Fake Military Veteran

[timshatz]

Isn't the guy a head case? I mean outside of the obvious bs aspect of it, wasn't he a guy with mental problems?

[Colin1]

Originally Posted by timshatz

Isn't the guy a head case? I mean outside of the obvious bs aspect of it, wasn't he a guy with mental problems?

Thing is Tim
these people always fall back on the oh-I've-got/had-mental-problems-I-didn't-mean-anything-by-it; someone in the article actually mentions it

[comiso90]

Often... they who talk the most have done the least.

If you've been in the sh!t you don't want to talk about it... some may share experiences but they generally dont grandstand

.

[timshatz]

I hear ya' Colin and I agree with ya', people do use that as a get out of jail card. But this dude actually spent time in shelters and has a history of being crazy. Not saying it gives him a hall pass, but it is something to factor in.

People that annoy me are the guys who claim they have a decoration or have been in the military, are not crazy or have mental problems and do it just for the official attaboy they get. I was thinking specifically of the Judge out in the Midwest who claimed to have had the MOH and hadn't even been in the military. Also, politicos who claim it. Those guy annoy me. Not from the military aspect of it, more from the scheeming aspect. Weasels.

[Bernhart]

i work in a mental health hospital, we had a guy come in sent from his family Dr. He had her convinced he was suffering from PTSD (post tramatic stress disorder). she was ordering him all kinds of benzodiazapines, morphine for his bad knees, he had women coming in that he had met in bars that where feeling sorry fo him. He wasn't here with us more than 5 minutes and I had picked apart his story. He had regiments all wrong, said he was a sniper in an area where Canada didn't use snipers...

He came in wearing glasses, saying he had a complete medical discharge, but had the date he was discharged before the time he suppoded to have served.

Last I heard he was being investigated by the police for obtaining care for under false pretenses.

[Colin1]

Originally Posted by timshatz

...I was thinking specifically of the Judge out in the Midwest who claimed to have had the MOH and hadn't even been in the military...

That's a different level of weird
someone who already had a high level of respectability in his own profession pretending he had the same in someone else's. The kind of profile I'd normally associate with this type of behaviour is low self-esteem - you wouldn't really expect that from a judge.

[pbfoot]

Originally Posted by comiso90

Often... they who talk the most have done the least.

If you've been in the sh!t you don't want to talk about it... some may share experiences but they generally dont grandstand

.

100% right Most guys that have been you wouldn't even know they have until you read their obit

[Butters]

About ten years ago I met a guy at friend's party. He was telling everyone that he was a former Syrian AF fighter pilot. A really good one, too. He'd shot down two Israeli F-15's...

JL

[timshatz]

Originally Posted by Butters

About ten years ago I met a guy at friend's party. He was telling everyone that he was a former Syrian AF fighter pilot. A really good one, too. He'd shot down two Israeli F-15's...

JL

Hey now! That is impressive! The only two F15s that were never shot down and he got them. BOTH!

That must be one really tough sim.

[Sweb]

Originally Posted by comiso90

Often... they who talk the most have done the least.

If you've been in the sh!t you don't want to talk about it... some may share experiences but they generally dont grandstand

.

In the circle of vets I've known from WWII and Korea none of them ever spoke directly about their respective combat engagements but rather generally and in a humorous tone poking fun at each other's misadventures related to specific engagements. They were a proud bunch but pretty reserved. I knew them because my Pop was one of them and there were reunions over the years. There were a couple light-hearted debates about the details of specific engagements. More to the point, my Pop never discussed his periods of combat and he never spoke of them at the reunions I was present at. He never even told my Mom. When he passed away I received some conciliatory calls from his comrades-in-arms citing his prowess as a fellow combatant and general good guy. So, basically, I know nothing about that period in his life aside from a vague story residing in the photographs, flight logbooks, military orders and citations he left behind.

[Butters]

Originally Posted by timshatz

Hey now! That is impressive! The only two F15s that were never shot down and he got them. BOTH!

That must be one really tough sim.

That's basically what I said. When I pointed out that no F-15's had been shot down in air-to-air combat, he got really excited and started going on about how the Israelis always lie...blah blah blah.

The curious thing is that the guy WAS a pilot. The reason he was at the party was because my friend was a float-plane rating examiner, and the guy was in town to be checked out. I don't think that he was ever a fighter pilot, tho. He didn't seem to know much about MiGs or anything else tactical...

The point about the real veterans often being a low-key is something that i can personally attest to. My grandfather was a highly-decorated WWII veteran serving in Sicily and Italy (Where he was so seriously wounded he was over a year recovering. You could see the scars and fragments of shrapnel under the skin of legs and chest...). As he got older, he would tell me more and more about it, but would usually focus on the amusing stuff. Like how the neighboring Ghurkas would constantly call out, "Hey, Johhny. Come wrestle. Come wrestle.", to the Canadians. My gramps was a big, strong guy who'd worked in the woods all his life and he took the little fellows up on their offer. Once...

At his memorial service, the local Legion put together a display of his military record, which included documents showing that he'd been mentioned in despatches twice, and been awarded the Military Medal for Valour. He'd also taken part in three 11-man missions behind enemy lines. It was on the last one that he was seriously wounded when his unit got lost while being chased at night by the Germans and accidentally crossed the line (a river) three or four miles downstream from their planned crossing point. It was a Greek unit on his own side that blew him and his teamates to pieces...

He'd told me about the last, but never mentioned any of the others. He was Gunner Kendall Longmire, Forward Artillery Observer, RCA.

JL

[Pong]

Remember Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines who claims to be a veteran of a guerilla unit ‘Maharlika’ supposedly recognized by the U.S Government? I got this info from Raymond Bonner's book Waltzing with a Dictator. Marcos said he received the DSC, two Silver Stars and more than 20 other decorations. Obviously he never received any of those awards (Except for several Philippine medals which were given to him in the early '50s and '60s, which is really suspicious) and officers who had served with him said that his claims were "Pure BS". What's even more shocking, is that his father was a propagandist for the Japanese, a job which was recommended by his son Ferdinand.

[proton45]

Sending him to Iraq is too good for him...sending him to Iraq would only give him the chance to live out his fantasy. Just because he is a douche bag and a lair doesn't mean he is a coward. Pathological lairs are very cunning and frequently don't "feel' things the same way as you or me...The best thing, would be to rob him of what he craves the most...attention.

Their was a lady that did something very similar after 9/11...her name was "Tania Head". http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/ny...7survivor.html