Question for the military Dopers

In My Humble Opinion
21

In my very, very limited experience, I’ve known 3 SEALs (we went through OCS* together) and I worked for a Naval Aviator who spent almost 5 years in the Hanoi Hilton. All four of these men were, interestingly enough, easy-going and rather congenial. The SEALs were probably in their late 20s, but they never seemed to feel the need to prove anything - they’d proven it by becoming SEALs. The aviator had the sunniest outlook of anyone I ever knew - not a fakey “lollipops and rainbows and puppies” attitude, but it was obvious that after the hell he’d been through, nothing life threw at him was a big deal.

And while this is a very unscientific sample, I’ve heard similar anecdotes from other people.

On the other hand, a close friend who was shot by a nutcase at work (line of duty, but not a war or anything) seemed to revel in the attention he could bring to himself by showing his scars and (believe it or not) the scrapbook that included his xrays showing the bullets inside him. For all his protestations that he didn’t want to dwell on it, he most certainly did. So I guess experience and personality both determine what kinds of “war stories” a vet will share.

Incidentally, you know the difference between a fairy tale and a sea story? The sea story begins: “This is a no-shitter…”
*Yes, they were SEALs in OCS. We were all prior enlisteds going over to the dark side.

22

Just to clarify: A fairy tale begins, “Once upon a time…”, and a sea story starts w/, “This ain’t no shit, but…”

23

Everyone here has some great points. Sometimes though, you just have to sit back, nod, and smile.

My step grandfather was in some division of the Airborne in WW2 (I’ve tried to find out more information, but my step family isn’t exactly a reliable source. Actually, if anyone can tell me where I could look this up, I’d be forever indebted to you and will clean your bathroom or something). I know for sure he was in the Airborne, because he sent Step Grandma his parachute (or just a parachute that he said was his, who knows) home with a ring tied to it to propose to her.

I digress. The point is that this man, nice as he may be, spun some amazing stories. Would you believe that he was at Dday, Hiroshima, Midway, Iwo Jima (amazing, since I coulda sworn that was the Marines. . :slight_smile: ), and personally kicked Hitler in the shins this one time (ok, he never said that). Pretty much any great battle of the Great War, he says he was there.

I always figured, why argue? Even if they aren’t his stories, I’m sure they are his friends’ and hell, they are interesting regardless.

I have this theory that all of my friends that are fighting in this war will someday be telling their grandkids about this one time they took Saddam’s palace then found him in a spider hole.

24

Good point. There are some people who can just tell a damn good story, and you really don’t care about the truth of it.

25

I could probably figure out ways to trip up someone who was claiming he was a Nuc, who wasn’t, fairly easily. Asking which prototype he qualfied on would probably do the trick. But a lot of that would include sorting time conflicts to see if he or she could have done that then.

Litoris, for people telling fake military service stories… if it’s a stranger, I really don’t care. If it’s someone I have to live with day in, day out, I’m going to eventually try to trip him up. We had one sailor come off the Enterprise, and his stories started out implausible, and went down from there. Eventually he was claiming that, while back on the Tuna Surprise, he’d singlehandedly outfought a SEAL entry team in the enginerooms.

Confronting someone like that about his or her implausible stories often seems the only way to get them to shut up about them.

Though, recently, my Aunt’s father passed away, and since he was a vet the funeral home put out some military items with the body for the viewing. My father and I are both vets, and hadn’t realized that Frank* was a vet, so we tried to figure out what he’d done. We were a bit confused by the CIB with an aircrew patch on the display, until one of the funeral home people noticed our scrutiny and told us that it was a generic display, and not really representative of Frank’s service.

For myself, I felt cheated - not because they were trying to fool anyone, but I still had had the idea that “Wow! I’ll get to learn something more about Frank that his family never really would talk about.” For a minute I could forget that Frank had died, while I tried to work out his service. Having that pulled out from under me sucked.

A very different set of circumstances, but it’s one more reason why fake stories would bother me more, now.

26

Well my story is true but it does sound like I’m spinning BS.

My MOS was 02H in the Army. One of my active duty posts was the 8th ID in Bad Kreuznach, Germany. The 8th ID was the Pathfinder division, and the commanding 2-star general decided he wanted his band (yes 02 is a music MOS) to be Pathfinders. So he made us all Pathfinders.

Now any of you who are Pathfinder-qualified are probably cringing. I cringed when I got the medal (6 months pregnant to boot) since I never went to jump school and I sure as hell didn’t go to Pathfinder school. But that stupid designation was in my 201 file so I was a Pathfinder.

Fast forward about 8 years and I’d joined the Reserves to pay for college and off I went to PLDC (primary leadership development). Right away I got harrassed by the instructors: SGT, where are your jump wings?!?

I’m not jump qualified.

So why are you wearing a Pathfinder badge??

It’s in my 201 file.

sigh

Stupid 2-star generals really OUGHT to stay out of stuff like that.

27

I was a REMF and the product of a long line of REMFs extending back to the Civil War. Like others my observation is that among my father’s friends and my friends the ones who really were in serious combat are the ones who don’t talk about it. The stories they told, and tell, are about things that other people did or amusing anecdotes – no blood and guts war stories. Some of these people had remarkable histories. My eye-doctor spent six months on the line as an infantry private in Northern Italy and was the only man who came back from one patrol. My mail man was shot down over Normandy and was hidden by local villagers until the American advance reached him. My childhood doctor set up an aid and evacuation station under a knocked out bulldozer on Omaha Beach. One of my father’s colleagues was a Medical Officers captured at Bataan. Some of my friends did and saw horrible things in Vietnam. They just didn’t talk about it, and when they did it was never in a bragging or vainglorious way.

I sort of assume that a public braggart is a phony and it is not worth the effort to talk to him, let alone take the time to deflate the windbag.

28

[QUOTE=Spavined Gelding.

I sort of assume that a public braggart is a phony and it is not worth the effort to talk to him, let alone take the time to deflate the windbag.[/QUOTE]

I’ll second that .

29

Oh deary me I really was a little bit slow there !
Dont be shy if theres something you want to say to me in particular for example why not go to the pit and get it all off of your chest.
Dont worry we’re in virtual space so you and your friends cant suffer any physical harm,be a brave little soldier now.
See you soon!

30

I find it very intersting that your family,generation after generation never actually take the chance .
I bet your very proud of your familys history of logistics,generation after generation and after any major war they dont talk about it ,cos its too traumatic.

31

Huh?

:confused:

32

I’m not sure what you are talking about or driving at. If you would like to expand on what appears at first reading to be some sort of personal attack I’d be happy to hear it.

33

There appears to be one or two people on these boards who have some sort of problem with being R.E.M.F.s.
Personally I dont have a problem with them,no army in the world can function without them.

I do have a problem with them if while serving or as veterans they try to pretend that they were/are front line or that they did more then they are letting on about but they dont want to talk about it .

These are the people who are forever walking around wearing regimental blazer badges,ties,stickpins etc. in everyday civilian life ,who get themselves onto the commitees at the British Legion ,who are always the ones who make sure that they’re in front of the cameras on parade for rememberance day.

I hold in particular contempt those chair polishers who never even leave depot in the U.K. who do the above and I do know some.

And I hold in even greater contempt the regular poster on these boards who pretends that he served in the U.S. forces but apart from a short time in the naval reserve he didn’t,he knows who he is and so do several other people.(I’m not suggesting its you by the way)

There is a difference between being in danger from somebody taking a potshot at you or ambushing you and someone who has to actively go towards known danger every single time.

But as I say apart from them I have no problem with R.E.M.F.s but there are people who think that I do and have a chip on their shoulder about it and start sniping at me as a consequence.

They are rather like the boy at school who had difficulty learning to read and write and everywhere he goes thinks that people are having a dig at him by reading newspapers,carrying books etc."Oh look at him he thinks hes so good reading those forms .who does he think he is? "and so on and so on.

So I say again I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH R.E.M.Fs
If there are those of them who have a complex about it themselves then its up to them to deal with it not get on MY back about it .

If somebody does want to get something off of their cheststhen as I said before go to the pit and say it outright not make snide little remarks and then back off.
As the saying goes ,either shit or get off of the pot.

34

What the heck does any of that have to do with Spavined Gelding’s post?

35

I had a very offbeat military experience, which I could use to tell stories, but don’t. I was once a member of Special Forces Unit, and I’ve never been to so much as basic training.
Lemme 'splain. I enlisted in the Army Reserve version of the delayed entry program as soon as I was eligible, assigned to a specific unit, the 297th SF intelligence detachment. I drilled with the unit one weekend a month during my senior year of high school, and wore what everyone else wore, BDUs and beret. At the eleventh hour, instead of graduating high school and going off for the two years and some training they had planned for me (Basic, AIT, Jump school, Learning Russian at the Defense Language Institute at Monterey, the Q school, ect.), I took an ROTC scholarship and went to ASU. I hated it, after hanging with the real guys for nine months. I decided to do a second semester, grit it out, get serious, move onto campus. Moving too much stuff on a small motorcycle led to a shattered elbow. After as much convalescense they could give me, and one summer session make up, I didn’t have the range of motion necessary to be mil-spec anymore, and resigned on medical grounds. I’m not considered a veteran, because I never saw a day of active duty.

36

Of course it has nothing to do with my post. My point ( I thought) was to illustrate the idea that soldiers who actually did and saw remarkable things, who were in dangerous situations, are the least likely to talk about it publically and that the people who do are likely to be fakes. It’s that simple. The confessed fact that neither I nor my father or grandfather or great-great grandfather actually shot anybody has nothing to do with it. That is not the issue.

In my defense, and in defense of my antecedents, Great-great grandfather was a regimental surgeon with an Ohio infantry regiment (Battle of Atlanta, Missionary Ridge, March to the Sea), while my grandfather and father were both medical officers in WWI and WWII respectively. I was a judge advocate during Vietnam although I had been trained as an infantry officer. Each of us did the job the government is its wisdom chose for us to do, not the job we sought.

But again, that has nothing to do with the point of the thread or the post.

37

I work with a guy who did time in the Army. I’m sure his stories about Northan Ireland and Iraq are from his actually being there, though maybe he wasn’t originally the star of all of them.

What bothers me is the way he has to speak with authority on any subject closely related to the army. If I’m talking about guns he has to come out and correct me. If I mention a story another veteran told me he comes out and says it’s wrong. Now I don’t argue with him because he was in the army and I wasn’t. But seriously, I’m wise enough to smell bullshit when he’s shoveling it.

38

IME, the guys who talk are the ones who never went. Those who went to the sandbox or, before that, the jungle, usually don’t say shit unless somebody asks or it’s a “my life was saved by this incredibly lucky moment” story.

Perfect case in point was a friend’s step-son who did 2 tours in Iraq, the second being an actual invasion. When asked about the entire experience, all he said was it was fine. Anything weird happen? Well, when he stood up from behind a rock, he felt a bullt hit him in the neck, knocking him back. He got up, and found the bullet hit his chinstrap.

That’s the whole story. None of the fine Marines and Army soldiers I’ve met have told anything other than that one story about battle. Usually, it’s down-playing their role.

39

Who’s he?
What corrections has this “he” made about your comments on weapons ?
What stories of your friends that you have related on the board has "he " said was wrong and wrong in which way?

Let us all know so that we can all participate.