# Phony (And Stupid) Fake "Marine" Busted **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 30, 2006, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347 "2006-11-30T17:22:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347/41 "2006-11-30T21:06:12Z")
How can you tell when some Dopers are lying? Their fingers are moving! šŸ˜› ---
**Author:** ![FormerMarineGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/65b543/32.png) [@FormerMarineGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FormerMarineGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347/42 "2006-11-30T21:30:49Z")
[QUOTE=Rube E. Tewesday] Jesus. Iā€™m a Canadian whoā€™s never served in any military, and I could bark out ā€œSemper Fi!ā€ if I needed to. Thatā€™s pretty pathetic, if they couldnā€™t even do any research on their fantasy life. [/QUOTE] The thing is a lot of them thought it was some sort of trick question, or Marine Corps code. So they would search for something in their minds a little more sophisticated. From memory, I also remember asking them what the Marine Corps motto translated to. ---
**Author:** ![Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347/43 "2006-11-30T21:45:51Z")
[QUOTE=FormerMarineGuy] The thing is a lot of them thought it was some sort of trick question, or Marine Corps code. So they would search for something in their minds a little more sophisticated. From memory, I also remember asking them what the Marine Corps motto translated to. [/QUOTE] You met enough of these tools that you had a bunch a techniques for dealing with them? Thatā€™s pretty sad. ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347/44 "2006-11-30T21:48:08Z")
[QUOTE=Shoshana] As an scriptwriting undersea welder with a sideline in arctic paleontology, Iā€™m equally offended. Semper Fi! [/QUOTE] All you Presidents of Liars Anonymous will feel the wrath of the Arctic Undersea Scriptwriting Paleantological Welders Association! MWA HA HA HA HAAAA! AUSPWA Forever! _In vino veritas_ ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347/45 "2006-11-30T21:51:54Z")
Bob, youā€™ve exposed yourself. ā€œPaleantologicalā€? Only a wannabe would mis-spell one of our sacred core competancies. _Semper ubi sub ubi_. ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347/46 "2006-11-30T21:54:11Z")
[QUOTE=A.R. Cane] The unofficial Navy motto: Haze gray and underway! [/QUOTE] I thought it was ā€œIf itā€™s queer on the pier, itā€™s okay underwayā€ šŸ˜• ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347/47 "2006-11-30T22:05:08Z")
[QUOTE=Lemur866] I guess Iā€™ll tell people that I started my own company, and my company provides specialized services to Microsoft that their internal hiring processes arenā€™t able to fill. Weā€™re more nimble, yā€™see. Tools, automation, development. Yes, itā€™s a grueling schedule, all those meetings and design reviews and inventing the future and whatnot. [/QUOTE] Oh? Can I have the name of this company? šŸ˜‰ What I find so bizarre about this is that these guys must have a deathwish. What kind of an idiot pretends to be an ex-marine in a room full of ex-marines? Why not just get it over with and make a fake Hellā€™s Angels jacket and hang out at a Hellā€™s Angels rally? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347/48 "2006-11-30T22:08:38Z")
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp] Heh. Now I can tell that BOTH of you are lying. **I** am the President of Liars Anonymous, and as you should know very well, our celebrity rep is David Leisure. [/QUOTE] Who, as we know, invented the leisure suit. Much in the same way that the zoot suit was named after a character in a Monty Python movie. Itā€™s true, you can look it up! ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347/49 "2006-11-30T22:11:06Z")
Wait, I thought the navy motto was ā€œRum, Sodomy, and the Lashā€. Wait, thatā€™s the BRITISH navy. Sorry there. And my company is LemurTech Inc. We keep a low profile. But you might have heard of Visual LemurVision 2.0 file management system? ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347/50 "2006-11-30T22:19:42Z")
[QUOTE=Lemur866] And my company is LemurTech Inc. We keep a low profile. But you might have heard of Visual LemurVision 2.0 file management system? [/QUOTE] Ah yes. IIRC we rebranded that as Microsoft Visual Vision Vista File Management Access System Studio Software Developer Kit 1.0.1.1 (MVVVFMASSSDK) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347/51 "2006-11-30T22:37:13Z")
[QUOTE=Dooku] Oh? Can I have the name of this company? šŸ˜‰ What I find so bizarre about this is that these guys must have a deathwish. What kind of an idiot pretends to be an ex-marine in a room full of ex-marines? [/QUOTE] Thereā€™s such a thing as an _EX_-Marine? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347/52 "2006-11-30T22:38:35Z")
Of course, that was all a long time ago, back in 2005. It was all superceded when Microsoft licenced our InterVisual Virtual LemurHyperVision Toolkit SDK 4.0 for Vista. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347/53 "2006-11-30T22:40:38Z")
[QUOTE=Antinor01] Honestly, I just donā€™t see how this is news or what the big deal is. Did he try to get something out of it? The story seems to indicate that he just enjoyed telling stories. And that bit about the bill to make it illegal to verbally claim to have gotten medals? Thatā€™s one of the most asinine things Iā€™ve ever heard. [/QUOTE] Yeah, i gotta agree with this. By all means out the guy and ridicule him, if thatā€™s what floats your boat. But the idea of devoting actual legislation to this issue is fucking bizarre. [QUOTE=PoorYorick] Jeez, if I claimed to be in the CIA, Iā€™d, like, at least browse around [https://www.cia.gov/](https://www.cia.gov/) for a few minutes or something. [/QUOTE] Actually, claiming to be in the CIA is probably a lot easier than claiming to be in the Marines. I remember reading somewhere that the CIA has a policy of neither confirming nor denying whether a person is or has been on their payroll. I think it was in an article about the actor Steven Seagal, who does nothing to discourage rumors that he once did work for the CIA. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347/54 "2006-11-30T22:42:21Z")
Me? Iā€™am a doctor of fuel injectors ---
**Author:** ![FormerMarineGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/65b543/32.png) [@FormerMarineGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FormerMarineGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347/55 "2006-11-30T22:49:31Z")
[QUOTE=Rube E. Tewesday] You met enough of these tools that you had a bunch a techniques for dealing with them? Thatā€™s pretty sad. [/QUOTE] I probably met one a week, give or take. Some of them made me laugh (the homeless drunk I would come across), but the ones that really got to me were the people who would actually come to my office with their war stories, etc. 99.9% of the time, when someone would follow a story with either 1)I donā€™t really like to talk about it or 2) I am not allowed to talk about it, top secret, etc., I knew they were full of shit also. When a former Marine (you are correct **kaylasdad99** in saying there is no ex-Marine, per titling) is standing with either another former Marine or current Marine), there is really nothing to hide. If you have a story, one is usually dying to share the sea story, etc. If something you did is top-secret type stuff, you just wouldnā€™t say anything. One of the reasons I probably met so many is because people would live a lie, for whatever reason, and feel the need to address me to make them believe their own story even more. Sometimes they were people who never joined but probably regretted it. Others were people who probably enlisted but did not make it through full term. Others either did serve, but felt a need to lie about their service (usually the other services saying that they were Seals, Green Berets, or whatever). It is ashame, but believe it or not, very rarely did it get me mad or upset. I would use it as a selling tool to a lot of future Marines or new boots. If you are being copied, take it as the highest form of flattery. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347/56 "2006-11-30T22:52:10Z")
[QUOTE=FormerMarineGuy] When a former Marine (you are correct **kaylasdad99** in saying there is no ex-Marine, per titling) [/QUOTE] My bad. Iā€™m quite ignorant about the military. ---
**Author:** ![FormerMarineGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/65b543/32.png) [@FormerMarineGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FormerMarineGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347/57 "2006-11-30T22:56:04Z")
[QUOTE=Dooku] My bad. Iā€™m quite ignorant about the military. [/QUOTE] No worries. It is actually just simple wording to add to the Marine Corps way of making you feel extra special. ALSO, it is another way to tell the difference between someone who was in the Marines, and was not in the Marines but pretending to be. This is not foolproof, though, as some former Marines (from years back) might forget this little tidbit about our titling and call themselves ex-Marines. They correct themselves quickly when you correct them. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347/58 "2006-11-30T22:59:25Z")
[QUOTE=mhendo] But the idea of devoting actual legislation to this issue is fucking bizarreā€¦ [/QUOTE] I believe the legislation is designed especially for fakers who take advantage of services intended for honest-to-God veterans, such as health care, which legions of people who never served keep trying to take advantage of. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347/59 "2006-11-30T23:08:09Z")
[QUOTE=bluethree] I believe the legislation is designed especially for fakers who take advantage of services intended for honest-to-God veterans, such as health care, which legions of people who never served keep trying to take advantage of. [/QUOTE] Surely thatā€™s covered under laws that prohibit people from obtaining benefits by deception, or similar laws? Iā€™m all for making sure that these people donā€™t use fraud in order to get things theyā€™re not entitled to. But thatā€™s a lot different from acting like a blowhard at a party, or simply claiming to have gotten some medals. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347/60 "2006-11-30T23:18:02Z")
These fakers piss me off. It took me years of hard work to get my double 0 rating. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phony-and-stupid-fake-marine-busted/382347.md?page=4)