And in the interests of fairness, I’ll relate this story: some time back, a girl I knew slightly was telling me that her boyfriend, an Army enlistee, had just gotten back from six months in Germany, where he had been awarded the “Distinguished Conduct Medal.” I asked her if she meant the Distinguished Service Medal, and she said, “Yes, that’s it!”
Since I knew the Distinguished Service Medal was quite rare, especially for an enlistee (it’s higher in precedence than the Silver Star) I immediately decided that this guy was yanking her chain.
Several weeks later I actually met the guy, and, wanting to see if he’d carry on the lie, I asked him about it in front of her. “What?” he laughed. “No, I got the Army Good Conduct Medal.” (Which is awarded after three years in without getting in any kind of serious trouble). So the problem was a ditzy girlfriend, nothing more…
This is making me laugh as I was thinking about it the other day. My son and I had been in an airport in Memphis and were eating in the bar of a restaurant there when in comes a “warrior” in full regalia. He was really workin’ it and of course getting kudos and free drinks.
We commented on how that would be a clever way to get a little ego boost and a few free cocktails - just go to your Army surplus store, doll up and take a swagger through an airport.
Only last week my daughter commented on a man I know who has schizophrenia and has spent most of his life in and out of institutions. She’d said how sorry she felt for him as “VietNam messed him up.” So that’s how he explains his disability in a more acceptable way, I thought to myself. Clever and sad.
Note that you must have a minimum of 8 years time-in-service to make E-7 (Master Sergeant), along with time-in-grade requirements. Exceedingly few people make it in the bare minimum of time as promotion is not automatic and is based on many factors. Airmen are lucky to make E-5 (Staff Sergeant) in 4 years.
My grandfather was run through with a saber during his time in the desert in the second world war. He showed me the scar! I was recounting the tale at his wake and one of his daughters explained that what I’d seen was an appendix scar and that he had a habit of teasing small children. Recently I got sent his actual war records. He did indeed serve in the desert (that was never disputed) where he contracted malaria and had to be sent home.
I didn’t know that there weren’t any enlisted pilots in the Air Force either.
Frankly, just about everything I know about the armed forces I learned from watching MAS*H. Point being, the average civilian may well be quite ignorant about military matters.
A little Googling indicates that Army chopper pilots and some Navy pilots are warrant officers, and can actually become such via enlisting- they just go straight to NCO status.
I don’t think the British forces are allowed to wear their uniforms on the street - maybe this is one of the reasons. Anyone who boasts about their forces history should be treated with skepticism really. We had a Colonel So and So in our village, but everyone said he wasn’t and hadn’t been.
Colonel Harland Sanders was a Kentucky Colonel, an honorary nonmilitary rank granted by the Governors of Kentucky in much the same way knighthoods are conferred by the British Crown.
ETA: Fun fact - the Arabic equivalent of a lieutenant colonel is muqaddam.
If you think about it for a second, you answered your own question there. The people who do the *best *job of faking military service are the ones we never find out about. It’s the overboard idiots who get caught. (And even the non-overboard idiots who get caught generally aren’t going to make the news, 'cause they’re presumably not as exciting.)
Cool! I’m totally going to start calling my dad muqaddam* just to mess with him.
With my luck he won’t bat an eye, totally messing with me!
*He’s actually the real deal as opposed to a faker but he MAAAY have told my mom’s younger brother, back when they were dating and bro was a snot-nosed teenager that dad could kill him in less than 6 seconds with only his thumb.
Warrant officers are officers, they get saluted and everything and their kids get to go to the officer’s club and eat prime rib and everything. 'Course, when they retire, they revert to E-9 for the better retirement pay.
