View Full Version : What would you do?
MinerDiver
03-11-2005, 12:27
Quick question for the group:
You go into McDonald on the way home from Military duty. You have on your BDUs with SF tab on both sides and all the other happy badges on the chest. Bunch of hotties are all congregating in a group (no we are not going there - but I like the way you think). You get your food and grab a seat. Sitting at the table in front of you (and facing you) is an individual wearing a black baseball hat with the SF crest. He is there with his father and - the individual that all the women are with. Now - you notice the hat - but this individual doesn't make eye contact. You stare at him - and you see that he is both uncomfortable with your staring AND is making a very obvious attempt not to make eye contact. Last, you witness him whisper something to his father - who then moves to block your view.
Your next step?
Smokin Joe
03-11-2005, 14:48
Smirk to yourself in full confidence that the guy is a freaking POSER.
But I'm not one of you so I have no weight in this topic.
with SF tab on both sides and all the other happy badges on the chest.
I never wore an SF tab on both sides. But to answer the question. Not much.
Cloths with military related themes are a dime a dozen around here. Since his dad had to help out that means he's just a kid. Teenagers just love the Soggie stuff from VN and other related militaria.
It's not really the wearing, it's the talking, saying and showing.
Now it's another story when ou get a grown-up who wears the stuff and starts talking the talk.
The best "posser kill" I ever had was when I was fairly fresh out of jump school and the Q course. RL will love this one. I was sitting in the Stop Light bar in Cresco, IA when I was on leave. I was drinking beer with some buds when this guys walks in and sits next to us at the bar. He was just driving through Iowa and happened to stop in there.
After a beer or two he starts telling stories about being in the Army. The guys I'm with were great, they took their lead from me. The more he talked the more we said "No!" "Really" 'Keep going". He was a 12B freash out of AIT from what I could tell. He had the basic story down but man did he ever pump up 12B AIT. I was a 12B. When he got to the real good stuff I asked him what company he was in at jump school. He replied with Company B and I stated that I had gone to jump school also but that I was in 43rd Company. Woooeeey the fight was on. In short order he was out the door and on the curb.
Ya' just got to be careful when you shoot your mouth off in a bar.
Pete
Team Sergeant
03-11-2005, 15:28
You do as I do and cheerfully ask him if he served in Special Forces. (my brothers will sometimes wear SF ball-caps and would happily reply that their brother is SF)
If and when he says "yes" you continue to ask the normal SF questions, what Gp, ODA # etc. should take you all of ten seconds to figure out if he's a poser.
What you do then is up to you. Personally I’d call him a loser, (if he said yes and lied) and walk away.
TS
The Reaper
03-11-2005, 15:40
You cannot legally wear SF Tabs on both sides, it is a skill qualification tab and does not belong there any more than you can wear two Ranger Tabs.
I would let it be unless I heard him woofing about it.
TR
You cannot legally wear SF Tabs on both sides, it is a skill qualification tab and does not belong there any more than you can wear two Ranger Tabs.
I would let it be unless I heard him woofing about it.
TR
Combat patch on right shoulder?
The Reaper
03-11-2005, 18:32
Combat patch on right shoulder?
Patch, not Tab.
The Airborne rocker is considered part of the SF Patch.
The SF Tab is not, it is a Skill Badge.
TR
I would probably nod politely and let it go at that.
Maybe he was a poser, maybe a famiy member was in SF, maybe he just worships SF. Regardless there would have to be a real great reason to embarass him in front of his family.
People using SF to further their careers or esteem bother me -- real SF as well as Posers. Other than that they don't bother me that much. I never really had much thunder to steal anyway.
I is said that imitation is a high form of compliment.
Pardon me for double posting but I gave this some thought over dinner. Perhaps the key is in your statement:You stare at him - and you see that he is both uncomfortable with your staring AND is making a very obvious attempt not to make eye contact. Last, you witness him whisper something to his father - who then moves to block your view.
My mommy taught me it is rude to stare. Now let me pose two additional questions based upon this same scenario.
1. Suppose you are the boy. Either your brother or your father is in Special Forces. You look up and see a group of soldiers staring at you like hostile, hungry vultures about to pounce. What would you do?
2. You are the boy's father and are in Special Forces or your other son is. Your son tells you of the staring soldiers. What would you do? In the later case and depending upon my mood I may well have approached you and asked WTF the problem was.
Who cares?
I didn't know anyone in my stint in SF that would give a rat's ass about some kid wearing a hat with a SF crest.
There was real trouble elsewhere without having to look for it.
NousDefionsDoc
03-11-2005, 20:28
Don't eat at McDonald's - that shit will kill you.
I'm with Doc on this one.
You might note that all of the QP's responses are similar. :(
Trip_Wire (RIP)
03-11-2005, 21:17
Who cares?
I didn't know anyone in my stint in SF that would give a rat's ass about some kid wearing a hat with a SF crest.
There was real trouble elsewhere without having to look for it.
I agree with this and would do the same.
:munchin
Reaper, that is what you get when youre not paying attention, thanks for the correction.
The Reaper
03-12-2005, 08:41
Reaper, that is what you get when youre not paying attention, thanks for the correction.
Not at all.
That would be something that I would expect an SF soldier to know, but that is a pretty obscure uniform reg to expect a Finn to know.
Larry Thorne would have known though. :D
TR
NousDefionsDoc
03-12-2005, 11:18
For those that do not know....
THORNE, LARRY ALAN
Remains Found 1999 - Identified 2003, Buried Arlington June 26, 2003
Name: Larry Alan Thorne
Rank/Branch: O3/US Army
Unit: HQ MACV SD5891
Date of Birth: 28 May 1919
(Viipuru, Finland - military records - correct spelling is Viipuri)
Home City of Record: Norwalk CT
Loss Date: 18 October 1965
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 152558N 1074744E (YC895105)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 3
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: CH34
Other Personnel in Incident: none missing, all others, remains recovered
Refno: 0174
REMARKS:
Source: Compiled in 1989 from one or more of the following: raw data from
U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families,
published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK 2003.
SYNOPSIS: Larry Alan Thorne was born Lauri Allan Torni on May 28, 1919. As an
adult in Finland, he joined the Finnish army where he attained the rank of
Captain. His valor earned him the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of
Honor, the Mannerheim Medal. He was so successful as a ski troop commander that
the unit patch carried his initial "T" with a lightning bolt through it.
At the end of the Winter War, Torni joined the German "SS" to fight the
Russians. When the Continuation War began, he returned to Finland and again
commanded his ski troops.
Following Finland's second defeat to the Russians, Torni was imprisoned by the
communists as a war criminal. He escaped prison three times and made his way to
the United States where he enlisted in the U.S. Army as a private.
Throughout the late 1950's, the budding U.S. Army Special Forces had been
building a controversial force to conduct unconventional warefare. These
unconventional warfare warriors had to be able to master critical military
skills needed to train and lead guerrilla warriors, to be inserted anywhere in
the world by any means of transportaion, to survive the most hostile
environment, and to take care of themselves and others under the pressures of
harsh combat conditions and isolation. At the same time, these individuals had
to be independent thinkers, able to grasp opportunities and innovate with the
materials at hand. In order to control and lead irregular fighters, they had to
understand people, languages, and foreign cultures. Most important, the Special
Forces warriors had to posses the intelligence, knowledge, tact, and acumen to
successfully transform ordinary civilians into an effective military threat to
a strong and cunning occupation army.
In addition to recruiting rugged individuals possessing these attributes from
regular army formations, the Special Forces attracted a proven lot of hardy,
versatile volunteers from Finland and other European countries through the
Lodge Act, Public Law 957 of the 81st Congress, sponsored by Henry Cabot Lodge,
Jr. Regardless of his background, each SF volunteer underwent strenuous
physical conditioning, including paratrooper training, and was extensively
tested to determine his best skills and abilities. He then received
comprehensive instruction in his specialty area.
Thorne was selected for the Special Forces and ultimately led an important
mountain rescue mission to a crashed USAF plane in the middle east. The plane
was carrying classified equipment and three earlier attempts to reach it had
failed. Next, he went to Vietnam, he and his 7th Special Forces A-734
established the camp at Tinh Bien in April 1964 near the Delta's Seven
Mountains area, which bushwacked so many Viet Cong that it becamse a serious
thorn to the VC lifeline into Cambodia.
In a second tour of Vietnam, attached to Headquarters Company, MACV, Special
Detachment 5891, the Vietnamese Air Force CH34 helicopter on which Thorne was a
passenger crashed about 25 miles southwest of Da Nang. When rescue workers went
to the site, they recovered the remains of the Vietnamese crew, but found no
sign of Larry Thorne. He had simply disappeared.
Thorne's photo is maintained in a pre-capture photo group shown to defectors
for POW/MIA identifications purposes, yet Thorne was classified killed in
action the day after the crash. His remains were never found. Men who served
with him believe that Larry is still alive. They gather to toast his health
every year. No one, they say, is better equipped to survive than Larry Thorne.
In Finland, Lauri Torni is a national hero. In the United Sates, Larry Thorne
is forgotten by all but a few. His family believes he is still alive, even
considering he was 70 years old this year (1989). Lauri Torni hated the
threat of communism so much that he was willing to join any army to fight it.
We must never forget men like Thorne. It is to them that we owe our freedom. We
also owe them theirs.
from pownetwork.org
The Reaper
03-12-2005, 13:25
A bonafide hero and a legend.
Glad that you are back in your adopted homeland.
Thank you, Sir. You are not forgotten.
TR
Incidentally, just finished reading a book on Lauri, it is very fortunate that his tale got a final ending. Truly a warrior.