Need help with creep claiming to be military...

[GaYellowDawg]

This guy claims that he was "USAF Combat Comm" securing Balad AFB and that he snuck up on Iraqis and slit thier throats with a Bowie knife. Sounds like a keyboard warrior to me, but I want to nail him. I was under the impression that the 4th Infantry Divison secured Balad. Can anyone help with information?

[LostInAnomie]

1. Were they at least insurgents...

... or did he just kill the first Iraqi he saw?

[leveymg]

10. He gets a medal and a ribbon, either way.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. Pretending to be "ex-military" is fairly common.

And it's horribly embarrassing to be in the company of someone who is pretending. It makes my skin crawl.

[roguevalley]

3. no one in my family who served in active combat EVER, EVER,

EVER talked about it. No real soldier ever talks like that. Have him show you his hash marks, or some tangible evidence. As him his commander's name.

[cynatnite]

5. I had several family members in combat...

They would never brag about it in this way and that's how this comes across.

They discussed combat, but it was always in generalities.

You're right.

[GaYellowDawg]

6. I'm completely military ignorant...

What are "hash marks"?

I was pretty sure the second that he started bragging about it, that he hadn't done a thing. I've only known a couple of people who mentioned that they were in combat and they sure weren't giving details.

[roguevalley]

18. hash marks are his stripes. good luck with this blowhard, honey.

[Toots]

31. Not exactly but close

Even officers have hash marks. They are overseas bars and length of service bars on lower sleeve. Stripes are considered rank.

[Renegade Six]

21. exactly

I speak of wrongs that are done to soldiers, observations, etc. but not even my wife knows what I did/saw operation wise.

[Renegade Six]

22. Sorry, dupe

[AussieDave]

4. A long article, but will this help ??

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/balad-ab.htm

[tabasco]

7. You get the best war stories from troops who were never in combat.

This story is utter bullshit.

I was in the infantry for twelve years, in combat twice (probably gonna be three times now), and even infantrymen don't sneak up on people with Bowie knives. Total bullshit.

This guy probably scraped rubber off the runway in Tampa, if he ever served at all.

Not sure about Balad, but even if the 4th ID is there doesn't preclude some USAF people there too. But they damn sure don't sneak around taking people out with Bowie knives !

:rofl:

[EST]

8. Tell him you are doing a story about bravery and courage

in the less well publicized military operations (eg-the recent spate of film stories about snipers.) Tell him you need exact names, C. O.s, dates, etc., while assurng him that the info will be fogged a bit in the final copy, should he be worried about security, and that you'll let him read and approve the manuscript before publication. The data he gives you should be pretty easy to check, at that point.

[Maddy McCall]

64. Ooo--perfect. And ask him for an interview. LOL!

[GaYellowDawg]

9. Here's the exact quote:

I scored a 99 on the ASVAB bro, I wasn't Army, TOO SMART try USAF Combat Comm! Iraq and Afghanistan working with Northern Alliance..............you know the guys that hit the ground first to guide missiles in..... It was so easy overtaking Balad AFB, I dropped my gun, pulled out my BOWIE....we snuck up on IRAQI troops and slit their throats.....WAY TOO EASY.........

It sounded like obvious BS to me, but I wanted to see if I could get details on who did what at Balad and pin him on the spot.

On edit: Oh, and thanks for your help, everyone. I got this response after he'd bragged about being in combat in Iraq and I asked him what company/battalion/regiment he was in. I googled USAF Combat Comm and read some information and said, "It's my understanding that the purpose of USAF Combat Comm groups are to provide communications (e.g., NIPRNET, SIPRNET, and DSN phone lines) to airfields that have been seized by special ops forces and close air support units." He hasn't answered.

You know, I never served in the armed forces, and on occasion, that makes me feel a little inadequate around those who have, but that's the life that I chose. I think that pretending to be military is extremely disrespectful and would never do it.

[cynatnite]

11. United States AIr Force Combat Communications...

in other words he was mobile communications.

I think he's full of shit. If I'm not mistaken Delta Force, Rangers, Green Berets, Navy Seals and a few others do that sort of work.

It does sound like BS.

Ask him what his rank and MOS was. Also tell him to name his military unit and time frame of his deployments. If he can't get specific with those questions, assume he's full of shit.

[jmowreader]

63. If he DOES give you his MOS, you've got him

That's because the Air Force calls its job titles AFSCs--Air Force Specialty Codes.

The thing this chickenhawk is claiming to be is an Air Force Combat Controller, not AF Combat Comm--Combat Comm runs a radio, as others have mentioned, while Combat Controllers are as close to Rambo as the USAF gets.

[ThoughtCriminal]

13. He dropped is "gun"?

No way.

Also, I didn't think anyone in the military refered to their weapon as a gun - or has that changed?

"This is my rifle, this is my gun, this ones for killing, this ones for fun."

[TahitiNut]

16. That's not language I'd use, for sure.

That got kicked out of us in basic training, real early. "Dropped my gun" would mean "stopped masturbating."

Ask him how he did in "short arms inspections." :evilgrin: (That's the VD check.) But most folks know that.

[GreenPartyVoter]

32. I didn't know that. *lol*

[Hekate]

26. Dropped his "gun"? John Wayne Bobbit? Is that you?

>snrk< sorry, I couldn't help it.

The guy sounds like he is full of BS.

Hekate

[ozarkvet]

29. Ain't no "guns" except artillery.

A rifle is a "rifle" (unless it is a shotgun, which is a "shotgun" --- which are used, BTW).

A pistol is a "pistol," "sidearm," or "Berreta."

The only time I heard the word "gun" was in reference to male anatomy --- or artillery pieces.

I left active duty in 2005, BTW. This is current info.

He's fake.

[Squatch]

35. Sorry, wrong reply

[jmowreader]

65. Machineguns are called "guns" too

But believe you me, no one would EVER drop a machinegun. Imagine the noise it would make when it hit the ground.

[Jed Dilligan]

70. not that I know of

My friend who went to Iraq as a civilian with the Army said she was quickly disabused of the notion that soldiers carry "guns." They carry weapons; "guns" are attached to tanks, ships, etc.

[TahitiNut]

15. I've never heard a vet talk like that, even in group sessions.

Nope. That guy is RPGing, I'd bet. If he claimed to be in Nam when I was there, I could probably ask the right questions. There's language (idioms, slang, acronums, etc.) that's hard to fake.

[Renegade Six]

24. Dont feel inadequate...

I chose to serve...its a all good. I feel inadequate because im almost 30 and I only have 3 credits of college. As you say we choose our lives, Im ready for a new choice now.

BTW if this offends, Im sorry. It doesnt look right to me but i cant figure it out so ill post itanyway

[BamaGirl]

40. Man, don't do that

I'd much rather have an experienced non-degreed NCO than an NCO with a degree and no experience. ;) And having dealt with my husband's unit the last few years (since he got off active duty) I'm beginning to think degrees amoung NCO's are evil things lol. They're definitely in the experienced category since they were depolyed for two years, but geesh, my dog has more common sense. Don't sell yourself short for not having college. Frankly in the part of the country I live in, having served in the Army gets me a lot farther than having gone to college anyway.

[ozarkvet]

47. Move to Texas

Takes care of its vets re: college. I pay for nothing.

I think it has to be your last-year-of-service state (but not your original "home" state) to qualify for all sorts of Texas Veterans Board benefits.

Home mortgages to (above and beyond VA mortgages).

BTW: I went from nothing to an E-9 with no college at all. Don't worry about it.

[Squatch]

48. Thanks for your service, Sergeant Major

[ozarkvet]

50. Just promoted myself

Would have never noticed, but for your post.

E-8, alas.

And a bad typist.

[Squatch]

52. Well, then...thanks for your service, Top!

[ozarkvet]

55. As a black man

I preferred to be called "Master."

[Renegade Six]

61. I like you already. lol.

[Renegade Six]

60. TX resident since 1998.

thanks Ill look into it.

[Arkana]

28. I'm not military, and have no intention of ever serving

but I have listened to veterans of Iraq I and II, Vietnam, and WWII--and NONE of them EVER spoke of their experiences like that. Your friend is a stinking liar.

[Walt Starr]

34. Ask him which score the "99" is

After he tells you it's teh raw score, ask him his Military Careers Score, that ranges from 140 to 240.

[skygazer]

45. "Gun"?

Tee hee hee.....

What a schmuck. I have NEVER heard a military man refer to his weapon as a "gun."

[JHB]

49. He's crowing about what he got on the ASVAB?

I got a 99 on the ASVAB, "bro". try "Annapolis". USNA, Class of '86.

Bilged out before completeion, but that's another story.

I'm sure this mouthy fellow secured the AFB and slit some throats... playing "Rainbow 6" on his X-box or something.

[unpossibles]

62. I too scored a 99 on my ASVAB

big whoop. The guy's full of crap.

[newspeak]

68. you sure it wasn't a psychiatric evaluation

and he thought he could score on the test?

[unpossibles]

75. I don't get it. n/t

[Ferret Annica]

12. Ask him why he didn't use silent kill techniques.

When you kill a sentry, you are supposed to puncture their diaphragm, or smash or cut their airway. Or violently break their neck in a manner that breaks the spinal cord.

You also are to come up at an angle and not focus too intently on your prey. People are known to sense interdiction coming up to get them. One tries to give them as little tools to do this as possible.

Cutting the throat to bleed out the target makes a noisy mess.

I would be ruthless with this guy. There are people who are former Rangers, Special Forces and Seals who specialize in detecting and unmasking this sort of identity theft.

You shut up a right wing asshole by denying him stolen glory others worked hard for and risked much in earning. Once branded as a liar, they are neutralized politically.

I read about such people doing this unmasking of phonies in an organized fashion, however I don't have a name of link to help find these people who deal in military identity theft.

I am former Special Forces, and if you know any elite veterans with known credentials, introduce them to him and let the questions start. They usually are liars when they are boasters, they usually are liars if all their bloody tails are glorious.

When you deal at all with death in war, the normal sane thing people who have come face to face with it is to shut up. People who killed get angry and irritated if the the topic comes up, and I would say that your instincts are good in doubting this guy's tails.

[Freedomfried]

23. Well...when I was I was on SEAL Team ....

(I love a chance to say that)

They told us NEVER attempt sentry take out unless one of your team mates was covering the target with a suppressed (silenced) weapon, this way if you fucked up with the "Rambo" approach, your teammate could always kill him the old fashioned way.

He'd shoot em'


By the way, even the PC in the Air Force doesn't do direct action operations, the "veteran" referred to is full of shit.

Peace
FF

BUDS Class 124
UDT 12
SDV Team One
SEAL Team One
81-91

[BikeWriter]

14. He should be able to show you a DD-214.

I recently joined the VFW and American Legion with one of mine. I also have copies of my orders to VietNam.

[TahitiNut]

17. Well, I wouldn't put mine out on the internet unless heavily redacted.

That's a lot of personal information.

[BikeWriter]

20. I wouldn't either, but you could easily edit personal info.

The mere act of having one would add some credence to the story.

[TahitiNut]

27. Before my scanner crapped out, I scanned in my discharge certificate ...

... for grins -- and just in case someone had the temerity to challenge my veracity. (I've found that some DUers have more than the average dose of skepticism and are inclined to call another a liar.) I'm dubious, however, that someone so-inclined would be dissuaded by it. I've found that there are at least two kinds of base dishonesty - liars and those who are so obsessively married to their opinions they wrongfully call others liars who offer contary evidence. The first are being dishonest with others; the second are being dishonest with themselves as well.

[BikeWriter]

41. I'm lucky to have found my DD-214 and VietNam orders...

Those are in my VA file now, and I'm signed up with them. That's a big relief.

[TahitiNut]

53. Well, I've of course got my DD-214 but only have my return orders.

I don't know what ever happened to all my earlier orders, including orders to report at OAB for assignment to Nam. Given that I try to keep my real name unassociated with my Internet pseudonym, I'm just not inclined to show documents with my name showing on them. Lacking even the name, it's difficult to 'prove' veracity.

It's a conundrum. The Internet frauds can hide behind the kind of cover that others (like myself) need in order to speak freely and honestly with less fear of retribution. As a whistleblower, I'm keenly aware of how noxious that retribution can be. There are some very sleazy people in Korporate Amerika.

[BikeWriter]

72. In my short year on this forum, I've seen enough of your posts...

to believe you are legitimate, Brother. ;-)

[TahitiNut]

74. Thanks, bro'!

If I'm lyin' I'm dyin' - literally. My integrity is important to me - it's really the only thing I have control over, even more than my life itself. Another person can take my life, but my integrity is under my total control. I just don't understand how people can see it any other way. No matter what else happens to me or what mistakes I make, that's the one thing I can always keep intact. It astonishes me that people who try so hard to 'control' other things and other people so often don't control the one thing they actually DO have control over. Bizarre.

/soapbox

[ozarkvet]

33. Short form

There is a short form, not the 214, but one that lists your stations.

I think it has SSN, DOB, and DOD number on it, though.

[Squatch]

36. And easy to forge.

[ozarkvet]

38. Probably true

Mine says "copy copy copy" when copied, though.

And I have no idea what a GAU is, BTW.

[Squatch]

39. It's a "gun"...not artillery

[ozarkvet]

44. Had to google it

The only thing I got was the cannon on an Avenger.

Not exactly field weaponry that I (a mere grunt) encountered. We were happy to have some .50's.

In fact, I never got to see an Avenger except on the ground, although we did clean up a couple of time after one or more had come to visit.

They tear up everything --- wood and jagged pieces of stone and metal everywhere. It's very dangerous just from a fall-on-your-ass and get impaled perspective.

[BikeWriter]

43. Yep, they switched to SS numbers while I was in...

I can still recite my old service number though.

[TahitiNut]

56. I'll be able to recite my service number (US 549804xx) even after ...

... I'm years into Alzheimers. Getting fed and paid was strong motivation to 'hard wire' that into my skull.

[BikeWriter]

66. Hey, Bro, they did embed that into our brain, huh?

[punpirate]

19. Sounds rather preposterous...

... but, you might start with his screen name and Google that, and go to Google groups or usenet search tools and look for the name there, just to see if anyone has called him out.

Say you don't know what "USAF Combat Comm" means, and ask what his military occupational specialty is. That you can look up later.

Usually, the devil is in the details. Years ago, I ran into a fellow member of a mailing list who claimed to be a gunship pilot in the Gulf war who, quite in opposition to the list purpose, kept insulting foreigners on the list--particularly the French and the British--and he had said something along the same lines as this guy, and it struck me as false. He was irritating so many people that people were dropping off the list because they were offended.

Fortunately, a mailing list has a real mailing address, not screen names. So, I had his name and his email. After a couple of evenings of investigation, I found that he was using his work email, and, eventually, that he was using that email address as his contact address on the alumni page of his high school. Once I had that, I had the high school and his date of graduation... spring, 1991. No way could he have been what he said he was.

The alternative, given that this is likely a forum, is to just let him rattle on until he provides enough false information that can be challenged with some authority. It may take some digging, and some time, but eventually, he'll hang himself if he's a fraud.

Cheers.

[DiverDave]

25. The guys that brag about it

NEVER did it.

Trust me, the guys a liar.

[Squatch]

30. US Army units regularly deploy with liaison elements of the USAF and USN

eg JTACs and ANGLICOs.

The Army IN units will occupy and secure the area, while these liaison elements will arrange for and bring to bear assets of the combined arms team.

That being said, USAF Combat Communications is typically concerned with bringing bandwidth to the tactical theater. So, they are usually the people who sit inside air conditioned MilVans watching the lights blink on their ICAP BAMs.

It is *very, very* unlikely that a commo geek would be snooping and pooping, slitting anybody's throat.

[kiki]

37. Tell him...

...that if he keeps masturbating while posting on internet boards, his mom won't let him play CounterStrike any more.

[Horse with no Name]

42. I saw that movie!

Ask why he didn't just use his government issue rifle?:eyes:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

46. He's probably 14 and a big fan of Tom Clancy comic books..er, novels.

But, he may outgrow his delusions of being a man if he can ever get over the acne and find something to put in his jockstrap.

[BikeWriter]

71. Hey, Tom Clancy's books are damned authentic., from what I've heard..

[newspeak]

73. yes, Dirk Pitt is in the house

I clenched the knife between my teeth while stealthily hunting the enemy-silently I plunged my knife into the neck. With a look of shock, he went down. Then, like a panther, hunting his prey, I went for the next victim-he suddently turned, with my knife securely clutched in my hand, I circled him waiting for his attack. Standing 6'4" with bulging muscles, I could smell his fetid breath, I knew I only had one chance to take him down. When he lunged at me, I swiped my trustee Bowee knife, an heirloom past down from the Alamo, and he went down like a rock. :rofl: Seriously, My father was on the German front in WWII, my uncle also, my step-father was in Vietnam, and I have other friends that were in the thick of battle not one speaks of their experiences in the war. My uncle and my step-father suffered PTSD. It wasn't until my step-father died, that I found out that in Vietnam he tried to run over his CO with a grader.

[Neil Lisst]

51. not a lot of throat slitting in the USAF

Probably helped unload C-141s.

[Squatch]

54. Last C-141 flew on 30 Sep (in combat area)

Link

I've personnaly taken off in many C-141's but never landed in them. I always got out sometime during the trip.

[BikeWriter]

69. WTF? You jumped off a perfectly good airplane?

:patriot:

[BikeWriter]

67. LOL! Bull hockey, some of our USAF people were in North VietNam.

[ck4829]

57. Nobody brags about it

My Great-Uncle and my Uncle served.

The closest thing to a war story was my Great-Uncle telling me about the kamikazes of the Japanese.

[Squatch]

58. I once asked my Dad if he killed anybody in Vietnam.

We were on the Autobahn in Germany at the time. He pulled off at the nearest exit, came to a stop, turned off the car, and said "You don't ever ask anybody a question like that." I think I was about 13 or 14, but the message hit me a like a ton of fucking bricks.

Only much later did my Dad sit me and my brother down for a long (2 hour) recitation of his exploits in Vietnam, including the answer to the question I posed years earlier.

Very, very sobering experience.

[spanone]

59. ...And he's proud that he slit throats? Sounds like one sick fuk.