<ethinks you deserve a medal for not laughing in his face when he continued to spin his BS. How does he seriously think people believe the crap he’s feeding them?
Is your roommate really that dumb? 
Some years ago, I was out drinking with a friend of mine and one of his co-workers. The co-worker was one of those guys. I was believing the first tall tale. By the second, I was getting suspicious. When he went to the restroom, my friend said “he likes to lie about himself.”
After that, it was one unbelievable whopper after another. Although he couln not have weighed more than 140, he could bench press 300 lbs. He was trained in martial arts. Had an unbelievable IQ. Had great pot (OK, this one was true). I never called him on anything because other than his stories, he was not a violent or overly obnoxious person. He had an attractive, nice girlfriend. My friend said that whenever one called him on the stories, he would stand his ground and tell more.
What inspires some people to do this. It is like they have to create a superhuman persona, then actually start believing their bullshit.
Some of them even become successful evangelical comediens.
After over a decade of being completely discredited, Mike Warnke still insists he was a satanic high priest, an army medic in Veitnam, and any other bullshit that comes out of his mouth.
Ah yes, the “You’ve done it? Well I’ve done it on the moon!” syndrome.
Does your roommate know about the lies? Or at least have a tiny little bit of suspicion?
Heh. Next time you see him ask him his “service number”. If he hesitates or reels of a string of numbers smile sweetly and say, “Gee, the military hasn’t used service numbers for years! What’s your social security number?” You could have a lot of fun poking him, actually. Ask him his MOS, ask him his time in service, ask to see his DD-214…
When I was stationed in SoFlo a friend and I went shopping at a local mall. The guy behind the counter asked to see ID for the check I was writing, saw my military ID, and started telling us (two active Navy-types) that he had been in the SEALS. “Oh, yeah? What was your rate?”
“I was in the SEALs.”
“Yeah, I know, but you had to get a rate before you went into the SEALs.”
“Oh, wow, it’s been so long, I really can’t remember…” (Yeah, right. The guy was in his mid-20s and couldn’t remember the last job he had?)
“Ok, buddy. Next time you want to tell this story make sure you’re telling it to someone not actually in the Navy, ok?”
“But I was in the SEALs!”
:rolleyes:
Can Airman, unclviny, and chique (or other military Dopers) confirm the wisdom of the following rule of thumb?
True (military) bad-asses rarely ever divulge the nature of their abilities – even after their service is through. If someone is bragging, they are almost certainly lying.
.
I’ve worked with a couple of guys like that. One was 19 years old, yet had somehow served in 2 branches of the military, had had 3 different MOSs, and been honourably discharged. You name it, he’d been there, done that and got the t-shirt. He told a different story to every person.
Another guy takes the cake.
I’d known him before, having worked with him 3 or 4 years previously. When he came to work for me, I asked what he’d been up to the last few years.
“Well, I joined the navy out of high school, I was on SEAL Team 3 for awhile, did X, Y, Z”, yada yada yada. To say this story smells of bullshit does not even come close. When I revealed that I knew for a fact he graduated high school 2 years previously (and ex girlfriend of mine graduated with him) I called him on it, leading to a few weeks of changed stories and people getting steadily angrier. One guy we had on staff actually was in the military (101st airborne in Afghanistan). Of course, this second guy was rather gullible and believed some of the bullshit he threw out. It turns out he really was in the Navy, but had been discharged for psychological reasons shortly after boot camp (or whatever they call the navy version). He knew just enough jargon to convince the Army guy he was legit. Only when a more experienced ex-military guy reamed this kid a new asshole did he fess up the whole story. He quit shortly after.
What really pissed everyone off was when during a flag retirement ceremony when vetereans from the audience were called up to be recognized, this little punk stood up proudly. Some people deserve to be slapped. Hard.
Last I knew, the Navy still wasn’t using MOS numbers, but NEC codes for enlisted. Of course that means you have another way to try tripping this guy up: Ask him for his NEC code, and if he gives you a number, tell him, “Odd, I thought that was a Navy thing.”
I can offer my own experiences with 3 SEALs in OCS. One was a very unassuming man, very polite, very professional. One was a friendly, good guy. One was a crazy party animal. All three were in amazing physical condition. None of them pretended to be any kind of bad-ass. I expect it’s because they each knew what they were capable of and they had nothing to prove.
My personal rule of thumb - anyone who has to tell you how strong or tough or smart or religious or generous or whatever, probably isn’t.
I suppose I should have clarified in my previous post - I went through OCS with 4 companies of prior enlisted personnel. That’s why the 3 guys were already SEALs. We were all E-4 through E-7 at the time.
The nature of the military pretty much prevents you from talking about how “bad-ass” you are. First of all, you’re in the business of killing people, either directly or indirectly, and the most “bad-ass” are the ones on the front lines. It’s generally considered bad form to talk about killing people (except in documentaries). Second, your decorations speak for themselves, so you don’t need to talk. One of my guys has a Purple Heart, rare enough that I noticed, and I asked him about it. He didn’t want to talk about it, and who could blame him.
Last, the most “bad-ass” people on Earth are the people who break down and cry in front of the camera when they’re talking about their war experiences. Someone who can talk about how tough they are without showing any emotion is someone who is either faking or bears watching, because killing people exacts a toll. For instance, what I do does not result directly in the deaths of others, but I am complicit in the acts because I am in the Air Force. I find myself thinking about that pretty frequently, and while it doesn’t make me fall apart or anything it makes me somewhat sad that we have to do stuff like that. The guy who tells about how he plugged 20 Iraqis by himself and has no remorse or sadness about it, for example, is almost certainly a phony.
I have spoken about my combat experience (as it were) in the past, but only to highlight to the people who liked to hammer on the Guard as “Weekend Warriors” that we do actually do stuff. I don’t hold myself up as a “bad-ass” for it, because for every person like me who did his job and came home there are people that came home in a box, and those people deserve far more respect than I do.
People who lie that much probably have mental problems. But why do you want to spend so much time proving that he’s lying? If you’re concerned about your roommate, just tell her that he’s full of shit, and to be wary about anything he says. Other than that, you’re going to come off looking like a jerk, (I’ve been in the same situation).
So we’ve got a population of inferiority-complexed mid-life crisis tubby white guys playing Army dress-up, an actual Army that can’t meet its recruitment goals, a perfecty good set of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the rest of us who’d just as soon be rid of the whole business. Hey - everybody wins!
http://www.comegetyousome.com/images/redneck%20heros.jpg
fortunately, it seems that this guy’s claims can be tested empirically: get together six guys to beat on his arse, and if he doesn’t end up in hospital I’ll eat my keyboard, mouse and all.
You don’t even need fresh batteries in your Bullshit Detector for that boy. Trouble is, even if you tell your roommate what you think of him, she won’t want to hear it until she learns the hard way.
I was in university residence with a female version of the I’ll Top You Compulsive Liar. I’m ashamed to say that after a while, we’d encourage her (simply by mentioning something like you’d bought a new sweater.
“Oh, really? I just bought four new sweaters. Cashmere. From Paris. A hundred and fifty dollars each.”
“Wow, sounds gorgeous. Let’s see!”
“Uh, they’re in the wash right now.”
And so on.
I’ve encountered these types before. If you can do something, they can do it too—better, even. I’ve pulled the “let’s see you do it!” line on them a few times, and they back down quick. It’s really quite funny.
I am going to be monitoring this thread, because I really want to know how this will pan out.
In which case, if you find them walking around, you should definately call the police.
My uncle was a frogman, but he never talks about what he did. Some family members actually meantion something about him having some problems with the mafia, but that’s about it.
Meanwhile my dad tells stories about the Navy. From what he usually talks about, it seems like half their time was spent playing practical jokes on one another. 
NEC codes wouldn’t work for a guy who claims to be army special forces though, would it? Never mind that I’d be in trouble, unless NEC = rate, in which case my answer would be CTM2.
Either that or he’s fucking psychotic.
What’s the deal with Jesse Ventura? Didn’t he claim to be in the SEALs? Oliver North was also known to bullshit about his record in Vietnam.
I would have to say that neither of them are bullshit, but Ollie in particular depends too much upon his combat record to get by. Then again, once you get into politics the rules change a bit to where you’re supposed to talk about your combat experience to the extent that you had some. I don’t recall either of them talking like psychopaths, though.
Maybe you can save your friend by fobbing him off on Kaitlyn?