Poser neighbor

[safearm]

The State of Tenneesee takes a strong approach on Veterans vanity tags for your vehicles.

There are tags available for every conflict the US Military has been involved in. You have to provide proof that your were actually there in order to be issued one of those tags.

When I got mine for my car and motorcycle, I took my DD214 to the county clerks office. All 4 pages. And she read the whole thing. It took her awhile. When she was done, she looked up at me and smiled and asked "How many vehicles do you need tags for sir? And thank you for your service."

I become irate when people misrepresent themselves. But I guess in todays society people accept that and move on..

I just can't do that...

Same with my state. We also have tags with certain decorations, i.e., Silver Star, Bronze Star, DFC, etc. When I ordered a Bronze Star plate, I had to give the clerk a copy of the orders awarding me the medal. Apparently they keep it on file as I haven't had to present it again when I traded cars and had to get a new plate.

 

[safearm]

If I hear one more person say they have a clearance above Top Secret I just might scream.

Don't know about the Air Force, but when I was in the Army [1977-1984] there were higher clearances than TS. TSIP was for intel people and one for General officers that I forget what it was called.

There are no clearances above Top Secret, everything above that level is managed by a Special Access Program or through a compartmentalized information process. SCI, as in a TS/SCI clearance, means the holder is cleared for Top Secret/Secure Compartmentalized Information.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

On a recent where have you lived thread, a guy reported Long Teing, Laos. That was the big CIA base in northern Laos. Have seen it from the air. At night, it looked like a town in West Texas. Have seen those guys in Bangkok. They favored custom made matching military style pants and shirts with epaulets. Sort of short sleeve bush jackets.

 

[HKB]

Oh lawdy, where to begin...
Had the neighbor's son over and he saw my "I love me" wall. Procceded to tell me how he was a sniper in Desert Storm where they used special ceramic bullets.
Went on to tell me he was with some Marine unit (true tuck and roll tacticals) that took high ranking objectives, and that he was in from 82 to 88.
Couldn't provide an MOS, didn't know when the Beirut bombing happened, and never heard of Chesty Puller.

I didn't know whether to weep or reap.
Fer sure I'll never lend him my lawn mower.

Now I sit here Three beers down, and peeved at the world.

I never get this from anyone. I would like to have an occasional laugh.

 

[Smoke]

If I hear one more person say they have a clearance above Top Secret I just might scream.

Don't know about the Air Force, but when I was in the Army [1977-1984] there were higher clearances than TS. TSIP was for intel people and one for General officers that I forget what it was called.

I never had more than a secret clearance and that only so I could draw artillery rounds from the Ft. Carson ASP but I seem to remember a TSCI ( Top Secret Compartmentalized Information) clearance.

 

[arjay]

I knew a number of WWII,Korea and RVN vets.None of them bragged about their exploits.
When the talk gets big,alarm bells should be going off.

 

[Hodgin]

I don't go to bars anymore but from what I hear a whole lot of former Navy Seals hang around them.

 

[rburg]

I NEVER had anyone come in and tell me they were a cook.

So if someone comes in and tells you he was a cook, you'd probably believe him? And if you ask him if that was all he did, he'd say no, he'd also done some push ups? And even ran a bit with a full pack.

 

[HKB]

If I hear one more person say they have a clearance above Top Secret I just might scream.

Don't know about the Air Force, but when I was in the Army [1977-1984] there were higher clearances than TS. TSIP was for intel people and one for General officers that I forget what it was called.

I believe it was an add on, referred to as a "Nuclear Clearance" if I'm not mistaken. It never showed up on individual paper work as far as I can recall. It was a required clearance to be at or work on nuke sites.

 

[Smoke]

OK I am offically confused
Here you say there's nothing higher than a Top Secret clearence

There are no clearances above Top Secret,

But here you talk about clearences that are above Top Secret

everything above that level is managed by a Special Access Program or through a compartmentalized information process.

I'm reading "there is no mountain taller than Mount Everest on Earth except for these other mountains that are"

Can you clarify ?

 

[HKB]

I was in Vietnam and humped the boonies like many folks did. On the rare occasions when somebody asks what I did there, I just answer that I was a peon who carried an M16. They look at me like I have two heads because they were expecting some tale of great heroism, I guess. True story. I don't care.

Charlie

Most of the time I just let my wife tell my story for me.

 

[Smoke]

I ran into a guy while ushering at an evening church service several years ago who claimed to be the commander of the USMC unit tasked with guarding NORAD.

He had walked in and out of service several times to take phone calls and was being a little disruptive about it, I asked him to please silence his phone and if he must leave to take calls please sit near the back of the sanctuary. That's when he told me that it was absolutely critical that he take these calls because of his status as commander of the guard force.

At that point I mentioned that his hair was a little long for a USMC NCO and asked if he would please show me his military ID. He then told me that he had just returned from "The Field" and that he had forgot to put his ID card in his wallet.

I then presented him with my DD2A stated my rank and really began to question his story. I would have ripped him a new one but one of the other ushers told me to lay off.

A couple of weeks later I was asked to drive the church bus over to some halfway house for drug addicts to pick some guys up for church and guess who the first guy out the door was? He got in the bus and I asked him when the Marine Corps. Started billeting their NCOs in half way houses? He got kinda nasty and hopped right off the bus. Never saw him again.

I've come to the conclusion it's not worth the effort to correct them. They'll just avoid you in the future and go peddle their lies elsewhere.

 

[old bear]

Perhaps it's the fact that, I served as a "weekend Warrior" but I don't get as upset with that kind behavior as those of you who "Have been there done that." When I run into phonies like the O/P is speaking about.

I do though feel VERY SORRY for folks whose lives are so empty that they have to tell lies to try and fill some very big hole in their lives.

 

[ILLWIND]

Ya probably don't know that I have a UFO out in the barn.
Yup, I have heard a few. When I was stationed in Roosevelt Rds PR there was a Seal team there. As far as I know each team had support crews (Mess Cooks, Boatswains mates, Electricians Mates, Engineman) and various other techs.
I ran into a "Poser" that was a Seal team member in that very same team. Funny that he didn't know the hull number of the boat, or which pier their LCU was normally tied up on, or whether or not there was a re-compression chamber aboard. (There was). I called him a Bull$***er and walked away.

 

[Double-O-Dave]

A bunch of us were sitting in the day room one evening watching the first "Rambo" movie with Sylvester Stallone. About half of the guys were arguing about what a bad *** he was, and the others were arguing about what a joke he was. Suddenly, we realized that "Sarge", our resident old-time, hard striper, real-deal Green Beret was in attendance. There was no doubt that Sarge had seen the elephant - he had multiple tours in Nam behind him, and when he had to wear his class A's (dress uniform) the only decorations he chose to wear were his jump wings, and CIB (Combat Infantry Badge), and I cannot recall ANYONE telling him he needed to wear all authorized badges and decorations. The room fell silent waiting for Sarge's wisdom, and frankly, for him to render judgement and break the tie. Finally, Sarge snorted and said: "Well, all I'll say is that ol' boy Rambo wouldn't have made cook in some of my old outfits."

A reminder to me that those that have done more, speak about it less.

Ah, brevity is indeed the soul of wit.

Regards,

Dave

 

[Mule Packer]

Unfortunately, these doo-dahs are more prevalent than one might imagine. There is even a Hall of Stolen Valor.
Hall of Stolen Valors

Sadly, there are some people who really crave some type of recognition.

There's a little old guy in our town who might stand 5'6" and maybe weigh 145 pounds in his cowboy boots who goes around telling everybody "in strictest confidence" that he killed his first man when he was twelve years old and that he used to be a hit man for the FBI because there were "certain dirty jobs" the FBI couldn't do for fear that it would be traced back to them.

Again, this is whispered to you in "strictest confidence" because if anybody finds out, our former hit man would be "toast." Surprisingly, even though nobody is supposed to know about this, everybody in town knows about it because the guy has told everybody in strictest confidence.

Those who talk, do not know. Those who know, do not talk.

 

[jimmyj]

Hi:
I don't know where all the military cooks and mechanics are, BUT as a 17 years old I kept the "Heads" (toilets) clean and orderly on the land bases and ships (Cutters) I served on. Then I decided that "Parachute Rigger" was a classification that a fellow could advance rapidly in. THEN I discovered that for advancements one had to pack their own chute and jump with it !! (OUT OF A PERFECTLY GOOD AIRPLANE !!!).
At this point non-hero (Chicken/Wimp) Jimmy decided that GUNNERS MATE was my thing. P.S. the only combat I was in was a bar fight when a buddy tried to "Move" on another fellow's girls. WHERE DID ALL THOSE FISTS COME FROM??? Jimmy ended up looking like I made two trips though a sawmill. My "Up Side" was that I really bruised up some guys' knuckles with my face.

 

[zzzippper]

If I hear one more person say they have a clearance above Top Secret I just might scream.

I don't remember when, but the Air Force dropped the cook career field. Now they are all contractors or you eat MREs.

I'll probably be hammered for this, but this is a pet peeve of mine. A MOH recipient is saluted only when they are wearing the medal/ribon. There are several variarions of the uniform without ribons. Also, and more importantly, the MOH is not a contest, it's not "won". So, they are recipients not winners.

Watching the local broadcast of a Cardinals baseball game one night Joe Buck interviewed a Marine returned from Iraq. He congratulated the kid for "winning" the Purple Heart.

 

[MSG Glenn]

Those that brag about their imagined made up adventures didn't live it. Those that saw the elephant never brag.

Posers not welcome anywhere near me.

 

[jag312]

I don't have any war stories, but I played with the Green Bay Packers in 1972 when they won the Super Bowl. I was a starting offensive linebacker. Me and Ray Nimske were room mates. It was a great time, and our coach, Vince Lombardo, was a real fine gentleman. He never raised his voice to us or used swear words. I think that was because he was afraid that me and Ray would run him off the field if he didn't behave himself.