Military and Vets does it bother you when civilians lie about military service?

Question

I remember going to a bar once in Nashville. I met a fairly attractive young man...the deal-breaker was the lie he told. He would want me to believe he was in the 101 Airborne Reserve and went to boot camp in Great Lakes, Indiana. At first I thought it was funny (ha, ha) that he wasn't a good liar, but the more I thought about it. It kind of pi$$ed me off. He even bothered to argue that Great Lakes was "really" in INDIANA! And he was Army! Impressive uh? Oh, and he is a combat veteran too...He said some other non-sense. At first I wanted to see how bad it got, but I got up and left instead.

1 second ago - 3 days left to answer.

Answer 1

It doesn't bother me at all. They are idiots who only denegrate themselves. h**l, calling them out in front of a large group of people makes my day.

Answer 2

Yes it is highly irritating and wrong.  I also can't stand it when people have on fake "dog tags" claiming they are "street soldiers".  Makes me want to rip them off of their necks.  For every service man and woman, we put in our time and effort to be in the US armed forces.   I'm proud of my service.  Our reasons to enlist may differ but we all served our country one way or another.  And to lie about it just to get a girls attention?  It's really disrespectful to those who ever served.

Answer 3

Yes it does bother me, but there will always be wannabees in the world, be they those that would like to be military, police, firefighters.  The more dangerous the occupation, the greater the number of wannabees.

You see it so much from the children asking questions about which branch is the "baddest", which Special Ops is the best?....Fantasizing is good for the child in us, however there is a time when the child must, or should, grow up.

Answer 4

Yes it does bother me to a certain extent.  I have faith that those who lie about it will get caught, and that they will pay for their lies.  Some of those have been caught in their lie after being bold enough to commit that lie to the printed page, as in their autobiography or other written works, and have paid dearly for their lies.  

Answer 5

Yes, it does.  And I thought even idiots knew that Great Lakes - or as it is also commonly known as Great Mistakes :) - was in North Chicago, Illinois and was a Navy Training and Military Base.  But then I am from Grayslake, Illinois which is not far from there so maybe that is just my bias.  

WA

Col. Ret. USAF Pilot

Answer 6

I find it to be more funny in a pathetic way than offensive. Real vets can tell a fake just from a few minutes of conversation. No matter how much googling  a wannabe does online, there are some military things you just can't know about unless you live the life.

Get this: I used to work with a guy who claimed that he was a former member of GB's SAS which he described as "Special Action Services."  I just LMAO. Met another guy who claimed that he served on the USS Arizona in the 1980's. LMAO.

Even when they don't make blatant mistakes like that, it's so easy to check nowadays, lying about military service is just sad. They always get caught.

Ever see the movie "Ronin?" Remember what the Deniro character does to the Bean character? "What color is the boathouse at Hereford?"

Answer 7

Those who can do...  the rest lie about it or talk about little green men.. hmmm I never got a licence when they issued me my m-16, (what did I do wrong?) joke

Answer 8

Yes, it is annoying and kind of sad.  I was home on leave from Iraq and decided to take my neice to see the Phantom of the Opera, she was 8 at the time.  We were standing outside during the intermission and there was a "soldier" standing outside in his Army Class A uniform.  He was a PFC, with two service stripes, four combat service stripes, over 15 ribbons, expert infantry, combat action badge, and all this with no unit patch.  My 8 year old neice asked me why he didn't have a patch on his arm, like i did on my uniform, that I wasn't even wearing at the time.  I asked this PFC what unit he was with and he said "Germany".  So I asked what unit in Germany and he again just said Germany.  I asked him his MOS and he didn't answer.  I'm usually pretty laid back, so I asked to see his ID card, which of course he didn't have.  I just laughed and told him, how said is that, that an 8  year old girl just busted you out.

Answer 9

In a weird way it's kind of flattering.  Like, "oh to impress this babe I'm going to tell her I was in the service."  He could have gone with "in a band" or "I'm an artist" or whatever lines women go for these days.

    

Answer 10

Yes it does bother me a little, but it also amuses me a little when someone knows it is a lie and calls BS on them (especially when it is another civilian).

I'm ex-military (Canadian) but never served overseas in harms way, thus am not a vet.  Which brings me to the other thing that gets under my skin, when anyone and everyone that served any time in the military claims to be a vet.  You are a vet if you served in a combat zone and therefore were in harms way.  Not being a vet in no way lessens your service or commitment to your country.  We all serve(d) where our orders told us to serve.

Answer 11

Sure does bother me... in fact now I'm seeing some Navy DEP types hanging around town with no insignia or anything claiming to be in the Navy (DEP ha).  It may not be much to those of us that served but we earned the right to be called a soldier, sailor, airman or MARINE.

Usually those who claim to be a member of our fraternity have some sort of character flaw that doesn't allow them to join... other than cowardice.

Remember Jack Nicholson in A FEW GOOD MEN - how he felt about his job....