Vietnam poser (?)

Here is a more recent of Steve Burrell wearing a Vietnam campaign medal, a Purple Heart, and a bronze star on his sports coat. His name is not in the bronze star recipient database. Guy also threatens anyone who calls him out on the BS. 464BC86F-DFB3-4ED8-9533-234C7B199DD9.jpeg
 
Went to Olive Garden on Veterans Day a few years back for the free food and there was a guy there all decked out in ACU’s and sporting an EMT hat trying to get a free plate. When asked for his 214 he didn’t know what the paper was then told this elaborate story on how he had planned on going to boot camp but couldn’t
Ah, the “Almost Veteran.”

 
Would a Vietnam War Army E-whatever with a non-combat desk job be required to periodically go into the bush on patrol? I'm fact checking someone.
From books I’ve read, possibly. Maybe they wanted a certain award they couldnt get in their current position and maybe pulled some string to get a little trigger time. Maybe they pissed off someone important.
 
HAHA...we had to learn them in Navy Bootcamp back in the 70's backwards and forwards but if you put a 45 to my head and told me I had to tell you just one of them, I'd tell you to pull the trigger and get it over with...I can't even remember part of one [smile]
I remember one general order: I walk my post from flank to flank and take no crap from any rank.
 
Here is a more recent of Steve Burrell wearing a Vietnam campaign medal, a Purple Heart, and a bronze star on his sports coat. His name is not in the bronze star recipient database. Guy also threatens anyone who calls him out on the BS. View attachment 568607


Threatens them with what? Seriously. I know a few who would challenge him for that reason, alone.
 
Threatens them with what? Seriously. I know a few who would challenge him for that reason, alone.
He claims to be a black belt in aikido and basically just says he’s gonna beat your ass. Typical warrior stuff. His most recent crock of shit story was that he got jumped allegedly walking his dog through the neighborhood park at midnight and he beat all of them up. That was about a month ago
 
So the other day I was in the gun store when a guy came in to do a transfer on a Kimber 1911. He was wearing a Ferrari hat (warning sign? [laugh]), and he was pretty talkative. He started up a conversation about guns, and he said that his interest in guns started after he used guns in the service in Vietnam. That led to something like this:

Me (making conversation): "So what branch were you with?"

Him: "Army, I was in from 1963-65."

Me: "Oh, I heard that in the early years they had a lot of problems with the M-16's reliability."

Him: "Nope, I never heard anything like that. I wouldn't know, I carried a Thompson, I was actually doing work for the CIA."

He moved onto other subjects after that (like severely racist remarks about Obama [thinking]), but two things seemed odd to me. I've heard from more than a few vets about issues with the early M-16's, mostly gunpowder related IIRC, so it seemed odd that he'd never heard anything about it. Also the Thompson reference; one of my grandfathers used on in Korea, but I'd never heard of them being used in Vietnam.

This guy was a bit of a prick to begin with, but him throwing out the CIA comment seemed unusual to me, since the people I know who've been there done that don't advertise to strangers they just met.

I have many friends and family who're vets, but none from Vietnam, so I'm looking to find out some info to see if this guy is who he says he is.

Does anyone here know something on the subject that I could bring up to find out if he's FOS or not?
So, you plan on “running into him” again?
 
Why why why why why!? Why do these retards always have to be special forces, paratroopers, CIA, Mi-17, whatever? Can't you just make up a boring job and call it done? No one would ever think twice about a radio repair guy, who can't fix your radio because he was only trained on one particular radio when he was in Whereveristan. It sounds believable, no one would ever call him out, and he'd get the same 10% discount and "thank you for your service" as a real vet - why add the stupid embellishments?

I pretty much disbelieve anyone I hear claiming to be anything over the rank of E4 who did anything more than waste time - especially if it's the first meeting.


Honest story:
I once worked with the Army Rangers, and can't tell you what we were doing because of classified info.
For a while I worked the Ops desk in the Air Force: I filed flight plans, noted takeoff and land times and received the call when the planes were 10 minutes out and if they had any problems, you know, the real exciting stuff. Our A-10s were working with the Rangers, and we went down to Ft Campbell (?) to fly overhead and do our thing while they did their thing on the ground, note the technical terms.
What we were doing was classified, and I didn't have a need to know despite me having a TS clearance from when I was in Intelligence. So I wasn't informed of what exactly our planes were doing while they were airborne.
I DID work with them - and I can't tell you what we were doing, because they never told me. LOL
On that note, and speaking of the Rangers...

Worked with a guy briefly, who my boss told me about ahead of time, said another veteran was coming on board. Huge guy (wide, not tall) shows up, pleasant enough, sporting a Ranger tattoo.

Cool, no problem, let's swap war stories. Immediately bristles. Wants to know why I'm asking, it's none of my business, etc. Did some ops he didn't want to talk about, you know the deal. Didn't take long for other folks to start having a problem with him - he wouldn't work at all, would just hide in different parts of the building until time to punch the clock.

Finally, my boss approached me, asked if I had any idea what was going on. Obviously against policy, but he let me see the guy's resume.

I can't remember the specific years, so those are just place holders, but it basically said:
2001-2004 - Army - Worked for the army in a battalion position.

I kid you not, that was the whole extent. No MOS, no description, just that he was present. Turns out, he was a supply guy, that served on a base that happened to have Rangers, so he got the tat.

Like you said, why?? Given it was a warehouse job, we would have been just as happy to hire him if he had said "I worked in a warehouse." But it had to be some fanciful tale...
 

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He claims to be a black belt in aikido and basically just says he’s gonna beat your ass. Typical warrior stuff. His most recent crock of shit story was that he got jumped allegedly walking his dog through the neighborhood park at midnight and he beat all of them up. That was about a month ago
Does he have the boots to match, though?


View: https://youtu.be/d4reL9AmhVg
 
One of the biggest red flag is people who try very hard to steer the conversation to get you to ask something so they can reply "It's classified above top secret, I cannot discuss it with you". Frusrtate them by just saying "impressive" and leave it at that without any conversation extenders.
 
I had a second cousin who worked for the government. He never really brought up work. It was only after he passed that we found out he worked for the CIA.
 
I had a second cousin who worked for the government. He never really brought up work. It was only after he passed that we found out he worked for the CIA.
Had a college classmate I knew for a fact went to work at CIA.

Ran into him at a Christmas party. He handed me his business card, and it said, “U.S. Department of Agriculture.” [laugh]
 
Had a college classmate I knew for a fact went to work at CIA.

Ran into him at a Christmas party. He handed me his business card, and it said, “U.S. Department of Agriculture.” [laugh]
A - he switched agencies for a better job

B- he got fake cards made. I didn’t like to tell people when I worked in intelligence because
a- they’d make the stupid military intelligence oxymoron joke
b- they thought I had a decoder ring and OO rank
 
Ah Yes! This all reminds me of the guy who owns a gun shop in West Swanzey he was telling all that would listen that he was a Marine Warrant Officer Pilot (there were three of them he wasn't one) come to find out that he was a Lance Corporal (E-3) basic auto mechanic.
 
Ah Yes! This all reminds me of the guy who owns a gun shop in West Swanzey he was telling all that would listen that he was a Marine Warrant Officer Pilot (there were three of them he wasn't one) come to find out that he was a Lance Corporal (E-3) basic auto mechanic.
And you know what? There is nothing to be ashamed of by being a mechanic. What is going on with these people that they need to lie so badly?
 
My first job was in a kitchen. One cook kept bragging about being in VietNam and he was Force Recon and worked for the CIA. There was no way this fat POS was ever that. The other line cooks got so sick of him they started calling him “Special Agent Orange” (to his face). He got fired pretty quickly because he was also an idiot (he put cocktail sauce an bbq chicken).
 
Sorry he was supposed to cook bbq chicken, instead of putting Bbq sauce on he put cocktail sauce (shrimp cocktail) on it.

No, no, no - I get that. I'm curious about how that tastes. Might be good on some grilled chicken.

I had a friend who accidently used cinnamon instead of paprika on his rib rub, and it was great.
 
One of the biggest red flag is people who try very hard to steer the conversation to get you to ask something so they can reply "It's classified above top secret, I cannot discuss it with you". Frusrtate them by just saying "impressive" and leave it at that without any conversation extenders.
Since you're apparently the expert here on 'outing' phony Vets....You might want to chat about the "Bills Pizza incident" in the 90's after IPSIC practice.
When waiting for the pizza's some loudmouth in the gun crew (not you) started talking guns, then Vietnam, then "REAL Vietnam Vets, don't talk about it". A quiet older guy sitting with the crew got up and left....and offered a word of health advice directed to your word warrior pal.
 
For the record I returned home in '68' glad to be alive. While ETS'ing out at Dix I looked at my DD-214 for errors and found all my combat awards were missing. So from 1968-76 my DD-214 would have reflected I had the Good CM, VN Service M, VN Cross of G.

In 1976 and again in 2010, I put in for DD-215's (correction for Military records). My point is many guys never gave a eff about medals, or DD-214's. I do know guys that didn't even remember what unit they were in. I'm all for outing phony veterans but don't get sloppy accusing unless ur 100% sure.
 
Since you're apparently the expert here on 'outing' phony Vets....You might want to chat about the "Bills Pizza incident" in the 90's after IPSIC practice.
When waiting for the pizza's some loudmouth in the gun crew (not you) started talking guns, then Vietnam, then "REAL Vietnam Vets, don't talk about it". A quiet older guy sitting with the crew got up and left....and offered a word of health advice directed to your word warrior pal.
I never claimed any expertise on outing phony vets, and have no military background. I have seen people in other (non-military contexts) deliberately steer conversations just to be able to say "that is secret, I can't tell you" - like it somehow makes them important. My comment about biggest "red flag" was in reference to self-important blowhard bs artists, not fake vets specifically - but I see how it could have been taken that way.

I do not remember the incident of which you speak, but do remember the Bills Pizza outings.

Love that term "word warrior".
 
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