Wanna-be‘s / Posers

[Duotone81]

This reminds me of a some guy over on an American military website posing as an ex-CAR. This guy was super Canadian soldier for sure. He apparently is now an Airborne Ranger as a reservist. I asked him about this and he told me all Canadian Airborne Infantry called theselves Rangers!! I did not know this. Oh but a few days later he was an MP in a service battalion. hmmmm... He even had the stupidity to post Pvt. Nathan Green‘s (one of the soldiers killed in the tarnac bombing in Afghan)picture in his profile. He said it was a tribute to him but made no reference to the fact. I think he was trying to pass it along as his own piture. The most obvious thing about his whole "character" was that he just didn‘t seem to talk with the professionalism and maturity that one would expect an experienced soldier to have. Long story short I called his bluff because I felt it wasn‘t honourable to be parading around as a CF member when he clearly wasn‘t. He hasn‘t been back since because everyone there knows he‘s a fraud. If you want to read the "conversation" we had just go to www.military.com and search for "sniper335". I haven‘t served yet but I just find the whole thing disgusting. I guess it‘s no real mystery why they have to live vicariously through the efforts of others. They have no honour or dignity themselves.

 

[Ruthless4Life]

I asked him about this and he told me all Canadian Airborne Infantry called theselves Rangers!!

I don‘t know if I should laugh or cry. It‘s quite ironic... only if he knew what a Canadian Ranger really was...

 

[MG34]

Military.com and socnet.com are the worst sites I have seen for wannabes,pretty pathetic actually espescially the idiots who try to pass themselves off as canadian Spec ops types..man does that ever piss me off.

 

[Recce41]

O ye
Its funny when they give every detail of training. But it reads like a book. Some are real funny. They say if I tell you, I‘ll have to kill you. But spill the whole works. :evil: :tank:

 

[Infanteer]

Actually, SOCNET is pretty well moderated, and with the high amount of military or ex-military guys who post there, posers are caught and evicted pretty quick. They keep the signal:noise ratio down quite a bit too.

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

...and that‘s the way to run it. With so few moderators and frequent absences (occupational hazard), it‘s easy for someone to fly under the radar for quite a while.

Unfortunately, it falls on everyone to ferret out the troublemakers, even if it‘s to report them to a moderator...

We haven‘t had too many problems here in the past, so we‘ve been lucky. But there have been some annoying incidents, and they appear to be on the rise...

 

[GrahamD]

I have a question about an incident that occured back in Sept ‘98 between my friend and an "ex airbourne" civilian. It wasn‘t anything serious, nothing came of it, but I‘ve always wondered if this guy was "inflating" the story for effect, or if it was all fact.

Maybe someone here can prove/disprove it for me.

Myself and some friends were getting memorial tattoos for a friend of ours. We went to a local shop, that some skinhead/punk type guys owned and operated. The actual owner was this heavily built muscular guy who scared the cr@p out of everybody who went in there. Pretty seriously scary looking guy, wouldnt want to piss him off.
Anyway, so my friend walks in after some of us had been there for a while, and he‘s wearing a red(maroon) beret. Suddenly the atmosphere in the whole place changes, silence for a (long) second, and then we hear "TAKE IT OFF" no one knows whats going on, so next we hear "YOU, WHERE DID YOU GET THAT" and this guy (the owner) is addressing my friend, and he looks pissed.
My friend tells him he‘s had it for a long time, he bought it at the surplus store.
The guy tells him to take it off, and that he is not allowed to wear it in the shop, and that he hadn‘t earned the right to wear it at all in his opinion.
My friend, probably feeling a little pissed at being confronted so harshly, and thinking maybe the guy was just screwing around (I really dont know what he was thinking) demands to know how one goes about "earning the right" to wear this beret. (he had no idea it had anything to do with the military)
So this guy tells him a war story. I don‘t remember the dialogue of the conversation, but I remember a couple of the points he made. He told him that he saw one of his buddies shot in the head, and that a short while later, another one one of his buddies who was grief stricken commited suicide with a grenade.
I belive it was supposedly on a mission in Bosnia, but I‘m not 100% sure of the country where it took place, but I‘m fairly certain it would have been somewhere between ‘90- whenever the airbourne was disbanded.
Naturaly my friend removed the hat out of respect, and nothing more was said on it.

Even though the guy looked every bit like an elite soldier, and had the attitude to match, I always wondered about the story. Anyone ever hear of an incident like that, in that time frame?

 

[OLD SCHOOL]

My guess is that your scary elite soldier likely is aware of the Maroon beret and the right to earn it but an elite soldier is not one for really telling stories. Perhaps he was ex-Airborne and only inflated events to get his point across. Perhaps he never earned the right to wear it either.
Not long after my Infantry school, I walked right past a longhair wearing the green and VRI badge!
I know the displeasure involved with those feelings. He came very close and I learned restraint. Two lessons in one really.

It is not as if your friend was pickin up ladies badge and all. He had no idea. No real soldier will get too upset with that.Just a calm explanation will do. I was in England with friends once and my companions observed a young man with a sand beret scoopin ladies with big bad stories and no fact to back it up. That was a very short a$$whippin‘ and a free lesson in the turtle style of self defence. Can‘t fault buddy as that is also a very difficult lid to earn to say the least. I was mearly an international observer. I believe there was an investigation to find out where he obtained the cap badge that was reposessed from him.

For those confused, please see wanna-bees under off topic.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

There was an admiral in the United States Navy who, a few years ago, committed suicide because he had worn ribbons for Vietnam service when he had never really been there at all. When it was reported in the press, he felt the need to make a speedy exit. The problem doesn‘t just apply to civvies who were never in; there are plenty of soldiers - old and not so old - who have regrets about their level of service and feel the need to inflate their status. Pretty pathetic really.

 

[Pikache]

Have to wonder how low must a person‘s self esteem get to disgrace himself by becoming a poser.

 

[OLD SCHOOL]

I think the ribbons were a fake silver or bronze star with v for valour. Sad that he commited suicide but that does show the significance of what he did.
Michael, I have that book dressed to kill and it is very good.
I also collect old military manuals etc..
Have a pay scale card from the early 50‘s with the Lt. General getting a grand a month! We should adopt that today and make them work for it.
Small arms manuals etc...

Posers are everywhere in society.Never saw any in my later units as they paid the price to be there and were rewarded with the pride and satsisfaction that comes with success.

 

[KevinB]

There was an admiral in the United States Navy who, a few years ago, committed suicide because he had worn ribbons for Vietnam service when he had never really been there at all. When it was reported in the press, he felt the need to make a speedy exit.

Actually he was in Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry - the issue was whether or not he was awarded the Combat "V". At the time he was serving as a Destroyer Captain, and soem felt he was entitled to (although) not awarded the "V".

*Disclaimer, I am not usually a gem of UFI, I was at my parents cottage during summer leave and read the very article in an old issue of TIME.

 

[Recce41]

Graham
The time buddy is talking about is in Somalia. The soldier that got shot was Cpl Abel MC. He was shot inside a Bison when a C7 discharged.
Bold and Swift/Airborne

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Thanks for the comments on the book, and the correction to the info about the good admiral; much appreciated.

A grand a month eh? If I had a grand a month after rent, car payment, computer payment, phone bill, internet fee, parking fees, union dues, utilities....I would be laughing!

 

[GrahamD]

Thats truly unfortunate. I guess it would be better if the story was made up, and nothing like that had ever happened.

Thanks for clearing it up for me though.

It makes even more sense that it would have happend within the confines of a vehicle, it totaly fits with another graphic point he made that I failed to mention, so as to not offend anyone who may have been there.

I‘m glad this guy was honest about his experience. It didn‘t come off as someone trying to impress, or be hard core. Just someone who was upset. The fact that we were there because one of our buddies had died, may have had him looking back, and the beret pushed him over the edge, I don‘t know.

 

[excoelis]

Mike Able died in an unfortunate incident in Somalia and the other incident was Smitty in Rwanda shortly thereafter. Both great guys.

See here for dates and proof: web page

What city was this Tattoo parlour in, what timeframe?

I think I might know who the goon was

 

[GrahamD]

It was in in Victoria, B.C. in Sept ‘98, that we got the tattoos at his shop.

 

[Infanteer]

It was probably the Urge, it is run by a guy who was ex-reg, and than a Warrant in the CScots.

 

[GrahamD]

Yep it was Urge, thanks I had a bit of a memory lapse on the name of the shop, I kept thinking it started with O.....

 

[Recce41]

Ex
You with 3rd? Trying to hunt down some fellas. Tryed the DIN, but no go.