Quoted: I run into 'Snipers' on a daily basis.  Why is it that you never meet a cook?

As an addendum to that, it's interesting how many guys who were actually in combat who credit the cooks and the guys in the rear with keeping them alive. My grandfather (ANGLICO in Korea) talks very little about Korea, but always talks about what guys did just to keep him somewhat fed.

Quoted: Quoted: They're everywhere.  Last year a guy walked up to me and claimed to be: 1) MOH recipient 2) POW in Nam for many years 3) USMC Colonel (ret) Funny how is name is nowhere to be found on any of the POW or MOH websites out there.  I guess his is classified. By the way, what optics company are you referring to? This guy wasn't by chance a truck driver was he? I had a guy tell me EXACTLY all f that, in addition he owned Spago's (sp? the star hang out on Hollyweird), his kids were all high powered lawyers, his super model girlfriend was currently mad at him because he had just bought a half dozen Lambo Diablos, and he was legally classifiedas a "national Security Asset", but he just drove a truck for fun.

I don't think he was a truck driver.  About six feet tall, grey beard, average build, told me his name was Murray Knurr (or something like that).  Kind of a cowboy, wearing a string tie, IIRC.

Quoted: They're everywhere.  Last year a guy walked up to me and claimed to be: 3) USMC Colonel (ret)

Some clown in Pittsburgh (IIRC former corporal, USMC) just got busted for impersonating an officer.

Story I got was that this idiot was actually running around giving lectures in a Col USMC uniform, had been for years. Actually had his wife believing he was STILL a reservist in his mid 60s. Had to hide out 2 weeks/year to simulate 2 weeks annual training.

I heard the USMC got tired of his shit and tipped off the FBI or someone.


BUSTED!


busted!

Quoted: About 12 years ago me and a friend were in out BDUs (on a drill weekend) at an electronic store waiting for it to open while we were at lunch.  There were two dirt balls waiting too and started that kind of stuff and then asked if we were in desert storm.  I made up a story about my friend running a Speacial Force team of Oli-mows.  Basically, the Oli-mow tean was launched out at sea and they swam into enemy waters, through the sewer pipes, and reached up through the toliet and ripped out the ememies's guts from their assholes.

LOL, now that's funny.

Quoted: Quoted: I run into 'Snipers' on a daily basis.  Why is it that you never meet a cook? Yup everyone is SF and no one ever cooks the meals.

My uncle was a cook. He killed 84 VC during a daring daylight raid with a just soup ladle and 18 dry spaghetti noodles. It was a little known event, but during the course of all this, John Kerry stubbed his toe and was awarded a purple heart.

It's funny that you bring that up, Troy. Back in the late '90s, I had a buddy who said he was in the Army, but other than that, he didn't talk about it much. Well, after 9/11, my friendship with him kinda went south. All of a sudden, he said he quit his job and started working as a traveling salesman (selling personalized pens, pencils, coffee mugs, etc) all around the country. Now, this guy was pretty smart, very motivated, and in good shape. How the heck do you go from being a professional trainer to a "traveling salesman?"

Anyway, I hardly could get through to him anymore (he was always on the road) and if he ever did call back, it was from an airport (so he claimed) while on a sales trip. Last time I ever saw him was the night we saw Behind Enemy Lines in late 2002. The last time I ever spoke to him was not long after that. I asked him if he was really a Sky Marshal...he laughed and said he wasn't, but I've never heard from him since.

I played paintball with this guy alot and I thought I knew him pretty well.

When I was in the army deploying for Desert Storm, I had a guy in a navy uniform behind me when we stopped in England for the Super Bowl and Crew rest. We were turning our weapons in to the armory. I has a M16A1 and he had A M-79, XM-155A1, 2 unidentified handguns 1 with suppressor, 1 MP5, 1 M16A2, several knives.

He didn't say much but My guess is He was a SEAL.

Also one of my Highschool teachers claimed he was a Green Beret in Vietnam, but I busted him on that one.

He had no IDEA what the tube over the barrel of an AK was. He asked me what it was, If it was another barrel.

Try the gas tube you wanna be Green Beret asshole.  

my story

i went in the navy to be a seal, got bounced out in the middle of the pt stuff ( was doing okay dont know if i would have made it all of the way ) for a lung infection that left lumps ( hystoplasmosis ...sp? ) i went on subs as a torpeadoman, did not like it got out.

and i can prove it, but i did my share of shit work on a sub, like cooking and cleaning.

now for the crappy part i am 5'8" used to have a 7 % body fat and weight 175 lbs. i could at one point do 200 push ups straight and run 5 miles in 35 mins, now i am 210 might be able to do 50 push ups, and could not run 1 mile

My uncle (mothers brother) was a green Beret in vietnam, He spent a few months in a POW camp.
He NEVER bragged about it. He VERY, VERY rarely even mentioned it. He never was quite right after he came back.  They did some shit to him while POW that you wouldnt believe. He never told me anything but I guess when he told his mother after returning she had a nervous breakdown and had some therapy over it.

He was a pretty cool guy, a small guy. He was only about 5'10 or so but had some kind of qaulity about him. I can't explain it but he knew what he was capable of doing and it somehow bled over on other people. We were in a bar in Glendale in 1987 and some wild , drunk cowboys(?) were teasing him,  5 BIG guys .... and he  walked up in the middle of them and told them to play with somebody else  because he wasnt in the mood. He told them if they pursued it he would whip all their asses and they would have to be carried out. They all turned somber and ALL apologized.
He wasnt bragging, boasting or exaggerating when he said it.....he WOULD have done it.
I knew it, he knew it and the guys knew it. It was like some cool confidence.
He knew he could have killed them all with his bare hands if he wanted to........
It was kind of spooky.  He was one of the truely dangerous men to fuck with.
I miss hanging out with him........... R.I.P    

     

Quoted: Quoted: The campaign in NA, and later in Italy was no cake-walk, by any means. Could be that the "rear area" he was working in suddenly became the front line. It could also be that he only TOLD you that he was a cook, so that nobody would ask him to relive stuff he'd rather let go. I've read a lot about the war on all fronts, and I do know what things were like in the areas that I've been able to place him.  I just wish I knew...  well, I wish I knew my grandpa better before he died, I guess. I've also found a few letters that his brothers (My great uncles) wrote home from the Pacific front.  My favorite line is from great-uncle Bud, who I knew vaguely before he died.  He was involved in the island leapfroggings, and most likely would have been among the first waves into mainland Japan. "Those a-bombs sure were honeys, weren't they?"

Was your Uncle Bud a pilot?  My wife has an Uncle Bud that was a pilot in WWII and was from MN.

I met this guy a few years ago:



Sergeant Robert E. O'Malley

The first Marine awarded the MoH in Vietnam

From the article at www.medalofhonor.com/RobertOMalley.htm:

Ordered, finally, to an evacuation point by an officer, "Sgt. O'Malley gathered his besieged and badly wounded squad, and boldly led them under fire to a helicopter for withdrawal," his Medal of Honor citation reported. "Although three times wounded in this encounter, and facing imminent death from a fanatic and determined enemy, he steadfastly refused evacuation and continued to cover his squad's boarding of the helicopters while, from an exposed position, he delivered fire against the enemy until his wounded men were evacuated."

Very cool guy.

I used to know somebody who really was a Green Beanie in ‘Nam.  There was this picture of him wearing The Beret.  As the time (1978 or so) and place where he showed me was just a few miles from Fort Hood, if he was a phony he would have been called on it very quickly and very hard.
He also had a story about Nam that he never talked about.   You always got it from somebody else; never him.

Quoted: Was your Uncle Bud a pilot?  My wife has an Uncle Bud that was a pilot in WWII and was from MN.

No, he was Navy.

I have the letter, I'm typing it out now, it'll be my next post here.  I'll scan it later, if anyone doesn't trust me (understandable, what with the state of the intarweb these days) or just wants to see it.  IM me about it, hope to get to it in the next few days.

A letter to my grandfather Marwell “Marb (or “Shorty)” Sieber, from his younger brother Norbert “Bud” Sieber while both were preparing to come home from fighting in WWII.  (My grandfather was in Italy at the time, Bud was in the south Pacific)

Pauay (sp?), P.I.
Aug 29-45

Hello Marb,

We were supposed to leave today but the ship isn’t ready to go so maybe we will get started by Fri.  I sure hope so.

I’m sure glad to get out of al this mess.  It won’t be so bad with only Occupation duty now.  At least they don’t have to shoot their way in.

The fellows here weren’t much elated by the surrender.  Just no emotion left In ‘em I guess.

Andy (Their younger brother, Andrew Sieber, was a radio operator, landing on islands before the troops and radioing Japanese bunker locations.  Very bloody – ODD) told me what island he was on, a sailor told me how to get there and hopped a P.T. Boat and went down.  He is on Calscoan (sp?) just off the souther tip of Samoa (sp?).  I had to go AWOL to see him but I got out of it Okay – thanks to my C.O. the Exec. Officer and some complications.  I’ll tell you about it when I see you.

(Appears to be missing pages here)

Sounds just like Lucy.  Let her make her own way.  She always was good at it.

Boy that Atomic bomb was a honey.  They should have used them thicker and faster.  It is unbelievable they do so much damage.

Send my mail home from now on.  I’ll be on my way in two days but I’m not sure how long I’ll be en route. -  Just so I’m on my way.

So long now,

Bud

Sept 4

I’m leaving for Jeyte (sp?) tomorrow.  Some of the fellows left today but I happened to be in town working so I missed out this morning.  I’m always fortunate.  See you in six weeks I hope.   Bud.

Quoted: I am in special forces. Delta Force Black Project. I have fought in Vietnam as well and am only 21. We have a time machine

Well I was a Space Shuttle Door Gunner for the US Space Force (it's a USAF deep black project). Hey, you looking for a job? We're  hiring!

Quoted: I run into 'Snipers' on a daily basis.  Why is it that you never meet a cook?

OK you busted me. I was a 63Bravo/Hotel 8 .  Which means Light wheeled vehicle mechanic and recovery specialist.    Wardawg

I ran into a "special forces" guy the other day at the range.  A complete idiot.  He said he "went to military school" and "spent some time as a SEAL."  As you can guess, this guy was your cookie-cutter ninja, complete with mullet, gut, sweatpants,  and the inevitable M65 Field Jacket.  I overheard him telling some impressionable youth that he had "all the parts to make it full auto, but I only use it that way in my yard."  His rifle was a post-ban DPMS carbine with the fake collapsible stock "identical to the one we did SEAL ops with".  He didn't know how to use the bolt hold open.  

He was a pretty cool guy, a small guy. He was only about 5'10 or so but had some kind of qaulity about him.

I'm only 5'5" tall, but I spent time in Special Forces as an 18B/18E.  Yes, I really did make it through the SFAS, the Q course, HALO, SOTIC, and SERE; got the DD214 to prove it.  I spent almost 3 years on an A-team from 1990-1992.  If you ever want to see something funny you should have seen me go off the ramp of a C-130, complete with a MT-1XX parachute (now the MC-4, I think) and my ruck dragging on the ramp behind me like the tail end of a queen bee.    

I meet people all the time that claim to have been in "Special Ops."  I guess that's different from Special Forces since they always seem to tell me that what they did was kind of like what I did, only they were in the 101st, or some anonymous unit somewhere that of course no mere guy from SF would have heard of.  I'm not putting down the 101st, but since I live so close to Ft. Campbell that's the one that I hear a lot of the time.  Following Desert Storn, which I was in, you wouldn't believe how many stories I heard from guys that claimed that they had their scope reticles centered on Saddam and were just waiting for the order to shoot.  That's usually the point where I throw down my coin and tell them that they owe me a beer!

I was SF Delta green beret in the Salvation Army.  don't f*ck with my flannel

Quoted: I was SF Delta green beret in the Salvation Army.  don't f*ck with my flannel

Deal, as long as you don't f*ck with my bunny slippers

Quoted: Quoted: He was a pretty cool guy, a small guy. He was only about 5'10 or so but had some kind of qaulity about him.       +1 5'4" here You think someone who is 5 foot 10 is small?? I have to ask, how tall are you?

there are SF guys out there that brag all day long, and a lot of them that never say a word.  

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: He was a pretty cool guy, a small guy. He was only about 5'10 or so but had some kind of qaulity about him.       +1 5'4" here You think someone who is 5 foot 10 is small?? I have to ask, how tall are you?

No shit I'm 5'11 and the tallest Cole liveing!!!!  Guess we are vertically challenged(course I 'm Stocky 220)!

Bob

Quoted: there are SF guys out there that brag all day long, and a lot of them that never say a word.

True the only two seals I met never shut the hell up but for the most part they usually mention it in passing like its just a job they enjoy.