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A note to all you phonies

19K views 100 replies 77 participants last post by  Turn4811 
#1 ·
There were many, many times more cooks in Vietnam than special forces types; just when I think I've met every special forces member to serve in Vietnam I manage to meet another but I've yet to meet a single cook. Just a little note to let all you phonies in on a little secret: You can't talk for more than 2 minutes (no exaggeration) without giving yourself away no matter how many Tom Clancy novels you've read. I have a little more trouble spotting the phonies from the Vietnam era as that's not my generation but if you're talking 1980 to present day I've no trouble at all spotting you. Most veterans are too polite to say anything as were hesitant to question another man's military service but I'm getting a little tired of it. Military speech is so different from civilian speech it ought to be considered a foreign language but if you're not a native speaker there's no way to learn. There's nothing dishonorable about having not served (well, usually) so I really don't understand why someone would lie, yet I catch people quite often; I seldom say anything. I'd much rather hear someone tell me honest stories about the harrowing moments of his finance unit than a ridiculous, error laden story about what a hardcore killer he is. The older I get the less patience I seem to have w/ B.S. so if you're a phony who lives near K.C. and you're going to insist on living a fantasy I hope you either don't meet me or are prepared to answer some embarrassing questions. By the way, I'm not, nor have I ever been a special forces member.
 
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#77 ·
If cooking qualified for special forces, I'd be a goddamned Fleet Admiral.

No, really, I'm not affiliated with that in any way, shape, or form. But on this subject, does anybody have any guesses at how many of the crazy old bums are actually veterans from around then and how many are just crazy?
 
#80 ·
I have a really cool foul weather shell, I bought in a local farm store, that has a British SAS tag on the sleeve.

Am I tough or what!
 
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#82 ·
I served in the 618th Medical Clearing Company in Korea in 1953. No combat but i saw the results. Drove a duece and a half. I could easily lie since my Army records were burned in a warehouse fire. I do have my DD214. To me,even if you were in the Service and claimed combat when you didn't, that's stolen valor.
I recently was on the Honor Flight and was humbled that I too was considered as a war veteran. That got me straightened out after hearing the phrase REMF too many times.!
 
#92 ·
Sound like the some of the veterans I have met at the VA.

They were most Special Forces, Rangers, Door Gunners, SEALS, Marine Recon, or some sort of Specalized Ops personal. No one did any support work.
 
#85 ·
US Coast Guard 75 to 79. I was a Marine Science Tech. (never heard of MOS until much later) on the Cutter Rush in the Bearing Sea on 90 day patrols. We did all the "science" on board including manning the ships weather station and weather briefer to the helo pilots. My shift was 8 pm to 8 am, there were only two of us so we had 12 hour shifts (no days off). After that shift I was on an armed boarding party going on several Russian/Korean/ or who-evers fishing boats a day. When we were above the arctic circle we had an extra breakfast served at midnight. Only one cook on duty so I helped with cooking breakfast between weather observations. So I also had a chance to cook..... (always make friends with the cooks, the supply, and pay people). My weather station shared a bulkhead with a torpedo compartment that held 9 anti sub torpedoes that had outside access. When the gasket to the hatch failed in a storm the torpedo compartment took on salt water that made the torpedos' go active. At least one of the torpedo went hot. I called the Sonar watch when I heard the propellers spinning and he was able to shut down the torpedos' and we emptied out the water. One torpedo explosion would of split the ship in half. I don't know the the other 8 would do. Survival time in the Bearing sea was about 7 minutes.

My long winded point here is - even when we share our experiences only a few can relate to shared adventures. Your service was different than mine but the important part is the service, the oath, and the honor of serving our country. IMHO those who claim something they are not should be shown pity. They are little people.

I was never special ops. But I was part of a flower bed watering incident at 3am after closing the E club in ADAK. The problem was the house of the flower bed (unknown to us) belonged to the base CO and we had a bus load of cheering navy witnesses that were happy to say who did the watering. We were kicked out of ADAK for three months. So I can say I have been kicked out of better places than that.
 
#87 ·
That sounds pretty cool. The only Vietnam vet in my VFW who doesn't claim to be special forces is the chaplain, who was Coast Guard in Vietnam on some kind of patrol boats.
 
#86 ·
I have noticed that nearly every Vietnam vet I meet at the VFW was special forces.
That is because they were the only survivors. Motor-T, chow hall, pay clerks, supply and admin clerks took a beating in Nam, God Bless them +
 
#88 · (Edited)
I have a cousin that was an honest to God Special Forces Sargent.
He has written a book about things that happened.
He said he has met more guys claiming to be Nam SF than there were total SF troops at the time.
I am a disabled Viet Nam era vet, not a combat vet. Big difference.
Served on an Aircraft carrier in the Tonkin Gulf.
 
#91 ·
I become disillusioned with Men & Women on street cornors with cardboard signs saying they are a homeless Veterians, or a Veterian down on their luck, or a Veterian who needs a little help.

So many of these beggars, or pan handlers never ever served a day in the military. The U.S Supreme Court made a ruling this is not stolen valor, my local Cops do not care, this is getting out of control.


GRRRRRR
 
#94 · (Edited)
I just want to say Welcome Home to you all and thanks for your service, I know this is an old post, however its new to me, I just found it, Lol, now as far as the phonies go I really dont care, they can never steal my valor and for the most part I personally have way to much going on in my life to walk around looking for Stolen Valor, me getting my Va, benefits is what's important to me and not for nothing some of us vets dont like people walking up and asking questions, Its Non Of Your F___ing Business is what I would tell someone, there way to much going on in the streets today to be playing that I'm going to "Check" this guy because he's wearing some camo and a patch, I gave my wife a camo jacket and no one better not walk up on her with some BS about it, Blessings to us all.
 
#95 ·
Thanks to all here that have and are still serving.

Have encountered this a few times with posers and asked..So, what did ya think about the "Mighty Ungowa" or "can you still perform a proper PLF?" Confusion follows.

As for those that were cooks, you were some of the hardest working, turning the longest hrs., I' had seen. Any hot meal in a s*** hole was a banquet, compared to another MRE. And if you could ever get to the rear, ice in a real glass was a luxury of home. Thank you!
 
#96 ·
Thanks to all here that have and are still serving.

Have encountered this a few times with posers and asked..So, what did ya think about the "Mighty Ungowa" or "can you still perform a proper PLF?" Confusion follows.
I went to jump school and I had to Google "Mighty Ungowa" - either it wasn't called that in 1985 or we never heard it. Only a few people from my class actually dropped from the 250 ft. tower, as kind of a demonstration for the rest.

In the same vein, I used to ask suspected fakes what company they were in, in jump school. Fakes would say something like "alpha" or "bravo" or "charlie." But when I went, jump school companies had numbers, not letters (I was in 43rd Co - still have the T-shirt, somewhere). I didn't find out until I went back into the reserves that they had changed the whole organization of jump school and the companies now had letters, instead of numbers. I was probably calling some people fakes who were not.

Most interesting thing about my class: the commander of the jump school was Col. Leonard B. Scott, who wrote several fiction books about Rangers in Vietnam.
https://www.amazon.com/Leonard-B.-Scott/e/B000AQ3ZYW


Re: cooks - nobody appreciated cooks until we didn't have them anymore. Now we get prison food from the lowest bidding civilian contractor. Last time I saw an Army cook, he was working as a drill sergeant. Last time I saw Army cooks cooking was at Ft. Carson, in 2010, when we came back from Afghanistan and had to take a flight to Carson and a bus to Riley, in order to get a flight out of Kyrgyzstan.
 
#97 ·
I give respect to any person who signed their name ( knowing it included up to their life) put in the time they agreed to, got Honorable Discharge.

Thank You for YOUR Service. I recall NYPD Blue. Sipawitz had guy claim SF status. He called him as guy used Sipawitz's unit. Guy was cook. Sipawitz said along lines. "If you did the job, signed up, you were important to mission.. You have NOTHING to be ashamed about"
Look at aircraft carrier. Every time the fighter takes off there is HUGE crew to do it. How often could they fly if they had to fuel, arm, get weather, set up mid air refueling... Much less maint, launch, recovery...
Had cousin. Worked carrier. His job? " nose wheel Tech". Is what he called it. He made sure nose wheel unit would stand up to force of launch, landing. Glamor? Not so much but important.
 
#98 ·
Vietnam as a PFC, 911.20 (Now 91B) in 65 with 173rd Airborne Brigade, I was awarded a Combat Medical Badge then.
Returned to RVN with the 199th Light Infantry Brigade in '66, I ETSed as a Spc5 (Specialist Five) in July 67 as a 91B from 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry, 199th LIB.
I bummed around and went back in to Flight School and returned to RVN as a Warrant Officer (W-1) MOS was then 062B (Later 100B and then 153B) in 1969, 1st Infantry Division (Big Red One) went back to the states in 1970.
Back to Vietnam in 1971 as W-2 (Chief Warrant Officer), 191 Assault Helicopter Company and then C Troop 16th Cavalry. left in 72.
Desert Shield/ Desert Storm in 1990/91 with Big Red One again flying Dustoff.
Retired 1991
 
#99 · (Edited)
I went into the USMC,in Jan.1968,took boot camp at MCRD SD Calif. ITR at Camp Pendelton, and staging, before I left El Toro Calif. for Vietnam on 6-23-68,Stops in Hawaii, Wake Island,Okinawa and arrived in RVN,on 6/28/68. I did my twelve and twenty days tour,and left Vietnam on 7/16/69 with stops in Okinawa,Wake Island,and Hawaii,back to El Toro Calif. and was processed out of the USMC,with the early out on a two years enlistment on 8/1/69. Went in the military at 18 years old and was out at 19 years old. MOS.0311 Grunt. I served in Nam with 1st Marine Division ,Quang Nam Province, 3/27/ M/Co.,3/5/I/Co. & 2nd CAG III,MAF CAP 2-4-4. ,Semper Fi.
 
#101 ·
I was USAF Commo as my response to what I did in the service during my 21 year tenure. I actually was Crypto/Teletype maintenance and latter cross-trained to SatCom maintenance. I was a no-body support guy that made sure those that were out behind the trigger could make their 15 minute mama call when they came back inside the wire. The running comment about one of the units I was assigned was "Just Call Somebody Else".

I also learned to identify the elite fighting team members. They were the one who didn't talk about what they did.
 
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