Stolen Valor, too many get by with it.

[Redbone]

Why is it that all liars who try and steal military valor....are always make themselves out to be rangers????

If they are going to lie ....lie big...

it would appear so.... a major and a ranger... imagine that.

A major, a ranger , hero is the stranger
spill my brave guts for a few thrills
A life of imaginary and glorious danger
grit, grime and many heroic kills
Lived a life of a lone and gifted hero
have retired for my just rewards
Bump rank and pay, add another zero
a dull life was never in the cards...

next lie, a general and a double knot spy, my double life.

Who am I?

 

[ABikerSailor]

Yanno, I've got a story or three to tell..............................

Lemmie tell you the one about myself first.........................

Growing up, I always wanted to be a hippie and have long hair. Unfortunately, my Grandparents (they raised me because I was orphaned at age 8), would never let me. I then joined the Navy 3 days after I turned 18, and wasn't allowed long hair for the next 20 years either. I always swore to myself that when I retired I was going to wear tie dye and sandals and grow a pony tail.

Today I do that. Wanna know how many people speak in low tones around me when I wear my Retired Navy ball cap? Lots. I'm still waiting for someone to ask me if I have the right to wear that cap. Know what I'm gonna tell them? I've not only got the cap, but I've got the card that gives me the right to wear it. It's my retired ID.

I also have a friend in Amarillo that is known as Maverick. He's a former SEAL, and I've spent a lot of time around SEALs, so I understand their language and culture. He's one of my best friends. He's also a pretty decent electrician. If you're real, you're a friend of mine (even SFC Ollie, whom I fight with on these boards on a regular basis).

Now for the bad one...........................

I once went into a bar here called the Cactus Club to shoot pool (and hopefully meet a lady), when I saw a dude in digital cammo and wearing a Budweiser (he also had a lot of uniform violations going with it). I then walked up to him and asked if he was a SEAL, and wanted to know what team he was with (like I said, I knew some SEALs).

He then told me that it was a ploy to meet women and get them to go home with him. I then showed him my ID (I was active duty at the time) and asked if he was for real. I also told him that I knew some SEALs and was obligated to tear that Budweiser off his chest if he was fake. I gave him 30 seconds, and the opportunity to leave his badge behind.

He left, and I never saw him around there again.

 

[editec]

I usually just feel embarrassed for that kind of loser.

In fact, I feel kind of embarassed from authentic veterans who make much ado about their time in uniform.

 

[Oldguy]

Yanno, I've got a story or three to tell..............................

Lemmie tell you the one about myself first.........................

Growing up, I always wanted to be a hippie and have long hair. Unfortunately, my Grandparents (they raised me because I was orphaned at age 8), would never let me. I then joined the Navy 3 days after I turned 18, and wasn't allowed long hair for the next 20 years either. I always swore to myself that when I retired I was going to wear tie dye and sandals and grow a pony tail.

Today I do that. Wanna know how many people speak in low tones around me when I wear my Retired Navy ball cap? Lots. I'm still waiting for someone to ask me if I have the right to wear that cap. Know what I'm gonna tell them? I've not only got the cap, but I've got the card that gives me the right to wear it. It's my retired ID.

I also have a friend in Amarillo that is known as Maverick. He's a former SEAL, and I've spent a lot of time around SEALs, so I understand their language and culture. He's one of my best friends. He's also a pretty decent electrician. If you're real, you're a friend of mine (even SFC Ollie, whom I fight with on these boards on a regular basis).

Now for the bad one...........................

I once went into a bar here called the Cactus Club to shoot pool (and hopefully meet a lady), when I saw a dude in digital cammo and wearing a Budweiser (he also had a lot of uniform violations going with it). I then walked up to him and asked if he was a SEAL, and wanted to know what team he was with (like I said, I knew some SEALs).

He then told me that it was a ploy to meet women and get them to go home with him. I then showed him my ID (I was active duty at the time) and asked if he was for real. I also told him that I knew some SEALs and was obligated to tear that Budweiser off his chest if he was fake. I gave him 30 seconds, and the opportunity to leave his badge behind.

He left, and I never saw him around there again.

I got out of the regular Army in 1971 and immediately started college. Wearing old fatigue shirts was all the rage back then and a lot of guys and girls did, Veteran or not. It was just fashionable and it didn't particularly bother me. Hell, I sometimes wore mine too.

But, one day I was sitting in the student union coffee shop and spotted a guy I knew wasn't a Vet wearing a fatigue shirt with a Combat Infantryman's Badge above the breast pocket. That was a little too much, so I created something of a scene when I not only demanded he remove it, but helped him do so with my pocket knife right there in the serving line.

Wear the shirt if you like, but you ain't earned that CIB, buddy.

 

[pinqy]

If they are going to lie ....lie big...

it would appear so.... a major and a ranger... imagine that.

Knew a guy in Florida. He bragged about getting on a military installation because he had a sticker on his windshield which was a certain color reserved for officers. He claimed that he would be saluted. Every base I have been on requires a positive ID check. I asked him about that, he folded and was a laughing stock. He did not come around anymore. What a douche.

Well, pre-9/11 it was the case on some bases where the base sticker alone served as a check...and many bases were open bases. At Ft Carson, in the 90's, most gates were open and guards were only placed randomly at gates.

 

[rightwinger]

it would appear so.... a major and a ranger... imagine that.

Knew a guy in Florida. He bragged about getting on a military installation because he had a sticker on his windshield which was a certain color reserved for officers. He claimed that he would be saluted. Every base I have been on requires a positive ID check. I asked him about that, he folded and was a laughing stock. He did not come around anymore. What a douche.

Well, pre-9/11 it was the case on some bases where the base sticker alone served as a check...and many bases were open bases. At Ft Carson, in the 90's, most gates were open and guards were only placed randomly at gates.

I never saw a seperate sticker for officers either

 

[Connery]

Knew a guy in Florida. He bragged about getting on a military installation because he had a sticker on his windshield which was a certain color reserved for officers. He claimed that he would be saluted. Every base I have been on requires a positive ID check. I asked him about that, he folded and was a laughing stock. He did not come around anymore. What a douche.

Well, pre-9/11 it was the case on some bases where the base sticker alone served as a check...and many bases were open bases. At Ft Carson, in the 90's, most gates were open and guards were only placed randomly at gates.

I never saw a seperate sticker for officers either

Blue for officers red for enlisted. Today ids are scanned. No more stickers. The stickers were used for vehicle registration on post, the ID check to verify that the person coming on the base was authorized to do so.




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Redbone]

it says a lot about a person who lies like this. Their personal lives must be so small, miserable and pathetic they need crutches to keep up an "appearance" of something grander.

There are some guys who lie to cover up for a poor self image and some guys who lie to get laid

If you are lying to get laid....anything goes

In my life.... none of them men i have ever met have had self esteem issues where they needed to steal the valor of others or embellish what they do have. . It boggles my mind some men are so self loathing, so scummy that they need or want to do this kind of thing.

I liken it to self-loving. So in love with this mental image of themselves they have fabricated in their puny little minds that often they start to believe their own lies. Those are the ones that can become dangerous . That can become stalkers. Any woman that has a stalker is in real danger.

Decades ago a lady I knew began dating a guy I also knew. He was a shady character and I never trusted him. They broke up, he stalked her for about 8 months. I told her what to do but she refused. Many months later they reunited. A year later I hear they are married and have had a son. They moved away, I lost contact.

About 3 months ago after my older brother and I were talking about old times we had as young men and he mentioned this dude. After my brother went home I decided to type this shady character's name in a search to try to find out what happened to him.
Finally found him on one of those crime sites. He is in prison for murdering her and another woman he married three years after her death. Got away with it for about five years before getting caught and convicted.

syrenn stalkers are to be taken very seriously. My advice for what it is worth is to beware..
Anybody low enough to "steal valor" is a prime candidate to be a stalker too.

 

[Redbone]

I usually just feel embarrassed for that kind of loser.

In fact, I feel kind of embarassed from authentic veterans who make much ado about their time in uniform.

I disagree with that . I think it would be great if more real military spoke more often about their service to our country! As long as it is the truth why not share and let others know what doing one's duty is like? Share so that the young kids can see and understand both the positive and the negatives. Far too much propaganda out there now downgrading patriotism.

More military both active and retired should speak out more. And if some of it is truly heroic deeds fine, all the better. Nobody can deny that many true heroic military deeds are never mentioned and perhaps the stigma coming from the lies told by false heroes often keeps men from sharing their stories.

A great friend of mine was an older guy ,retired military. It took years to drag stuff out of him about his time in combat. It was like pulling teeth, he hated to talk about it. After two decades I got enough information to know this guy was a damn hero. Not the kind that ever bragged about it.
He and three buddies had all enlisted together in the Marines. One of them died in Vietnam. As tough as this man was(he was that in spades) every time I mentioned his friend's name I could see tears start up in his eyes. Eventually I stopped ever mentioning his friend's name or asking anything about him.

 

[freedombecki]

I have a good friend who is about 8 years older than I am who I've known since I was about 8 years old. Of course we weren't friends way back when. I remember when he went in the service, because his sister was my Sunday school teacher and she would read us letters or at least tell us how he was doing. I must have been 14 or 15 when he went to Nam as a Green Beret. I remember him coming home in a wheelchair. And no one ever talked about it, But you would see him on Sunday sitting in his chair in the back of the church. It wasn't until about 10 years ago after I had retired and moved back home and got involved in the veteran groups that I learned what had happened to him. He broke his ankle jumping out of a chopper into a hot LZ. He took a piece of shrapnel and an AK 47 round in the same foot before he was thrown back on the chopper. It was nearly 6 years before he was walking and today he doesn't even limp. At first they believed he would lose the foot. He has never mentioned it. I got half the story from another vet and half of it from his sister. Today he is the vice commander of a Local Vietnam veterans group. My post works with them each November for the laying of the Roses, We read the names of all those in the county who died in Nam and lay a rose at the base of the Vietnam memorial downtown. If there are family members present they come up as the name is called and lay the rose escorted by a Veteran. If not then a veteran lays the rose and salutes.

SFC Ollie, thanks for sharing your Vietnam vet's story. You all do such wonderful things for the families, and hearing it makes us all proud of our wounded veterans.

 

[SFC Ollie]

Knew a guy in Florida. He bragged about getting on a military installation because he had a sticker on his windshield which was a certain color reserved for officers. He claimed that he would be saluted. Every base I have been on requires a positive ID check. I asked him about that, he folded and was a laughing stock. He did not come around anymore. What a douche.

Well, pre-9/11 it was the case on some bases where the base sticker alone served as a check...and many bases were open bases. At Ft Carson, in the 90's, most gates were open and guards were only placed randomly at gates.

I never saw a seperate sticker for officers either

Yes Officers did have a different color sticker, depending upon which base you were on. Some bases had no guards or stickers. Others had both. Ft Bragg for instance used to have a state route running right through the middle of it, no guards no guard shacks. I don't know if they changed that after 911.....

 

[SFC Ollie]

Once a month I sit with a great group of veterans for a social hour before our American Legion meeting. It is a rare occasion when someone mentions or tells a "war story". Most of the talk is about local stuff or families or how one of the members who don't come to the meetings is doing. Most of the time if a branch of service is mentioned, the subject is coffee..... Gotta love some of those older guys. I have one member (our service officer) who spent 42 years on active duty. I have never heard him say a word about it other than, "I started in the Army, then the Army Aircorps then they made me Air Force until I went back to the Army." He retired as a CSM. (Command Sergeant Major) And another who will gladly tell you he was in the battle of the bulge, but that's all he'll say about it.

 

[ArmyCowboy]

A good friend of mine once told me about his accosting one of the lying blowhards that was telling a small group at his favorite bar all about his slaying lots of enemy in Vietnam. The guy sat their for about ten minutes bragging and even mentioned he had been shot in the left ankle and almost lost the leg.

My buddy stated right off he knew the guy was a lying son of a bitch but decided to hear how much crap he was going to spit out. After hearing the fool tell how he had once killed over 50 enemy troops, North Vietnamese regulars mind you not the " weaker vietcong" as he described them. Mike finally had enough and asked him why he was facing so many N.V. regulars? He replied , it was the first day of the Tet Offensive and N.V. regulars were all over the place. Then my buddy remembered he had previously made a big deal about arriving in country on Thanksgiving day 1969! So Mike asked when did you arrive in country and the liar replied same as before Thanksgiving day 1969, I remember it well.

Mike then stepped right up to the guy and said, the Tet Offensive was January 1968, how did you manage to fight and kill all those N.V. regulars a year before you even arrived in country on Thanksgiving day in 1969? You could have heard a pin drop! Guy stammered back, I got my years mixed up. Mike replied, and how about that injury to your left ankle that you stated almost took off your leg. Let's see that ankle. The scum did not want to lift his pants leg up so Mike reached over and did it for him . The leg had never been injured and was as perfect as could be.

At this point Mike said he thought about knocking the guy down but decided to just run him out of the bar. Told him to get his sorry lying ass gone and don't come back. Being a coward like they all are the scum swiftly raced to the door and was gone.

I asked Mike why he did not beat the lying coward's sorry ass. His answer was , I was so mad I was afraid that I would kill him if I got started beating him. I understood that having seen Mike in a few fights over the years..

Question the stories these liars tell and you will find mistakes . Often forcing them to repeat the story. They not remembering the lie very well start to change it. Sometimes they just shut up and leave, run away. Hiding when questioned seems to be a favorite past time for many of them.

Assholes in bars lie

They lie about being the star Quarterback in High School, about dating supermodels, about being a major league baseball player, being in the CIA, about making millions of dollars on Wall Street

Best just to ignore them

Assholes lie and assholes hide when confronted on that lying. Those attempting stolen valor should not be ignored. They are stealing from the sacrifice of those that served and did their duty. I have no respect for such trash. I have no respect for those that aid such lying SOBS.

I don't blame you for feeling this way, but ultimately you're not going to be able to change the world.

If you're consumed with trying to make every idiot in a bar somewhere stop lying about himself, you're just got to be walking around mad all the time.

 

[Mr. President]

Real war stories suck because you have to remember them while you tell them. I would much rather talk about whats going on in America.

 

[Redbone]

Assholes in bars lie

They lie about being the star Quarterback in High School, about dating supermodels, about being a major league baseball player, being in the CIA, about making millions of dollars on Wall Street

Best just to ignore them

Assholes lie and assholes hide when confronted on that lying. Those attempting stolen valor should not be ignored. They are stealing from the sacrifice of those that served and did their duty. I have no respect for such trash. I have no respect for those that aid such lying SOBS.

I don't blame you for feeling this way, but ultimately you're not going to be able to change the world.

If you're consumed with trying to make every idiot in a bar somewhere stop lying about himself, you're just got to be walking around mad all the time.

I have not been a regular in the bars in decades. I do however do what I can when I read about or hear a lying bastard attempting to steal from those that served and sacrificed so much for this nation. Have even confronted a few in my time.

 

[ABikerSailor]

Assholes lie and assholes hide when confronted on that lying. Those attempting stolen valor should not be ignored. They are stealing from the sacrifice of those that served and did their duty. I have no respect for such trash. I have no respect for those that aid such lying SOBS.

I don't blame you for feeling this way, but ultimately you're not going to be able to change the world.

If you're consumed with trying to make every idiot in a bar somewhere stop lying about himself, you're just got to be walking around mad all the time.

I have not been a regular in the bars in decades. I do however do what I can when I read about or hear a lying bastard attempting to steal from those that served and sacrificed so much for this nation. Have even confronted a few in my time.

I don't really confront them at first. I just walk up and say "hey............see you're a veteran, what units did you serve with" while wearing my U.S. Navy (Retired) ballcap. Most of the times, I hear some good memories about what they liked about their service, and on very few occasions, I hear them stumble through whatever they think the military speak is for their "service".

Those are the ones that I like to question further..........................

 

[ArmyCowboy]

Assholes lie and assholes hide when confronted on that lying. Those attempting stolen valor should not be ignored. They are stealing from the sacrifice of those that served and did their duty. I have no respect for such trash. I have no respect for those that aid such lying SOBS.

I don't blame you for feeling this way, but ultimately you're not going to be able to change the world.

If you're consumed with trying to make every idiot in a bar somewhere stop lying about himself, you're just got to be walking around mad all the time.

I have not been a regular in the bars in decades. I do however do what I can when I read about or hear a lying bastard attempting to steal from those that served and sacrificed so much for this nation. Have even confronted a few in my time.

To each their own, I suppose.

Personally, I don't see the point. Someone who lies about stuff like that is basically I person I wouldn't want to associate with anyway. I don't see the point in confronting them, unless it makes you feel good or better about yourself.

People lie. Sad but true.

 

[Britfire54]

I don't blame you for feeling this way, but ultimately you're not going to be able to change the world.

If you're consumed with trying to make every idiot in a bar somewhere stop lying about himself, you're just got to be walking around mad all the time.

I have not been a regular in the bars in decades. I do however do what I can when I read about or hear a lying bastard attempting to steal from those that served and sacrificed so much for this nation. Have even confronted a few in my time.

To each their own, I suppose.

Personally, I don't see the point. Someone who lies about stuff like that is basically I person I wouldn't want to associate with anyway. I don't see the point in confronting them, unless it makes you feel good or better about yourself.

People lie. Sad but true.

I don't see the point of it, either. But the lies we're discussing aren't just ordinary lies. Redbone puts it well in the comment, 'They are stealing from the sacrifice of those that served and did their duty.'

Can you, or can anyone, refute the truth of that ? I really think not. It therefore surely follows that the only really decent, honourable response IS one of confrontation.

I suggest that less than this dishonours all who've fought and died for their country.

 

[Britfire54]

Real war stories suck because you have to remember them while you tell them. I would much rather talk about whats going on in America.

My suggestion is this: those who fight and die for your country, have added to the extent of freedom you now enjoy which leads to your being able to talk about what's going on in America.

Do you not agree ?

 

[Britfire54]

I usually just feel embarrassed for that kind of loser.

In fact, I feel kind of embarassed from authentic veterans who make much ado about their time in uniform.

I'm not sure I can agree with your second sentence.

To make this abundantly clear to everybody: I am not a military man. I've never been one, I have no military experience whatever.

From time to time, I imagine (or try to) what it must be like to have confronted the dangers, the life-or-death experiences that battle produces. Imagining those battles is, or seems to be, relatively easy. BUT, the courage, the honour, the capacity to acquit yourself well, just how many of us have it within us to do what it takes ?

What greater sacrifice can there be than to put love of country before your wellbeing, to fight, even to the death, in the service of your homeland, and all it represents ?

If just such a person doesn't 'have the right' to feel pride and accomplishment in this .. then, who does ? Such servicemen have every reason to.

And I ask - does it diminish what these soldiers and servicemen have fought for, if we civilians cannot grasp that reality, and don't do our own duty by them ?