OT question:Military wannabes/disrespect?

But Frank hit the nail on the head. *

Well, that's a first.
Frank Reid
(who may need to brush up on his carpentry skills before he ever does
it again)

On Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:44:39 -0800 (PST), Frank Reid © 2008
wrote:

But Frank hit the nail on the head. *

Well, that's a first.

Lemme guess - normally, it's you that you hit on the head...?

Frank Reid

(who may need to brush up on his carpentry skills before he ever does
it again)

Uh-oh...

TC,
R

"rb608" wrote in message
...
Having never served in the military, I can only see that world from
the outside. The fraternity of brothers in arms is obviously a
special one, and I respect that. However, the death of our friend
recently seemed to begin an affectation of admiration and respect
among some of his other, younger friends and family; and it is that
which is the subject of this question/discussion.

Brian was a helluva good guy and by any measure, a true patriot. He
served at least three tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, earned a couple
of Bronze Stars, and although not being career Army (National Guard),
he was a soldier's soldier. He was widely and deeply admired by his
closer friends (and I do not count myself among that inner circle),
and in their desire to honor him, they have on occasion taken to
wearing military style camo clothing, including to his memorial
service. Only one or two of this group ever served in uniform.

Because I have not served, I absolutely would not feel comfortable
donning such a costume. In fact, despite my deep appreciation and
respect for the man, I do not even feel I have the right to offer so
much as a salute. I'm not a soldier. I haven't earned it.

So for you present & past military: Is this pretend soldier stuff
respectful/disrespectful? Weird? Amusing? To me, it just seems
wrong for an insurance salesman e.g. to dress up like something he
never was, even as a sign of respect. Is it just good fun with the
best of intentions? Am I overthinking this?

Joe F.

Its a good question, and not in my opinion over thought. I used to ride
with the local chapter of the Vietname Vets Motorcycle Club ocassionally.
(Chapter G). I wasn't interested or qualified to join never having served
in the military myself. A friend of mine was a member and he often invited
me to ride somewhere with them. A couple times when we were someplace to
commerate vets, like to visit the moving wall, or go to the cemetary on
Veterans Day, I would have somebody come up to me and thank me. I was of
course embarrassed by it it, but feared to embarass the person thanking me
by correcting them that I am not a vet, but just some guy in a motorcycle
vest or jacket. I asked a couple of the guys in the club if that was the
right thing to do, or if I should have corrected their perceptions and
pointed them to some of the club members whom I knew to be vets.
Universally they said that as long as I was not pretending to be something
that I was not, and they knew that I wasn't, that I should just smile, and
shake their hand, because I don't know why exactly they are thanking me
anyway in most cases. It could just be that I am there honoring our falling
veterans like they are. I suspect most of those guys would have told you
that what you are perceiving is no big deal. People emulate their heros,
and its a form of flattery if not respect. As long as they are not lying to
people and claiming to be veterans then they are not doing anything
direspectful.

When I was a kid I used to wear some of my dad's old Air Force ribbons. I
suspect the ones he let me play with were for keeping his room clean, and
not ones he earned like for marksmanship or whatever. Anyway. Was it
disrespectful of me to wear those ribbons and play soldier. Probably not,
but everybody knows an 8 year old boy is not a vet. LOL.

Unless a vet is offended by the behavior of the group you are asking about
and speaks up I certainly would not worry about it or take it as
dissrespectful.

On the other side... I was wearing a tazmanian devil pin my wife had given
me on my jacket one day. Just a commercial cartoon pin. Some jerk chased
me down in a grocery store and got in my face because he thought it was a
pin for some military outfit, and he was going to tell me off beecause there
was no way I could have earned it. In my opinion that guy did more to
disrespect vets than anybody I have ever met. The guy never even apologized
for accosting me. Just turned and walked away when he realized his mistake.

Its good that you think about things like this and ask. I would not worry
about it any longer.

Bob La Londe
www.YuumaBassMan.com

Your respect is appreciated by all in the military in any way you
choose to show it.
It is very serious to loose "Friends" in the line of duty. And this
topic is a serious one as I have my daughter and new grandson with me
at this moment while Dad's away in Mosul for his 3rd tour.
G

"rb608" wrote in message
...

1 closer friends (and I do not count myself among that inner circle),
1 and in their desire to honor him, they have on occasion taken to
1 wearing military style camo clothing, including to his memorial
1 service. Only one or two of this group ever served in uniform.

2 For the memorial service Saturday,
2 one of his former commanders drove across a couple of states, in full
2 dress uniform, just to speak for a few minutes about how he wouldn't
2 be there at all if it weren't for Brian.

We could say one difference between professional soldiers and
civilians playing soldier is that the professionals know how to
dress for a funeral. Camo clothing has the same status at a memorial
ceremony as SCUBA flippers, oxygen masks and other functional
gear of the modern soldier.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

rb608 wrote:

So for you present & past military: Is this pretend soldier stuff
respectful/disrespectful? Weird? Amusing?


I'm not present or past military, but are you none-the-less asking for
my opinion?

It's totally ****ed up.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

On Jan 13, 6:48*pm, rw wrote:
rb608 wrote:

So for you present & past military: *Is this pretend soldier stuff
respectful/disrespectful? *Weird? *Amusing?

I'm not present or past military, *but are you none-the-less asking for
my opinion?

It's totally ****ed up.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

Very ****ed up. The govt is starting to prosecute some of these folks.
Turns out lots of fakers have been claiming Silver stars and even a
few Medal of Honors. We had an asshole here who was haunting the Vets
cemetery near Tacoma in an old uniform and a bugle, and scamming folks
visiting graves. The feds prosecuted him. We had another asshole on
Bainbridge here who was very public about how he could demo that the
local Japanese-American population was a danger during WWII, and
deserved internment. Now this is after Pres Ronald, himself apologized
and a token payment was authorized by Congress. "Snow Falling on
Cedars" fictionalizes the internment experience on the Islands.

Anyway this a-hole let it be believed that he was a high ranking
retired Naval officer, and implied he had special info, and hooked up
with a national group of Nisei haters. The rub came over a new
commemorative National Park unit at the site of the evacuation.

Well this really ****ed me off because most of the islanders that came
back after the war are old, in their eighties (half those interned
never came back, because of the humiliation I am told) and I know
enough about these folk to know that they would not fight this
asshole, even those guys who had fought in the Nisei 442th combat
infantry and the Nisei 100th infantry battalion in Italy. Anyway when
a-hole and his clowns tried to put a monkey wrench into the works for
the National Park site (for which most of the money has been raised
locally) it finally caused some of us to get on his case. But I think
the real deterrence came when the Feds started going after some of the
more blatant fakers and some got jail time.

Real quick he stopped parading around like some military hero and
changed his story: now he was a retired mid level DOD bureaucrat, not
a vet, whose "GS rating he said was equivalent . . . blah blah.bla."

I have found damn few combat vets who parade their service or who even
talk much about it. Mostly folks who talk a lot, on closer examination
have "fought the Cold War," or do not seem to have actually seen the
elephant.

Dave

On Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:04:14 -0800, rw
wrote:

Frank Reid © 2008 wrote:

By the way, two Bronze Stars is awfully impressive.
Frank Reid

Not when it comes to laCourse and John Kerry.

Let't see...... You criticized Chaney because he "dodged the draft",
yet YOU did the same thing.

You have never served your country, in any way.

Look up how Kerry got his BS. You'll find that he was running from a
fight. While other boats remained in the area of a destroyed boat
(hit a mine, I believe), Kerry fled the scene. In his haste and fear,
horrible boat handling knocked an Army observer overboard. Kerry
returned and picked him up, thus getting his BS for something he
caused. Great, huh?

Kerry then threw the BS and other medals over the WH fence. He must
have thought very highly of it. Sort of a Barnardish trick, if you
ask me.

Bronze Stars and any medal given in combat is impressive, but you
wouldn't know that, would you?

You, sir, are a genuine putz. It must suck to be you.

LaCourse

On Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:48:06 -0700, rw
wrote:

rb608 wrote:

So for you present & past military: Is this pretend soldier stuff
respectful/disrespectful? Weird? Amusing?


I'm not present or past military, but are you none-the-less asking for
my opinion?

It's totally ****ed up.

Do you know how to read, Barnard. He was asking for present and past
military people, not a sissy-boy, wannabe cowboy.

If anything is ****ed up, it is your miserable life.

LaCourse

On Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:49:42 -0800 (PST), DaveS
wrote:

I have found damn few combat vets who parade their service or who even
talk much about it.

****in-A-ditty-bag. But Barnard can't even pretend. He's a taker,
not a giver. He hasn't done **** for his country and would run if
asked to.

Dave
(back from Tierra del Fuego with lots of 10 - 18 pound browns to talk
about and show.)