saw a lot of UAs and every one of them was a General (OTH) (General Discharge under other than honorable circumstances).
Now I may be way off here but I don't think either an OTH or even a BCD (Bad Conduct Discharge or Big Chicken Dinner if you prefer) would prevent someone from owning firearms.
TLDR: Unless you went UA and joined up with ISIS or something you're not getting a DD. Those are reserved for seriously bad juju like murder, rape etc.
IMHO, the fact that he told stories about his combat in Nam would have been a tip off to me. I am the age where I knew a number of men who were drafted and most rarely, rarely spoke about anything that happened to them in the war.
Except for a few very innocuous stories about team work, bravery and comradeship my brother never said anything to anyone about the war for years and years. It was only in recent years that he started to share a few stories about his experiences during war, with his close relatives. I think that at age 70, and in poor health, he is starting to think about his own death and he wants to share his stories while there is still time. Most of his stories are still about the bravery of the men that he fought with, honor and futility of war.
This is a bit off topic, but I find this to be true. The men in my family--all of us--have been military since the Spanish-American war. I did not serve in ground combat (although we still had troops in Vietnam when I enlisted), but my father and uncles and older cousins all did, as well as my father-in-law.
And it was true that none of them talked about the grittier combat experiences, not even to me--not even after I had retired from the military myself--until they got very old. It happened to me more than once with them, typically: "Let's go to the VFW." Then among others with similar experiences, after the second beer, they would have a terrible story to tell. And yes, it was as though being near death they had something to unburden while there was still time.
If he wasn't in for very long, there's a possibility he washed out of basic or later training and was too embarrassed to state that to others or explain why - medical, legal, could be many reasons, or he just thought it was too private to share. As for his sister and cousin maybe they jumped to conclusions to explain to themselves why. Unless they've seen his documentation, they don't really know what happened and neither do you.
One thing is sure, to get a concealed permit a person has to be in the government's good books, assuming the background check for a permit was done correctly. If he had something to hide or the government was looking for him, it would be really bad judgment to inform the government of his own whereabouts when he applied for the permit.
I've heard people say in passing they joined the reserves or national guard and just stopped going. I doubt if anything came of it.
Depends on whether they had an obligation or not. Someone who has not fulfilled their initial obligation when they first enter the military, will sometimes have an enlistment that combines active duty with subsequent time to be spent drilling in the Guard or Reserve. It use to be a 6 year obligation, I'm not sure what it is now. Those folks can't just stop attending drills, without repercussions. Beyond that point, it's voluntary with no specific obligation as to a required time period.
I don't think the punishment problems are the whole issue here ,, I think the possible amount of tall tales he told her is .
I had a older man friend who sucked me in with totally realistic harrowing tales of Viet Nam for 2 years .
Later his son and his ( the older man's) wife approached me in the grocery store parking lot to tell me privately he had only painted aircraft In Midwest City Ok . I felt VERY weird about him after this for listening to hours of fake stories and I was just his friend and hay customer . I did not confront him because I didn't want to embarrass him but anything else he said I took with a grain of salt .. I mean I didn't believe ANYTHING he said after that.
There's a big difference between a veteran embellishing their military experience, and a person who claims to be a veteran who never served at all.
IMHO, the fact that he told stories about his combat in Nam would have been a tip off to me. I am the age where I knew a number of men who were drafted and most rarely, rarely spoke about anything that happened to them in the war.
Except for a few very innocuous stories about team work, bravery and comradeship my brother never said anything to anyone about the war for years and years. It was only in recent years that he started to share a few stories about his experiences during war, with his close relatives. I think that at age 70, and in poor health, he is starting to think about his own death and he wants to share his stories while there is still time. Most of his stories are still about the bravery of the men that he fought with, honor and futility of war.
This is really the truth because I do know someone who was there in very heavy combat and he speaks the same way your brother does . I was born in '62 near Ft Hood so I was only 11 when it ended . I am embarrassed to say that he also said ( of course ) he was in the Rangers when all of this happened and I DID think it was strange but possibly true . I'd never known this guy prior to being his hay customer and was too young to know many people who actually went.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BLS2753
There's a big difference between a veteran embellishing their military experience, and a person who claims to be a veteran who never served at all.
This was WAY more than embellishing .
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