Stolen Valor
Stolen Valor
Posted on Aug 7, 2014
Why is it that Military Posers all use the same story - Ranger, Seal, SF, etc.?
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Why is it that Military Posers all use the same story- Ranger, Seal, SF, etc. ? Why don't they try a more "believable" story- Cook, Supply, Mechanic, etc. ? My best guess is because the Ranger, Seal, SF etc story is more impressive & nobody except those with any connection to the military will question the word of a soldier especially a combat soldier. Anyone else got a better answer?
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****CORRECTED POST****
I found this editorial several years ago and although it's been attributed to many authors, the most common one a Marine Corps Chaplain, this is the original as written by the author. For me, it expresses appreciation to the unsung heroes that provide 24/7 support to our fighting force around the world. A poser would never understand or appreciate the dedication of the men and women performing these critical jobs.
Anthony Barton Hinkle
“War makes strange giant creatures out of the little routine men who inhabit the Earth” ~ WWII correspondent, Ernie Pyle.
WHAT IS A VET?
Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg – or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul’s alloy forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can’t tell a vet just by looking.
What is a vet?
He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn’t run out of fuel.
He is the Nebraska farmer who worries every year that this time, the bank really will foreclose.
He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 39th Parallel.
She – or he – is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.
He is the POW who went away one person and came back another or didn’t come back at all.
He is the Quantico drill instructor who never has seen combat – but who has saved countless lives by turning slouchy no-counts into soldiers, and teaching them to watch each others’ backs.
He is the parade-riding legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.
He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.
He is the anonymous hero in the Tomb of the Unknowns, whose presence at Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the other anonymous heroes whose valor died unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean’s sunless deep.
He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket – palsied now and aggravatingly slow – who helped liberate a Nazi death camp, and who wishes all day long his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.
He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being – a person who offered some of his life’s most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs. He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.
Published by Richmond Times-Dispatch November 11, 1995
I found this editorial several years ago and although it's been attributed to many authors, the most common one a Marine Corps Chaplain, this is the original as written by the author. For me, it expresses appreciation to the unsung heroes that provide 24/7 support to our fighting force around the world. A poser would never understand or appreciate the dedication of the men and women performing these critical jobs.
Anthony Barton Hinkle
“War makes strange giant creatures out of the little routine men who inhabit the Earth” ~ WWII correspondent, Ernie Pyle.
WHAT IS A VET?
Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg – or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul’s alloy forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can’t tell a vet just by looking.
What is a vet?
He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn’t run out of fuel.
He is the Nebraska farmer who worries every year that this time, the bank really will foreclose.
He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 39th Parallel.
She – or he – is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.
He is the POW who went away one person and came back another or didn’t come back at all.
He is the Quantico drill instructor who never has seen combat – but who has saved countless lives by turning slouchy no-counts into soldiers, and teaching them to watch each others’ backs.
He is the parade-riding legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.
He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.
He is the anonymous hero in the Tomb of the Unknowns, whose presence at Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the other anonymous heroes whose valor died unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean’s sunless deep.
He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket – palsied now and aggravatingly slow – who helped liberate a Nazi death camp, and who wishes all day long his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.
He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being – a person who offered some of his life’s most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs. He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.
Published by Richmond Times-Dispatch November 11, 1995
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SGT Jim Wiseman
Damn, that kind of stuff pushes me to tears! Good tears, though... being at work, I try not to play for sympathy. I get appreciation enough from those I protect at work doing security. Never fired a shot overseas, even in an MOS like 11B. My late-life entry into the Army guaranteed me a spot in S-3 as an RTO.
My theory as to why posers go the SPECOPS route: They've researched it either as civilians or gained more credible knowledge while in a "less glamorous" position. Since most civilians have few clues as to what it takes to go SPECOPS. So, with even a little knowledge, posers can get away with more from civilians. They always forget, or never realizes that military recognizes their own. I may not recognize what ship you say you served on in the Navy, but I can recognize that it probably is one or was one. Tell me a CVN or other credible numeric classification, I'll believe you. I know enough Marines now to recognize more unit numbers and names. My stolen valor catch was low level, but when I was working an armed security gig straight out of the Army, I was doing it at a Motel 6 in a part of town with a general bad reputation. One guy checking in asked for a military discount and got it. After he received it and check out was finishing up, I asked what Branch he had served in. "Branch?" Dude! If you can't answer that basic question, you're so full of it, your eyes are brown... your whole family's eyes are brown at that point!
We've seen videos of guys getting tripped up by specific questions. Even if it's by just what we learned from others who know or were SPECOPS. Buddy I now work with tells of knowing an MoH recipient he knew (he'd seen the guy wearing it and utilizing it to get away with so many reg violations by displaying it with even the daily duty uniform). Apparently, this true MoH recipient had run into a kid asking for a military discount somewhere and was claiming to also be a recipient. So, true MoH pulls his out and asks, "You have one of these?" Kid says, "What's that?"
My theory as to why posers go the SPECOPS route: They've researched it either as civilians or gained more credible knowledge while in a "less glamorous" position. Since most civilians have few clues as to what it takes to go SPECOPS. So, with even a little knowledge, posers can get away with more from civilians. They always forget, or never realizes that military recognizes their own. I may not recognize what ship you say you served on in the Navy, but I can recognize that it probably is one or was one. Tell me a CVN or other credible numeric classification, I'll believe you. I know enough Marines now to recognize more unit numbers and names. My stolen valor catch was low level, but when I was working an armed security gig straight out of the Army, I was doing it at a Motel 6 in a part of town with a general bad reputation. One guy checking in asked for a military discount and got it. After he received it and check out was finishing up, I asked what Branch he had served in. "Branch?" Dude! If you can't answer that basic question, you're so full of it, your eyes are brown... your whole family's eyes are brown at that point!
We've seen videos of guys getting tripped up by specific questions. Even if it's by just what we learned from others who know or were SPECOPS. Buddy I now work with tells of knowing an MoH recipient he knew (he'd seen the guy wearing it and utilizing it to get away with so many reg violations by displaying it with even the daily duty uniform). Apparently, this true MoH recipient had run into a kid asking for a military discount somewhere and was claiming to also be a recipient. So, true MoH pulls his out and asks, "You have one of these?" Kid says, "What's that?"
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SP5 Ronald Hopkins
A now deceased fellow Vietnam vet friend of mine used to say that if he ever came across a vet who was a mail clerk, he would kiss that man on the mouth.
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Stolen from a buddy, but my "favorite war story".
I get so tired of people asking me if I killed anyone "over there". Then they ALL tell me that they are SF or that their cousin is a SEAL as if they are trying to one-up me. So I just tell people that I am a cook.
And one time as a cook, we got a mission to prepare a great feast of spaghetti for some generals. So Bob, Steve, John, and I got started on this meal. Steve was cooking a 25 gallon pot of sauce adding in his secret ingredients trying to get the taste just right. When all of a sudden the pot just exploded. We all got up and looked around the kitchen and there was sauce covering everything. It was on the walls, on the ceiling, on us... only problem was, we couldn't find Steve. At that point we weren't sure that it was all sauce on the walls.
ain't war hell.
I get so tired of people asking me if I killed anyone "over there". Then they ALL tell me that they are SF or that their cousin is a SEAL as if they are trying to one-up me. So I just tell people that I am a cook.
And one time as a cook, we got a mission to prepare a great feast of spaghetti for some generals. So Bob, Steve, John, and I got started on this meal. Steve was cooking a 25 gallon pot of sauce adding in his secret ingredients trying to get the taste just right. When all of a sudden the pot just exploded. We all got up and looked around the kitchen and there was sauce covering everything. It was on the walls, on the ceiling, on us... only problem was, we couldn't find Steve. At that point we weren't sure that it was all sauce on the walls.
ain't war hell.
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PFC John Butler
I served in Desert Storm as an 88m. I make sure to tell everyone who asks that's all I did. I drove a truck. No combat, just lots of driving around a really big desert. Not much excitement in a story that goes, "one time I had both tires on the front axle go flat and had to break them down, patch the tubes, and remount them." It is kind of nerve wracking when you're airing them back up and you're not sure if the split ring is properly seated, so you have the wheel with the split ring facing down standing in it so everything doesn't go flying if it isn't.
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SPC (Join to see)
SSG Daniel Brewster - I served in peacetime too and it's a little difficult to explain it to young people today who grew up during all these current wars. They seem to have the idea if you were in the military then you were deployed and if you weren't then why. Personally I don't give a damn what they say or think. I just tell them my specialty and I served long before their parents were born. Most of the time they don't even care.
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Sgt William Toliver
I served USAFSS i lot of people thought the security part of this designation meant i was a cop but those that know knew we were under the NSA. I was Osan AB Korea 60 to 61 in case there is anyone out there who was there 6929th RSM
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SSG Kenneth Ponder
I use to tell them the same thing my Father said when they asked him, Underground Balloon Corps, Mess Kit Repair
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Because most people can easily associate the often used, SF, Green Berets, SEALS, Rangers, etc. with military kick-a$$. Until they write a book about us world famous [insert your MOS here] guys and our cool equipment, then make it into a movie starring Denzel Washington, no one's going to pose as us because we aren't high speed and recognizable enough.
They tried it a while back with Pauley Shore and water purification with, "In the Army Now" and I haven't seen a poser coming out as a water purification specialist yet.
They tried it a while back with Pauley Shore and water purification with, "In the Army Now" and I haven't seen a poser coming out as a water purification specialist yet.
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CSM Jim Corrin
Ride through Ft. Eustis...signs everywhere proclaim "Nothing happens until something moves."
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SPC (Join to see)
The information would be more readily available online and in movies so a fake could use that to build their portfolio of lies and gather all of those impressive photos. Before personal computers were made we didn't have that advantage and there were probably a lot less military fakes.
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SGT Jim Wiseman
I'm surprised that "Suck on this on the one time!" hasn't drawn in someone to that MOS! Not really!
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