I spoke to someone else about this individual today who has known him for longer than I have, and apparently he is very delusional and lives in sort of a fantasy world. Now I really just feel sorry for him.
The fellow sounds like Topper, an occasional character in Scott Adams’ comic strip, Dilbert.** Regardless of what anyone says, Topper will retort, “That’s nothing!” and try to top what the other person says, even if it means claiming that he once “passed a gallstone so big that it became secretary of labor in the Clinton administration.”
Examples:
When the boss claimed to have caught a really big fish, Topper replied that he once caught a dinosaur using nothing but dental floss and a pull-tab from a beer can…but that he couldn’t show anyone the dinosaur as he also made the world’s best BBQ.
On another occasion, when Alice said that she ran six miles with a sore leg, Topper replied that he broke his leg on the way to work and hopped 40 miles…on the broken leg.
On yet another occasion, when Alice said that she had gone on a long walk, Topper claimed that his thighs were so strong, that he was afraid to jump rope when the sun was overhead. When Alice told him that he was full of beans, he replied, “Exactly…that’s how I achieve escape velocity.”
Topper’s attempts to top others sometimes backfires on him. When told by a customer that he didn’t want to buy from Topper’s company, Topper retorted, “That’s nothing. Now I plan to burn my company to the ground!”
At any rate, I think our OP’s acquaintance has the Topper syndrome.
My dad was in the military during the Vietnam war. Based upon some family stories, I’m pretty sure he did some things that he wouldn’t have been able to talk about at the time. That being said, other than having a POW/MIA sticker on his car, he never really references his service. I can count the number of times he’s mentioned it on one hand, and still have fingers leftover.
He once told my mom, back when they were married and still had something resembling a relationship (so before I was born) that most of the people who came back and told stories to all and sundry didn’t really see much. He never told my mom any stories, either. He does have some medals, though, so it’s not total BS.
Sounds like my grandfather. I’d ask him about his WWII service, and he’d say little but, “I’ve forgotten most of it, and I wish I could forget the rest.”
Argent Towers writes:
> And these lying bastards are everywhere.
No, they’re not. I’ve never met anyone like the person you describe. Is the problem that you hang out in bars where it’s required to impress everyone there with how macho you are? If I frequently heard the regulars in any location making up obvious lies, I’d get out of there and find someplace better to hang out.
Wow. How high is that horse?
No kidding. I didn’t meet my shitstain brother in a bar.
I dunno, I never seem to run into these guys.
During the briefs/debriefs security folks will, in fact, give you the official story about what you were doing when you were doing that thing that officially wasn’t being done.
Even if you do ask a very specific question, he should still have something he can tell you about it. Hell, knowing that there is a secret is half way to finding out what’s being kept hush-hush. You’re specifically not supposed to pull that cryptic “…but I’d have to kill you.” crap.
So, yeah. Almost definitely pulling your leg and possibly never even tangentially involved in a classified operation.
I’m 24 but most of the people I interact with, either occupationally or socially, are at least 35 and often older. I think part of this might be that people think they can take advantage of my youth and presumed ignorance to trick me.
The guy who inspired the first thread I started on military posers was a guy on IMDB, so I didn’t really run into him in a real-life sense. I had definitely encountered “I was in the special forces” bullshit from guys before, often in contexts involving alcohol. The IMDB poster, who was extremely articulate and told very elaborate, detailed stories, was just too much to be believed, hence my asking about it here.
The second thread related to a work acquaintance. He told me he had been a pilot in the Vietnam War, after I noticed a black and white photo of him in a flight suit posing with a fighter jet. Him, I gave the benefit of the doubt after many people in the thread I started about him claimed that he might indeed have been telling the truth. Turns out he wasn’t. After asking about him a week ago, to someone who knows him better than me, I was told his MOS was artillery and his “pilot” photo was just him posing in a flight suit with a pilot buddy’s plane. In other words, he decided to mislead me into thinking he was actually a fighter pilot. The guy served in Vietnam honorably, he did see combat in his actual field…why did he feel he need to exaggerate his deeds to me? I would have respected him just as much.
The most recent one is the one that really breaks my heart because the guy in question is a member of my Masonic lodge and someone who I call my brother. I trusted him and he took advantage of that trust. Again, I would have respected him just as much if he had never made up this phony Special Forces BS.
That’s not actually true. You can enlist with a 18 series MOS, although you go through regular 11X basic, and if you wash out of SpecFor training, you become a regular grunt.
That being said, the OP’s buddy is full of shit. Every vet has a story that can be told, even if it’s not the best stuff. Heck, get one started on how awful the chow was, and you won’t be able to stop 'em.
Too bad you didn’t whip out your cell phone and pretend to speak to someone at NCIS or the FBI. Here’s what I imagine a fun conversation would be (remembering that the poser in front of you will not be aware there’s nobody on the other end):
Not at all. People in the Department of State play a game they call “find the spook”. A lot of embassies worldwide have CIA stations in them. The people that work in them are known CIA employees (either agents or admin staff) and don’t normally try to hide it. However, there are other employees in many embassies who claim to be Foreign Service Officers, but are, in actuallity, undercover agents. The game is to try to figure out who they are without endangering their cover. It turns out to be laughably easy, in many cases.
It’s not only military guys who like to spin yarns about their service. CIA people also like to tell tall tales. We were friends with a woman who was an administrative person at the Station in Lisbon. She liked to “spook it up” and hint that she was more than that. The ludicrous extreme came when we looked her up in WDC. I called Langley and asked for her, and was of course told she wasn’t there, but they passed a message to her. She calls me and tells me that I “blew her cover”. Turns out, she was in some refresher admin course. 
But 18 series personnel don’t have the type of jobs where they would find difficulty talking about their service. Quite the contrary.
The type of situation the OP is asking about would be more likely to come from “Specially Managed Personnel”, and not from anyone with a particular MOS. However, even people in these duty positions will have a better answer than “I’m not allowed to talk about it”… even if they can’t. They’ll change the subject or tell you some bullshit about how hard it was working in an office all day. Or something. Certainly not the ever-suspicious, “I’m not allowed to talk about it”.
When I was in Boy Scouts, a few Green Berets showed us some basic survival skills and first aid, and even blew up a little C4. They were very low key and business-like. I could see them being management in IBM, or something.
They were like gods to us 11-year-olds.
Damn! In my Scout Troop, we just tied knots and smoked oak leaves…
Oh man…I have done the exact same thing GMTA and all.
I was too young for Nam, but not by much.