I fell down a youtube rabbit hole this evening. Apparently incidents of people pretending to be veterans or veterans pretending to have been awarded medals they were not is on the rise. There are some wild videos out there of folks just lying like crazy and doubling down on it as they're called out. Understandably, the veterans confronting them are outraged and furious. I have to wonder though, are these people insane? Search it on youtube, you'll see countless examples of what I'm talking about. Even ridiculously brazen ones, like folks claiming to have been awarded the medal of honor or to be POW's at gatherings where everyone else immediately knows they're full of shit. And it makes me wonder if I've walked by this sort of thing and not realized it?
Yeah, it's a pretty ****ed up thing to do, but I'd say more often than not, people get away with it. I don't know enough about military attire, medals, etc. to know if someone is legit or if they are essentially wearing a halloween costume. I'd venture to say that the majority of the general public would fall in the same category.
A guy I hunt with is a veteran and he's a member of another hunting club that has a guy in it who claims to be a Vietnam vet and is not. The guy apparently was well read enough to almost pass it off but my friend did his research and the guy is definitely lying about all his stories and was never in the military at all. I think people that do it are definitely crazy in some form or fashion.
What is sad is it really does cheapen the honor due to our veterans and decorated veterans. Some [penis] claiming 12 purple hearts and 5 silver stars... It makes someone who actually earned one of those seem lesser, which is genuinely horrific.
Fortunately, I've won so many prize tickets at Chuckie Cheese's I have no need to fabricate accolades.
I, as someone who never served and desperately wanted to serve after 9/11 but didn't for domestic reasons, can understand the desire or compulsion to lie about service. And it isn't a new phenomenon, either. But I would never do it (at least not consciously). A lot of people claim to be a Vietnam Vet, but never served IN Vietnam, just happened to be in the military in 1968 or 1973. And thus, are no Vietnam Vets. The most famous case of this is probably Brian Dennehy.
Ya, some of the more prominent stolen valor fighters say that veterans sometimes lie about their service, and sometimes for the purpose of getting more compensation from the VA? Dunno how all that works, so don't quote me. But we all know that guy who claims to be an ex-seal or green beret that was more likely a cook or master at arms.
I'm an avid fan of the "stolen valor" genre. One of the better watches on YouTube is Don Shipley, former SEAL and owner of Extreme SEAL Experience (basically, a camp he owns and which real people pay good money to get crushed, learn to shoot, get tactical training, etc. from retired SEALS), who has been busting phony SEALS for several years or more. As an added bonus, Shipley's son is an active Team Guy, today. He's been through a lot of back and forth with YouTube insofar as content (he busts a guy and puts him out for the world to see, the guy later claims Shipley is berating him, or some similar nonsense so as to remove the video, and YouTube forces him to take the video down), so now he has his own subscription-based website, which can be found via the link below, and which also contains several other SEAL-related topics, such as interviews, stories, etc. As he says, pay $10 for a month subscription, watch every video you want, stop paying the $10 a month and come back a few months later and do the same thing again, when new content is posted. If you don't want to pay the $10/month, he does have some free videos and you can see pieces of others on his subscription site, as well as a few still on YouTube, if you're interested in that sort of thing. He posts app. 1-2 new videos a week, but he has a large archive of material that is available, and would take awhile to watch. He's also got two older SEALs, Master Chief Davis & WO Robbie (retired DEVGRU), each with their own videos on his site, and who are equally entertaining, old-school, OG, badass. Highly, highly recommend his site. What's best about Shipley is that he really only busts people who are brought to his attention, sometimes even traveling to do so in person, and while he is dead serious about the task, he is oftentimes funny as shit, and quite entertaining. He digs into these people, doing FOIA requests with DOD and such, before ever making contact, so he has the drop on them from the get-go. It's highly entertaining. Small Compilation and one bust by Shipley [youtube]3ouRpOILFi0[/youtube] Busts a Loudmouth on Bourbon Street (watch until the end, until the next day, when Shipley shows up at the employer of the asshat running his suck) [youtube]rHXNWVI-SWY[/youtube] YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Buds131/videos?flow=grid&view=0&sort=p Link to his site: http://videos.extremesealexperience.com/
I've encountered it twice. I usually just call them out and move on. They get super angry, but there is nothing that can be done. Even in service, people will inflate their rank or ribbon bar (add ribbons/medals they don't have). People want to seem special, for whatever reason. And this isn't just low ranks, either. It's all over. You should be proud of what you do, and not as a measure against what someone else has done.
Here's a piece of shit pedophile that Shipley busted, and who is now rotting in prison. What you'll see here is Shipley deconstructing some dumb-assed video that Brockbrader shot in what looks to be a tent, and where he tries to "explain" how he is really a SEAL and not a pedophile (I am not sure what direct or exact action that Shipley played in his going back to prison, as it's been awhile since I watched these): Part 1 [youtube]b0byQC-_mHk[/youtube] Part 2 [youtube]W-BtUByJvRE[/youtube] Part 3 [youtube]DbygK81EqPs[/youtube] Bill Brockbrader Overview: [youtube]oE-oYzVM2jA[/youtube]
Agreed. Most of the people that Shipley busts were actually in some form of the military, if only for some small amount of time, and usually got shit-canned or flunked out. So now, they get out and they have enough of a surface-level experience and vernacular to fool mostly those who have never served.
Yes, this is one of the main busters I saw and who has done interviews explaining the problem. I think I'll subscribe. This is fascinating to me, and reminds me a lot of other scam and denial stuff. Tenny, do you think some of this is mental illness?
I got kinda grumpy at an old, old Marine doing some charity work outside Kroger over Christmas. I walked by, saw his ribbon bar was all kinds of jacked up. He had his good conduct after his sea service deployment. And his Navy COM last. And I told him. And then I felt bad about 10 minutes later as I'm wandering Kroger and I realize the old fart put it on upside down. So, sometimes there is that too.
Not answering for Tenny, but I will say that I don't believe it is mental illness. It is simply the human need to be special, and when people here "Oh, you were in the military?" and you have to say either a) yeah, I was a logistics crewman in Houston for 2 years and loaded soy beans onto trains or b) yeah, I was in the infantry and fought at the battle of Snorkack, i can see where it would be tempting to say B.
As a civilian, that's none of my concern. I am concerned when they didn't serve or didn't earn what they're claiming and trying to leverage for something. There's a Republican out of Nevada in the house who is trying to address this without stepping on the first amendment.
Quick aside: You know you can get tickets at Chuckie Cheese now through things like Spin the Wheel and Roulette? Like seriously. No real skill set necessary, like being good at Whack-a-mole or Skee Ball. (By the way, I've never lost at skee ball to anyone, ever. Come at me). Anyone else notice the dude in the video wearing Chet's shirt? Awesome.
