On Aug 22, 9:52*am, "Andrew Chaplin"
wrote:
QUOTE"tomcervo" wrote in message

...
On Aug 22, 8:39?am, "William Black"
wrote:



"Jack Linthicum" wrote in message

....

On Aug 21, 10:38 pm, frank wrote:
On Aug 21, 2:33 pm, Tiger wrote: 'War Stories'
Have Some Facing Prison
August 18, 2008
The Oklahoman

John Smith said he was a Navy SEAL who was imprisoned in Vietnam after
his helicopter was shot down.

snip

What I don't understand are the politicians who do this. Had a guy in
South Texas, said he had MOH. Put it in his brochures, was caught. Can
we say stupid? Got jail time, lost his city elected job.

Wife knew a guy who didn't make it through basic, got out for the good
of the service. Goes around saying he's a Vietnam vet, hangs with
them. guess he's good enough to pass, but one of these days he's going
to get caught.

What burns me are all the ads in the local papers, wanting to buy
medals, decorations. I'm sure there are enough people who sell them.
But, jeez. Give them to the vet's high school for a wall of honor,
call the VFW or the Legion, contact the local historical society, but
sell them?

Is it just me, or am I too sensitive over this?

Well, I have played that game. Guy in local store said I looked like a
vet, had I ever been in Vietnam? I said "yes" about six hours total,
coming and going. He thought that was true of many others without the
caveat.

As a Brit I have some real problems with all this.

Why does anyone care?

If you 'plug in' to the ex-service system you'll certainly come into contact
with people who will know, ?and there's no advantage in pretending you're
something you are not.

Back in this thread someone mentioned that someone pretended to be a MoH
winner.

Surely something like that would be exploded in seconds, ?it's not as if
there are that many of them. ?Certainly, ?in the UK, ?a VC winner would be
someone of note in the local community and someone claiming to be one who
nobody knew about would be liable to be checked out reasonably quickly.

What advantage accrues to someone in the USA if they pretend to have had a
distinguished military career?

Most of it is pathetic overreaching, like the Major in "Separate
Tables", with a few outright mental cases. But someone in a prominant
local or greater position--teachers, officials, politicians--seems
pathological. It's so easy to check, you'd have to be nuts to try and
fake it, particularly with any kind of front line unit or valor
decoration.
OTOH, I'm always interested in seeing how Vulcans and neocons with
Viet Nam draft birthdates handled that character check.
UNQUOTE

The main reason it is so hard to claim to have earned some medal you haven't
is because of the gazetting of awards: any claim is easily verfiable. My
experience with such caddish behaviour in the U.K. and Commonwealth is that it
usually a claim of service in something like the SAS, SASR or JTF2, all of
which are very taciturn when it comes to confirming or even denying someone's
membership.
--
Andrew Chaplin
SIT MIHI GLADIUS SICUT SANCTO MARTINO
(If you're going to e-mail me, you'll have to get "yourfinger." out.)

True. I worked with a guy who was head North American test pilot. We
didn't find out until after he retired from NA and the B-1B program
that he was a test pilot on the Have Blue program (F-117 precursor).
Never talked about it, even after it was declassified somewhat. Was
almost a footnote in the standard retirement biography that was
brought up when serving punch and cake. Same with a lot in SF, SEALS,
other operations.

But, in the US, there is still a bit of I guess national shame over
how the Vietnam vet was treated. not that this has translated into a
decent fix of the VA and all the benefits and facilities, but
still... So, if you were in Vietnam, you were seen to have served
under adverse political conditions at home. With the later wars, there
is more and more acceptance of military service.

And, it does help in politics or public service, you can see it in the
national elections right now. In American history, saying you were a
Union vet and fought in the Civil War was a big badge of honor. Almost
made you a shoes in. GAR, Grand Army of the Republic was a national
organization of vets that were in Civil War that had annual parades,
gatherings, were always around for a good 50 or ever 60 years after
the Civil War, There is even newsreel footage of a 1921 encampment of
vets from both sides. There was an old political phrase, 'waving the
bloody shirt' where you would say you were wounded in Shiloh or some
other battle, get cheers, accolades and be elected into office.

I don't know if overseas there is this sort of emotional reaction that
you get in the US. From some of the posts, its more something you
don't brag about. But, we scatter over here. I can count a good five
or six places I've lived in the past dozen years, from one side of the
country to another. IF the town is small enough, then you know all the
local boys and families and how they were, but start getting a bit
larger town or city, its not as easy.

Hope this helps.

Oh yeah, officially, the Civil War is known as the War of Northern
Aggression. In more genteel society, The Recent Unpleasantness.