Via Marko and Tam I found myself reading this bit on finding a guy at the gun show decked out in all sorts of incorrect military garb and doing the usual “I’m former Special Forces/Army Ranger/whatever” crap.
I just don’t “get” why people try and do this. For one you only have to spend 15 minutes watching two people that are actually in the military actually talk about their jobs before you realize there’s jargon and acronyms being tossed about constantly. Spotting a fake isn’t hard for anybody that’s served. Hell, I could probably do a good job of it and the closest I’ve ever come to combat is holding a buddy up by the shoulders when he was piss drunk taking a leak in his front yard rambling about the awful shit he saw happen to his friends in Iraq.
I was once asked, in all seriousness, if I was former military based on some stuff I said in a gun shop once*. I ran away from that label as fast as I could. I wasn’t offended by the assumption but I’d never try and pretend I’d enlisted.
*: A man of about 40 was in the shop with his son of about 25 looking for a home defense gun on a budget. The clerk suggested a Mossberg 500 or maybe a Remington 870 but they were interested in a pistol. The only thing they had within their budget was a Hi-Point which the clerk gave a “Meh” endorsement to so they declined. I pulled them aside and gave them a quick run down of the Makarov, brief history, noted the uncommon caliber, and countries of origin with instructions that there was a dealer at the local gun show at the time selling Bulgarians for $150. That was enough to make the older man ask me if I was former military. Go figure.
