why do people lie about their military service?

[dundonrl]

I'm retired from the Navy (24 Oct 1991-1 Nov 2011) and working in the oil industry (at a saltwater injection well) in North Dakota. Well one of the drivers delivering salt water (each well up here brings up anywhere from 2 to 10 barrels of salt water for each barrel of oil, and a saltwater injection well puts the salt water back under ground) was new to my well, and talking about what he had done said he was retired 32 years in the Navy. Oh cool, someone to BS with about the Navy. I asked him what rate he was and the reply "E10".. hmmmmmm me thinks BS!! So I said, no, I meant what rate your job. Oh, my last 6 years I was flight deck safety..

COME ON people, be proud of what you ACTUALLY did, don't fucking lie about your service. This guy just lost any respect that I would have had for him, doesn't matter what else he's done in his life.

[tankie]

I'm retired from the Navy (24 Oct 1991-1 Nov 2011) and working in the oil industry (at a saltwater injection well) in North Dakota. Well one of the drivers delivering salt water (each well up here brings up anywhere from 2 to 10 barrels of salt water for each barrel of oil, and a saltwater injection well puts the salt water back under ground) was new to my well, and talking about what he had done said he was retired 32 years in the Navy. Oh cool, someone to BS with about the Navy. I asked him what rate he was and the reply "E10".. hmmmmmm me thinks BS!! So I said, no, I meant what rate your job. Oh, my last 6 years I was flight deck safety..

COME ON people, be proud of what you ACTUALLY did, don't fucking lie about your service. This guy just lost any respect that I would have had for him, doesn't matter what else he's done in his life.

Hahaha yea we have walts here as well , they usually BS and say oh yeah , i was SAS and when i ask about their parent Regiment they usually flounder and say thats all they were ever in , arseholes are easily found out , best time is remembrance day when on marching , someone every year is caught out by a neighbor spotting them or some well aimed Qs as they dont usually fit the outline they are trying to portray , it makes me fkin angry tho , bluffin bastard walter mitties .

[Doktor]

Thing is they disgrace all those who served proudly and risked everything.

[TopHatter]

Military fakers. I loathe people like that. With a passion.

[Maxor]

I once again also want to make a distinction between a flat out lie and those who change details for dramatic effect especially when it comes to drinking story time. Complete BS and taking credit for things is wrong and lame, glossing over boring stuff, and/or the wreckage from stupid stunt was spread over 3 football fields when it was one and parts of two others well that's probably ok.

[Tamara]

Why?

Because it is a popular time to be part of the military, to get some of that attention and fame.

At times when being part of the military is not such a positive thing, something looked down on, I suspect those wanting to claim part of it are not as easy to be found.

BUT.......one thing I might point out is that as varied as the military is between services, between administrations, between years, keep in mind that someone who says that they did something that didn't exist when "you" were in still might be telling the truth.

Ie, how could I have been a military police officer in the Navy when I was an NROTC graduate and did not come up through the ranks as an MA? The Navy is not like the Army.

It's just the way it worked out in that particular area, at that particular time. i got assigned to a particular area as a Security Officer in charge of a Navy Police department under a station's Captain's command. I held the post long enough to pick up an officer's sub specialty code as a NOBC 2775 (given that they refer to NCIS as NIS, this description probably hasn't been updated since I was in long ago)...........and I was also a sworn peace officer for that State because of my position.

Long story short.......when there are a lot of little jobs, some of them dirty, to be done, often it is assign an officer who is available.......and if it doesn't require special qualifications, so much the better.

Back to the topic. Someone who claims the biggest and the brightest, perhaps probably so. Someone who doesn't..........well, just keep in mind that they may not be saying what "you" are hearing and thinking.

[Tamara]

Point two: conceptually, someone who was in might still be in inspiration of some speech an officer, ie someone like me, gave them once.

Face it, we tell subordinates, in word, in letters of what a great job they are doing, of how their job is important, of how there are no worthless rates in the Navy. It might have been some small backwater posting somewhere but if it didn't have some importance, some usefulness, we wouldn't have it in the first place.

A speech I gave in the past though it was probably after I got out was, "If we did not do gate searches, tools could be lost. Because a special tool was lost, the engine could not be fixed. Because the engine was not fixed, the YP was out of service. Because the YP was not available, the carrier navigation team could not train. Because of the lack of training, the carrier could not meet certain navigational readiness. Because of lack of full mission capability, a portion of national policy was lost."

Of course, that is a generalized summary of things and basically, things probably would not go down that way.........but it is an illustration of what I might have said to a lowly E-2 standing that gate of how important, if potentially, their job really is.

To someone outside the Navy, being a gate sentry in pre 9/11 days, "just waving someone through", might not seem that great.............but back then, we trained, stressed, inspired sailors that they were not just that. Among other things, because that's the way HE said it, they were taught that they were the Captain's first representative that people saw to his base. That's a heck of impact, the right impact, to put on a young sailor's mind and for a sailor knowing that, IMHO, that's probably a point of great pride.

Now let's come to the civilian world where others just see as someone who waved people through the gate, perhaps because they are civilians or perhaps because that was the way it was at their base. What actions, what words might one say to maintain the belief that they learned that others, unintentionally or not, are in the process of slashing down? I don't know but for that situation, some embellishment is probably not unlikely, rather understandable (not talking about lying), if only as a defense.

Is it always like that? Well, probably not always but keep in mind that while many serve honorably in the service, often to the outside world, they only see a certain few who "really served". That environment is like saying one was in the Air Force and the immediate question is "Were you a pilot?".

What does one say, do to let others know that their service had vitality as those the others only see?

[desertswo]

Why?

Because it is a popular time to be part of the military, to get some of that attention and fame.

At times when being part of the military is not such a positive thing, something looked down on, I suspect those wanting to claim part of it are not as easy to be found.

BUT.......one thing I might point out is that as varied as the military is between services, between administrations, between years, keep in mind that someone who says that they did something that didn't exist when "you" were in still might be telling the truth.

Ie, how could I have been a military police officer in the Navy when I was an NROTC graduate and did not come up through the ranks as an MA? The Navy is not like the Army.

It's just the way it worked out in that particular area, at that particular time. i got assigned to a particular area as a Security Officer in charge of a Navy Police department under a station's Captain's command. I held the post long enough to pick up an officer's sub specialty code as a NOBC 2775 (given that they refer to NCIS as NIS, this description probably hasn't been updated since I was in long ago)...........and I was also a sworn peace officer for that State because of my position.

Long story short.......when there are a lot of little jobs, some of them dirty, to be done, often it is assign an officer who is available.......and if it doesn't require special qualifications, so much the better.

Back to the topic. Someone who claims the biggest and the brightest, perhaps probably so. Someone who doesn't..........well, just keep in mind that they may not be saying what "you" are hearing and thinking.

So, like, did you own the guys who tuned me and my two friends up while legally trying to enter Naval Station San Diego in my dad's car, back in October of 1973? I was 17 and had hair down to my ass, but you know, getting my head bounced off of the car's front hood wasn't really any fun. Just sayin'.

[Tamara]

So, like, did you own the guys who tuned me and my two friends up while legally trying to enter Naval Station San Diego in my dad's car, back in October of 1973? I was 17 and had hair down to my ass, but you know, getting my head bounced off of the car's front hood wasn't really any fun. Just sayin'.

Quite a bit before my time.

But one of the things of my "MP" work was that we didn't carry guns. Could pull them from the armory if the balloon went up, but day to day, no guns.........................

...........................................so I did train my sailors, had them trained, in unarmed combat with the intent, if necessary, to put people in sick bay.......which comes down to another interesting tidbit that I'll get to in a moment.

When it came to gate security, I could be pretty ruthless, pretty fearless about the job. Pi**ed off a few senior officers, I was just an O-2, because I had to gall to stop them, to tell them I was going to search their car. Infuriated wives and dependents by taking away their DOD stickers because they weren't properly affixed.

So yes, I probably was that kind of person.

About training my sailors in hand to hand. That's one of those things that I can honestly claim I did........but it existed in such a way that, in this subject of posers, people might think that I was lying. Let's see, in quick summary and said in a way if I was trying to explain it to an outsider, "I trained in the late 80's members of the Aux Security Force, an anti-terrorism augmentation force, in judo and other techniques of unarmed combat. Anti-terrorism includes all the steps one takes to reduce their potential of being a target, to show (as was the philosophy then) that they aren't a push over strike."

Okay, there are a number of things between "then" and "now" which can make the listener a doubter. First of all, for the kind of work I was doing in the late 80's, it seems like "anti-terrorism" in the military has become an annual power point exercise on the computer that people rush through believing that the questions and answers are all common sense. If so, I say two things. First of all, if that is what it has become, then no wonder why we are so screwed. But secondly in all fairness, philosophies change over time; perhaps all the stuff I did back then under "anti-terrorism" has now been reclassified as "counter terrorism".

If so, then it's a factor of different worlds speaking and thinking different languages. If one were to say that what I did back then is now counter terrorism, I am not going to redefine myself and say that back then I was a counter terrorism officer because I wasn't.

Anyhow.......just theorizing of why people doubt me when I tell them about what I did back then, using the terms I do.

What about the point that trained sailors in hand to hand? "Oh, so you went to such and such a school and became a qualified hand to hand instructor?". No, I didn't and which point a person might say "liar".

But that's the military for you especially during cash strapped times. There's a need, the Captain says Tamara get it down, and then it is up to me to do the job. As it was, I was an athlete with years of sport judo and other martial arts training behind me, so I got out my books, worked up lesson plans, sent instructional background materials to the work centers, and started training the sailors that needed to be brought up to speed in the gym.

"But you were not an official instructor!" To me, yes I was. It says it right there on my Fit Rep............and that's official enough for me.

So long story short, I can claim that in the Navy I trained anti-terrorism troops in hand to hand. It's probably an embellishment because said short and simple it leaves it open to people's imagination........but, oh well. Intelligence/Security is not for people who talk too much.

[Squirrel]

I lie about my service all the time...I tell people I have a different rate than the one I really do. Everyone knows what a cook does, so I dont get a lot of questions that way. It's much easier.

[Tamara]

I lie about my service all the time...I tell people I have a different rate than the one I really do. Everyone knows what a cook does, so I dont get a lot of questions that way. It's much easier.

Oh, yes! The super secret cook!

A rate so special that the exams for it have to be locked up in the XO's safe!

What is so special about this rate in the Navy that requires such secrecy?

Can it really be that the Navy is the best food around and they don't want the recipes getting out?

Inquiring minds want to know!

[desertswo]

Oh, yes! The super secret cook!

A rate so special that the exams for it have to be locked up in the XO's safe!

What is so special about this rate in the Navy that requires such secrecy?

Can it really be that the Navy is the best food around and they don't want the recipes getting out?

Inquiring minds want to know!

I find it interesting that you don't know the answer.

However, just for the edification of one and all (and please, don't anyone accuse me of "racism"), the reason why those exams were put under tight security, usually in the possession of the Executive Officer, is that we used to have in the Navy what was known as the "Philippine Mafia." Philippine Nationals and naturalized Americans of Filipino descent made up the majority of the Mess Specialist rating years ago. For whatever reason, test performance on those exams went though the overhead, and the supposition from on high was that the Philippine Mafia was helping their confreres out by giving away the test questions in advance. So in order to bring that to a halt, into the safes they went. Perhaps not surprisingly, the test performance returned to what most folks in the teaching trade would consider "normal."

[Pedicabby]

why do people lie about their military service?

To impress the wimmen folk? Seriously. There is no shortage of fat, bald, weasing dudes in SE Asia passing themselves off as former special force types, usually with something local in tow.

[Pedicabby]

Philippine Nationals and naturalized Americans of Filipino descent made up the majority of the Mess Specialist rating years ago. For whatever reason, test performance on those exams went though the overhead, and the supposition from on high was that the Philippine Mafia was helping their confreres out by giving away the test questions in advance. So in order to bring that to a halt, into the safes they went. Perhaps not surprisingly, the test performance returned to what most folks in the teaching trade would consider "normal."

So how was the food?

[Squirrel]

Oh, yes! The super secret cook!

A rate so special that the exams for it have to be locked up in the XO's safe!

What is so special about this rate in the Navy that requires such secrecy?

Can it really be that the Navy is the best food around and they don't want the recipes getting out?

Inquiring minds want to know!

I think the point I was attempting to make failed...

I find it interesting that you don't know the answer.

However, just for the edification of one and all (and please, don't anyone accuse me of "racism"), the reason why those exams were put under tight security, usually in the possession of the Executive Officer, is that we used to have in the Navy what was known as the "Philippine Mafia." Philippine Nationals and naturalized Americans of Filipino descent made up the majority of the Mess Specialist rating years ago. For whatever reason, test performance on those exams went though the overhead, and the supposition from on high was that the Philippine Mafia was helping their confreres out by giving away the test questions in advance. So in order to bring that to a halt, into the safes they went. Perhaps not surprisingly, the test performance returned to what most folks in the teaching trade would consider "normal."

In the words of a highly esteemed Senior Chief: "If you aint cheatin, you aint trying."