Transsoldier

Discussion in 'Warfare / Military' started by Toefoot, Dec 15, 2017.

  1. Toefoot

    Toefoot Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    If you identify as a soldier, then you are a soldier. What gets me is these posers think they can get away with it and actually gain from the status.

    I busted one back in 1980, the male soldier had female rank sewed unto his class A's with a salad bowl that took him back to WWII at the precious age of 22.

    Link: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/12/1...ng-decorated-green-beret-military-career.html

    Snip: Despite apparently living a lie, Wright became a revered military figure in his community. Last year, he founded an organization in Brooklyn to help veterans. He called the organization the 8th Special Forces Regiment New York Honor Guard.
     
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2017
  2. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    As much as stolen valor angers me, I admit I get a chuckle when someone is busted on Youtube.
     
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  3. Crownline

    Crownline Banned at Members Request

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    I remember this jack wad back when I was in the army. In the orderly room (company office) is was typical for officers and the first sergeant to leave their soft caps on a table by the door to indicate they were in the building. This jack wad private would swap his hat with a lieutenants so unknowing people from other units would salute him.
     
  4. APACHERAT

    APACHERAT Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Back during the 1970's there were no posers. No one wanted to be a associated with the Vietnam War or the military.

    It seems posers started appearing in the early 1990's with the first Gulf war (Desert Storm)

    Holey crap...the Marine Corps 76th Division reunion is this weekend !!!
     
  5. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    I met a Navy SEAL in an airport once. I've actually met a lot of Navy SEALs recently seeing how they have become increasingly popular in pop culture due to all of the movies and tv shows about them. My landlord many years ago was captured by the Vietcong and had the tips of 3 of his fingers chopped off even though the tips of his fingers weren't chopped off and he was born in 1975. Then he got confused and corrected himself to say that he was captured by the Republican Guard in Desert Storm and gets the wars mixed up because he has PTSD.

    I'm not sure if the cashier at my local gas station is a stolen valor guy or if he's just weird. He is a little "off" and always seemingly forgets who I am every time I come in even though I go in there after work about every 3 days. He then proceeds to ask me what my rank means and then tells me stories about his prior military endeavors. Which are usually quite different from one another every time I go in there to buy beer. I don't think he's lying about military service I think he's just "off" and sort of fabricates his stories to make them sound cooler than they are during each telling lol.
     
  6. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    I run into them all the time. Mostly bums, who see the patches on my jacket and assume I would be a soft touch for a handout to "another Veteran".

    To bad for them I have served in 2 branches now, and lived on the bases of all 4 branches. So I can generally pick their fake stories apart within 2 minutes. I have had them try to tell me they did not remember their MOS (but it is always something "sexy", like Cav Scout, Infantry, or Ranger), their units are all jacked up ("Alpha Company" with no Regiment or Battalion, destroyer "USS Milwaukee" - which was really a cruiser from WWII, and others).

    My favorite poser was one who I told him I was in "Fox 2/2", told me he was in "Fox 2/0". In Marine Corps terms, that means "Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment". So apparently this guy was in the "Zero Regiment".

    Oh, and he was also a Marine, with the MOS code of 11B (which is Army Infantry).

    Posers are why far to many people think there is a huge "Homeless Veteran Problem". There is a problem, but in my experience 4 out of 5 bums who claim to be veterans are fakes.
     
  7. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    The homeless fake veteran issue really burns me up. In some ways, that's worse than the stolen valor issue since stolen valor guys can be outted fairly quickly, but homeless people claiming to be vets are not going to get that kind of grilling. They pull that nonsense off for years of begging.
     
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  8. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    [video]
     
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  9. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    I actually got called out once as lying about my service because I didn't know what my MOS was lol. I don't have a normal job in the Army and my MOS designation isn't one of the common ones that normal military people would know anyway like 11B or 88M. The guy at the bar basically said if you don't even know your own MOS then you are obviously full of ****. Then I told him what I did in the Army and he then concluded that I was 100% full of ****. Then he got up and left and I was too buzzed to care enough to explain any further lol

    So...some folks MIGHT not be lying when they claim they don't know what their MOS was lol....
     
  10. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    I remember every MOS I have ever held. And some of them were quite rare.

    0311, 8151, 0411, 0933, 14T, and 25B. And most of those I have not held in close to 30 years now. So yea, I find it almost impossible to believe that somebody could not remember their MOS.

    But in that case, is also why I ask for other things. Like unit for one. Sure anybody can give a Division, but most fakers can not go as far as Battalion, let alone Company. And I also ask other questions. Birthdate of their service, their service song, duty stations, and other such stuff that everybody who served would know.

    About 2 years ago had somebody try to tell me he was a Cav Scout, 19D. Asked who he was with, 3rd Armored. Oooops! This kid was in his 20's, absolutely no way he was serving in Germany in 1992 (when the 3rd was disbanded). He also said he was stationed at Fort Knox - not Germany. In other words, he was completely jacked up.
     
  11. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    Hey I'm not saying there aren't a bunch of stolen valor POS's out there, I've run into a few myself. I'm just saying that it is entirely possible that somebody may not know the MOS designation of their job lol.

    In fact just last week we had to do some paperwork for SRP and a buddy of mine walked up and said "Hey man what's our MOS called?" and he's been in the unit for years.

    Hell to be perfectly honest up until about 2 years ago I didn't know what my MOS was lol...

    And to be perfectly honest I actually have a letter designation on the end of my MOS due to my certified position in the unit and I honestly have absolutely no idea what that letter is lol.

    I remember my old MOS, 19K tanker. But the one I have now....I have no idea. I remember the number part of it but unless I google it I honestly don't know what the rest of it is...

    Which doesn't bode well I guess because I have the kinda job that people will think you are lying about unless you can prove it lol.
     
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  12. APACHERAT

    APACHERAT Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I had a friend who just passed away about five years ago (RIP) who served a tour of duty in Vietnam (67-68) and when I asked him what his MOS was he couldn't remember. He just remembered he served with SAT-COM at one of those Army microwave relay stations that were all over South Vietnam and in Thailand.
     
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  13. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    Well, most of us really do not bother with the entire designator, especially in the Army.

    In the Marines, you are an 0311 until you make Staff Sergeant. Then you become an 0369. But talk to most Marine Gunny Sergeants they will say to somebody other than Infantry they are their original MOS (0311, 0331, etc). Unless you were Infantry, the 69 designator meant nothing. But their original one (0311, 0331, 0341, etc) told them what they did (and what kind of a platoon or company they are leading).

    An 0331 Sergeant would promote to an 0369, but he will likely still say he is an 0331, so they know he is a platoon sergeant in a Machine Gun platoon.

    I know mine at Fort Bliss was 14T01, PATRIOT Launching Station Enhanced Operator/Maintainer. But we always just said 14T Patriot Launcher Operator. For anybody else not in PATRIOT it did not make a difference.
     
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  14. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    I hate how people always ask "What's your MOS?" anyway. It's become like the standard way to ask what your job is in the military when in reality very few people know what the hell these MOS number designations even are unless you are a recruiter or work in HRC or something.

    The conversation always goes like this:
    "Whats your MOS?"
    "92Y"
    "Oh what's that?"
    "Supply"
    "oh ok"

    Why the hell don't people just ask "What do you do?" because there's a 90% chance you are going to have to ask that as a follow up question because unless you yourself are also in that field then you probably don't know that 35P means Cryptologic Linguist lol

    I think it has to do with folks like to feel special and those little number designations make them feel special. Plus official job titles in the military always sound way cooler than they actually are.

    "Whats your MOS?"
    "92G Culinary Specialist"
    "oh so you're a cook"

    lol
     
  15. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    Yeah I get that, me personally I always just tell people what I do rather than my MOS code mainly because I have never met a single person who knew what my MOS code meant anyway and I myself didn't even know what it was until recently lol. No point in dragging the conversation out further by having to answer the inevitable "Whats that mean" that will surely follow.
     
  16. yiostheoy

    yiostheoy Well-Known Member

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    My NROTC scuba instructor back in the 1970's was a S.E.A.L. when being a seal did not mean squat.

    Back then to be cool you HAD to be a Marine or else it did not count.
     
    Last edited: Dec 18, 2017
  17. yiostheoy

    yiostheoy Well-Known Member

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    ... I just tell them "infantry".

    I spent my entire tour with the infantry although my MOS was Arty F/O and ANGICO.
     
  18. yiostheoy

    yiostheoy Well-Known Member

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    I can remember the 0802 MOS but not the ANGICO MOS nor the Legal-O MOS.

    My last 6 months was at JAG (had a hard time remember that just now too !!).
     
  19. yiostheoy

    yiostheoy Well-Known Member

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    When you get old you won't remember this sh!t though.

    It all fades away.
     
  20. yiostheoy

    yiostheoy Well-Known Member

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    Occasionally someone will actually insist on hearing the MOS numbers and I will just say 0802. And they will counter that they have never heard of that. So I tell them to google it.
     
  21. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    One of my previous MOS's no longer exists and another has been reclassified with another designation, so me telling anyone some of my old MOS's usually lead to head scratching among current active duty.
     
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  22. APACHERAT

    APACHERAT Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I was a 0849, Shore Fire Control Party Man. (Basically a naval gunfire spotter comparable to an artillery forward observer)

    'There is no longer a 0849 MOS today, it was replaced with 0861, Fire Support Man.

    But even that MOS description has probably changed in the name of political correctness. The Obama administration ordered that the word "man" was politically incorrect and all MOS descriptions using the word man had to be changed to a PC word.

    There are so many MOS's and "ratings" (navy) in the four branches of the military all I know when it comes to the Marine Corps.
    03## are grunts
    08## have something to do with artillery
    18## have something to do with tracked vehicles like tanks or AMTRACS
    6### are air-dales swinging with the air wing.

    Any other MOS I would have to ask what exactly is that MOS ?

    The only Army MOS I can identify are the 11-# knowing they are grunts.
     
  23. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    Don't tell an infantry dude you were infantry if that's not actually your MOS. They don't take too kindly to that lol.

    I was an actual infantry squad leader during my last Afghan deployment. I, at the time, was a Tanker but due to having no armor in Afghanistan they shuffled both the tank and infantry companies together then chopped us all up into new company's mixed with both tankers and infantry. Due to my rank they made me the squad leader. I was in charge of actual 11B guys and lead around on patrols for the entire duration of the deployment as their squad leader. Yet when it came time to get our combat badges from the engagements we had they all insisted I got the Combat Action Badge and I couldn't get the Combat Infantry badge because "you don't count" lol. My platoon sergeant asked if I wanted to be put in for the CIB since I was obviously leading infantry guys during these firefights as part of an infantry squad and I declined and told him I'd just take my normal CAB as the tanker that I am so as to not upset the sacredness of the CIB that those infantry boys hold so dear to themselves.

    Even to this day when people ask me about prior deployments I just tell them I was a tanker in an infantry platoon now. I got tired of the infantry boys giving me crap about "trying to claim I was infantry because I deployed with them".
     
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  24. APACHERAT

    APACHERAT Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    If I remember correctly I never really heard someones MOS being mentioned except in ones SRB, filling a billet or around promotion time. It's more of an administrative thing. 0311's just referred to themselves as just grunts or riflemen.

    The first time I ever asked someone what their MOS was when I was in the civilian world, must have been around 1978 or 79 when some homeless guy asked for some spare change and saying "I'm a Vietnam vet."

    I looked at him and he seemed to be a little to young to have served in the Nam so I asked him what his MOS was ?

    He had no freaking idea what a MOS was.
     
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  25. Greataxe

    Greataxe Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I'll watch YouTube vids on stolen valor for a laugh sometimes, but I really don't have a problem with posers---as long as they are not trying to rip people off for money.

    I had more of the opposite problem of not showing my military service. It took over 20 years before I posted a couple of my Army certificates on my office walls. I just use my ancient red ID card to get a few bucks off at some businesses at times. Only a BDU jacket and hat still fit, and I only wear them rarely for outdoors. I like the new Multicam type patterns and uniforms for hunting and casual outdoor wear. But I don't walk around in a full or near-full uniform. And I never wear any rank/insignias.
     

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