People who lie about military history (enlisted, corps, civilian, personnel)
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I know an ex navy diver who allows himself to be represented as a SEAL. He knows I know better and doesn't push it around me. I served 9 years active so I speak "navy" well enough to read between the lines.
Over the years I have met a great many people who I know are fake Vietnam veterans.
What is sad is that when they first started coming home from deployment, many servicemen wouldn’t wear their uniforms due to the misplaced anger directed at them from the anti war crowd.
Since military service once again became respected, these wannabes come out of the woodwork.
Wouldn't you expect that right out of the gate, someone would ask you something like "Navy, huh? What unit, when were you in, where were you stationed?" and you'd quickly give yourself away as a faker?
And nowadays with improved records, I would think anyone who claims to have been in the military in the last 50 years could rather quickly be checked out.
Especially with select groups like SEALS, where they have a lot of very specific common experiences that other people don't; seems like any real SEAL (or equivalent) could very quickly figure out if someone were BSing.
Sometimes I think of getting one of those US Navy caps with the ship name on it, to honor my father who was a Pearl Harbor vet, but even though it would be obvious that I am not claiming to have been on the USS Dobbin on 12/7/41 (I am a full 30 years too young!), even so, I won't do it because in my mind those caps are reserved for those who actually served on those ships.
It looks like some of these people just like to pretend to be a SEAL.
Maybe those (not so very good) Hollywood movies, through its extensive portrayal of the US Navy SEALS, has convinced the general public that the SEALs are the best in everything.
No disrespect to the SEALs. They are an extremely well trained and frighteningly effective force. But they can do their job because they have the whole might of the US military behind them.
Actually, excessive publicity is also unwanted by USSOCOM and JSOC. Their position is, “With your support, we will do our job. But let us do our job without attention on our community—no writings, no films, and no discussions.” One can CERTAINLY tell others that they are in the special op unit, (no one's MOS is classified), but they are NOT encouraged or even allowed to open their mouth to share operation details. Matter of fact, if I know this correctly, all the special forces are required to sign a nondisclosure agreement pledging never to reveal any classified information. It’s a lifelong commitment, and one that they all need to honor.
Last edited by lilyflower3191981; 07-24-2018 at 07:42 AM..
If someone is in U.S. Navy Special Operations is that the same thing as being a SEAL?
That is part of the problem if you are in the Navy and not on a ship/sub or fly and carry a rifle people are going to call you a SEAL. If in the Army a Ranger... In many situations it is easier just to go along with it and not fight to say I went to this school or did this similar or supporting job but am not a (fill in the blank). Especially since most don't want to sit through a 30 minute course on the differences between your unit/job and the famous elites.
For an example which includes an "elite" only known to US Army Armored forces. I had a tank platoon but in our normal task force organization that platoon was often attached to the task force scout platoon. Now because that scout platoon did a similar but smaller scale job as the divisional cavalry they would call me a cavalry scout. then I would have to explain all about being in a tank company who occasionally worked for that tank company commander in the field and sometimes for the scout platoon leader
Last edited by Taiko; 07-24-2018 at 07:53 AM..
Reason: example.
Wouldn't you expect that right out of the gate, someone would ask you something like "Navy, huh? What unit, when were you in, where were you stationed?" and you'd quickly give yourself away as a faker?
This is something military folk do all the time (unless they're trying to put the experience out of their lives).
It's what I call "butt sniffing," and it's a way of finding common ground through common experiences.
I've been amused when old VFW guys from the Korean War meet a young guy and discovers the young guy has been to Korea. Although the circumstances of their tours were incredibly different and 50 years apart, the old guy is still feeling, "Yeah, I was there, you were there, we have an understanding of things."
When I was at Pearl Harbor, I had a couple of young sailors on my team who intended to do one enlistment and get out. But because they'd drawn Pearl, it meant they'd never have served on a ship.
Now, I'm Air Force, but that still seemed wrong to me. A sailor should have have a ship. For the rest of their lives, they'd say, "I was in the Navy," people would ask them what ship they were on, and they'd have no answer.
So I went to our command master chief and suggested that if he could get them a TAD on a ship, I'd be willing to let them go for a few months.
That--unsurprisingly--seemed like a fine idea to him, so in a few weeks he'd gotten them a cruise on the Blue Ridge. Soft duty.
After they'd left, I was in conversation with a Navy chief who noted, "Blue Ridge? They'll be crossing the equator. They'll go through the Shellback initiation."
When I asked him what that was, he got cagey. But being intel, I was able to find out after a bit of investigation. Eeeyew. I started wondering if I'd done the right thing.
But when they came back, they had their Shellback certificates and a new Popeye swagger. And they'd have a real sailor story to tell.
I served in the Navy and never set foot on a ship (air squadron) but my DD214 is accepted and the VA treats me the same as those who did.
Most people in the Air Force will never set foot inside an Air Force aircraft. Except maybe at an airshow. I once heard only about one percent of enlisted personnel are aircrew.
Most people in the Air Force will never set foot inside an Air Force aircraft. Except maybe at an airshow. I once heard only about one percent of enlisted personnel are aircrew.
Air Force is a considerably different service from the Navy in a great many aspects. The Air Force gives a bit of advantage to enlisted persons who wear wings (although flightline maintenance folk come pretty close second), but a Navy career is tremendously enhanced by sea duty. It's not easy--maybe impossible in most ratings--to break into the top two without a surface warfare badge.
In many, many ways, the Navy is different from other services--and the other services have more similarities to one another than they do to the Navy. Even a Marine has more military similarities to other service people than he does to a sailor.
Not saying anything is wrong with that--every service manages its people to win its battles, and every US service wins its battles, so they're all doing the right things.
I worked for a guy who touted his military service every chance he got. Even when not provoked he'd bring it up. This ran contrary to what I usually experience when speaking with people with a military background. 99% are pretty humble about it and only talk about it if you bring it up and even then the ones who saw real stuff won't discuss it beyond maybe a few sentences. So right off the rip I found his behavior about his service odd. His story was that he was over in Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Desert Shield during the Persian Gulf War back in 1991 as a Marine. After he got fired we discovered that in reality while he was a Marine he was a nurse here in the states and had never left the country, never saw combat. Come to find out this was part of this guys bizarre make believe persona. He had a education specialist degree but did not have a phd in education but went out of his way to make people call him doctor. He would correct you if you called him Mr. Was an odd dude.
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