I know we’ve talked about this before, but I ran across this post, found it to be hilarious and thought you guys would appreciate it. Also, as I honestly feel sorry for 99.9% of people who do this, this is probably the most perfect response to handling such an encounter, and for all involved. I laughed at this for a good, long time.
It's some kind of mental illness to pretend to be a seal or other special forces guy. like, pretending to be a veteran? you're probably just a scummy douche bag. taking it to SEAL/ranger territory? you have some actual disorder (too).
I've never met anyone who goes out to the bar and claims to be a lowly Cav Scout that wasn't one. There's a very high percentage of Delta, SF, and SEALs though. I laughed a few years ago when my 70 year old dad ran some fatass out of the Polish club because he got tired of hearing war stories poached from movies.
No one ever talks about their past life where they were a 7 year old kid that died of small pox. Nope, I was Cleopatra, I was William Wallace, I was Marco Polo.
In boot camp, they brought about 100 of us into a huge classroom with desks, like in high school. Once inside, they made us watch an infomercial on naval special forces, and to listen to a pitch about it from some SEAL / EOD recruiters. At the end of their talk, the SEAL guy said, “If you think you’d like to qualify for the Navy Seals by taking the Physical Qualification Test (PQT), stand up.” I swear on the Vols, I think about 90% of the recruits in that room immediately shot out of their seats. I just sat there, feeling a bit awkward. He then asked, “Of those now standing, if you only joined the Navy to become SEALS - sit down!” Like 5 guys were left standing. He put a signup sheet on the table for anyone to sign up for the first scheduled PQT, and just walked out laughing his ass off. BUD/s (SEAL Training) has about an 80-90% wash out rate.
I'm way too mentally soft, even if by some miracle I could handle the physical aspect. nobody needs ole IP worrying about cutting the farmer's fence or taking the shot at Osama hiding behind his wives.
I usually tell more believable stories. Like how I’m an archaeologist that managed to recover the Ark of the Covenant, only to have it stolen by Nazis who were ultimately destroyed by its power.
Don Shipley, a former seal, has a YouTube channel where he does nothing but expose guys who either lied about serving or lied about their service. Pretty good material on there.
In my experience, most of the real dudes don't talk about it much. My grandfather was a career Marine who served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars and he rarely said shit before he died.