I’ve lived the last 25 years of my life being asked by every single military person I encounter whether I am in some way related to you.
You’re one of the world’s best pilots - you are SOOO good at what you do. Not one of s in this family wants to devalue your flying skills.
So a month ago I posted a public comment on a messageboard regarding your participation in VietNam. It’s public domain information - if it wasn’t PD, then I could not “google” it.
This post - too - will ultimately show up on google. It will also be cached elsewhere.
Let me make one thing really fucking clear. I don’t give a flying fuck about your military rank. You were an asshole before you got awarded a DFC and you’ve been an asshole ever since.
Ya know, I understand what yer talking about. My sisters constantly are asked ‘How’s yer brother doing?’.
But you know what, they get out of whatever shadow exists by being their own selves. They have their own lives. They have their own stories to tell, and I don’t infringe on 'em.
Yeah, he might have gotten the Flying Cross, but you’ve got your own thing going. Why contribute to his ‘public image’ by whining about it? He’s done what he had to for king and country, and should be proud of it (albeit, not at your expense if he is).
I’m sure you have some accomplishments you can dangle over his head, too.
You know what I love about this OP? The way that everyone reading it is going to totally gloss over the point of the rant and just want to know who her brother is:
“Dammit, I’m sick of everyone paying attention to my famous brother!”
“Really? Your brother is famous? Who is he? Have I ever heard of him?”
Y’all seem to be misreading the OP. I don’t think he is related to the guy.
More info is needed IMHO, but my impression is that the OP tracked down this guy people think is his bro. and the guy was a jerk to him.
I dunno, grendel. She mentions that “the family” doesn’t want to take away from his flying skills, and she mentions that he was an asshole before he won his DFC, which she could only know if she knew him before he was famous. And, she refers to him as her “military brother” in the OP. Sounds like family to me.
I think most of the replies have missed the point.
The telling part of reprise’s OP is:
Her brother may have had an adverse opinion on a post she has placed elsewhere, regarding his participation in Vietnam. The situation looks to be just as much an embroiled saga as is my own “situation” with my half-brother who served in the US Navy during Vietnam who can, also, have some dictatorial attitudes which used to get right up my nose.
Comments about “sibling rivalry” are way off base, I’d say. And I don’t think, Tripler, that reprise is “living under someone’s shadow.”
This seems to be a personal rant about a family situation. I don’t think anyone should really comment further without any more explanation from reprise.
I think where this OP fails is that the whole point of it seems to be the “stop telling me what to think and who to be” part, but the whole rest of it mentions no examples of anyone telling anyone else what to think or who to be.
As it is, all I get is “my brother was a great pilot, really famous, won a distinguished flying cross, I posted about this on a message board once, my brother’s an asshole and I wish he’d leave me alone.” And that doesn’t really flow.
The reason I’m pissed off with my brother is because for as long as I can remember he’s treated the family like they are troops unde his command.
The latest example of this is an email I received from him the other day telling me my 98 year old auntie has thyroid cancer and informing me who in the family I can and cannot talk to about this.
When my mother died, my brother (who didn’t visit mum during the 12 months before she died, despite knowing her illness was terminal - and whose only letter to her during that time was one not offering her help or support but expressing disapproval that I was pregnant and unmarried) flew into town for a whole 4 hours to attend the funeral and arranged for her ashes to be sent to HIM without advising me (I nursed mum, arranged the funeral without any help, and he just waltzed in and changed things without even telling me).
Yes, he’s the eldest in the family. The problem is that he treats everyone else in the family as though they need to obey some kind of chain of command and not do or say anything without clearing it with him first.
Well reprise, have you ever told him about how this pisses you off? It doesn’t sound like you have. If that’s the case, it’s not all his fault he keeps acting like this.
I can understand your anger, especially the incident involving your mother. But why stay quiet about it? Tell him you think he’s a jerk, and why. It will do a lot more good than posting your feelings here. Even if he makes no effort to change, the truth will be out, and you don’t have to pretend anymore.