[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Met a true (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 9/27/2012 3:59:43 PM EDT
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Any of you who are military can explain this stuff. Thread title is sufficient. Looks like he was SF in Vietnam and perhaps longer. Top right is Special Forces beret flash/pin. Bottom right is SF unit patch. MACVSOG was the umbrella term for the SF operations in the RVN. |
| Sjer, you need to ask that man for the honor of taking a true patriot out for breakfast some time. I did that for a friend of mins uncle when I found out he served in Vietnam as part of a QRF for guys that fell into shit. He had been awarded several Purple Hearts and a couple of medals I didn't recognize at the time, It was without a doubt the best meal I ever ate with anyone. |
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Found a for sale add for a rifle and called the guy to go look at it. Little old chubby man in his 80's answers the door and we go inside his house and I start to inspect the rifle. I noticed his Romney bumper sticker on the back of his car and we began to talk. Anyway we start talking and hit it off pretty good. After about 1 hours of some pretty good laughs, he mentions that he had some medical problems. Which leads to a discussion about the VA. I start talking to him about his service, he has lightened up and takes me to the back of his house and low and behold it is full of military plaques and memorabilia. I was skeptical at first, but the guy had 100's of photos of his life. Amazing things I did not understand. Many many plaques with patches he had earned in different countries. Lots of books and some of them signed by his friends who were the authors. He told me some amazing stories, I was truly humbled. He let me take a single picture of one of his displays and here it is, he was very humble and did not want me to tell anyone about his service. He said his family knew and that was enough! He said LRRP and Delta also but I am not military. Any of you who are military can explain this stuff. Thanks http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt3/sjerdude/photobucket-4975-1348788132696.jpg  Whoa!
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Damn. 5th SF, MAC-V SOG, CIB, Purple Heart etc etc Definite badass. That and the service cross and silver star. Looks like a bad ass. If he was in his 80s he was older man for being in Nam. My uncle was in Nam, he said that early on there were a lot of "retreads"? who were salty and had served in prior wars. It's plausible. |
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Yep you met a truly bad mofo. I hope you bought the rifle and paid full price. Yes to all, and am still humbled from the experience Cool. Now where is the pic of the rifle? This is still ARFCOM The rifle, a Norinco AK http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt3/sjerdude/photobucket-1697-1348783034224.jpg Proof that AR's belong in the garbage? 
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Yep you met a truly bad mofo. I hope you bought the rifle and paid full price. Yes to all, and am still humbled from the experience Cool. Now where is the pic of the rifle? This is still ARFCOM The rifle, a Norinco AK http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt3/sjerdude/photobucket-1697-1348783034224.jpg That's nice rifle. I bet its one you will never sell. |
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Sjer, you need to ask that man for the honor of taking a true patriot out for breakfast some time. I did that for a friend of mins uncle when I found out he served in Vietnam as part of a QRF for guys that fell into shit. He had been awarded several Purple Hearts and a couple of medals I didn't recognize at the time, It was without a doubt the best meal I ever ate with anyone. I feel like he was kind of lonely 
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Truly impressive.
I work with a Team 2 plank owner who is retiring this year from DOD civil service and his love box is not as impressive as his. He did 20 years in the Teams before calling it quits. He is the only one left from his class (old age killed the last 2). I send him links from this site all the time when he shows in NAM era Seal pics. He always has a story for each of the pics. I live for those stories. 
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Se if he would be interested in this OP http://www.loc.gov/vets/ Their stories needs to be told. |
| Very cool. I am AD and work in a hospital. A gentleman came into my office asking for some consideration for allowing him to park somewhere and offload a heavy painting. If I had to guess his age I would put him in his 80's but who knows. At any rate, he started out in the Army in the infantry, then crossed over to the Air Corps and became a pilot. Long story short, he flew everything and was a huge part of the planning and execution of missions in Vietnam. These men are national assets. |
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Yep you met a truly bad mofo. I hope you bought the rifle and paid full price. Yes to all, and am still humbled from the experience Cool. Now where is the pic of the rifle? This is still ARFCOM The rifle, a Norinco AK http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt3/sjerdude/photobucket-1697-1348783034224.jpg Get him to sign a paper clearly and then have that rifle engraved with his signature. And then never sell it. Aftere reading Plaster's book, he probably knows the song. |
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It always blows my mind meeting guys like that. When you're talking to a little old 80 something year old man you just don't expect it.
I remember about 6 years ago, when I was still at Bragg with the 82nd.. we had our yearly regimental picnic. It lined up with All American Week and brought out all the old time vets. None of us really wanted to go.. just wanted to enjoy our day off. But going was mandatory.. so off we went. We were told that the old timers loved talking to us. So we get there and hang back for a bit to let the other people get their food first. Then we grab out. A couple buddies and I sit down across from this old couple who were in their 80's. He was wearing one of those hats all the old vets wear with their old unit and all on it. His had a pair of jump wings with two stars on it. We start talking to him. He was asking about what we do, we ask the same about his time in the 82nd. He says we are legs because we don't have combat jumps  (its a constant joke with all those old guys). He starts telling us about his jumps.. I forget the specifics.. want to say one was d-day and the other was market garden.. but I forget. He was telling us that his second jump, he landed way out in the the trees and was hanging from his chute. When he looked down he saw the German tracers just sweeping back and forth, strafing the drop zone. He said he just hung there in that tree for a few hours until the Germans had stopped for a while, then cut himself down.
Of course.. he downplayed it all. "I never thought much of it, because the first jump we missed the drop zone, and the second jump I landed in the trees "
They are some cool old dudes when you get them to open up. Insane stories for sure.. it's hard to look at a frail 80+ year old man and picture him doing all of that 60 years ago. |
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Wow, I would love to have coffee with him sometime. People like this need to be listened to and payed attention to because often times their attitude is what many others need to have.
Hope he is blessed with many more happy years here on this earth. Congrats, OP. That looks like a nice rifle, well taken care of. |
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Sadly one of the last true BAD ASSES 
What? WTF are you talking about? Where have you been for the last 10 years? There are some very, very bad men that have done some very serious killing over the last decade. Not sure what your definition of "bad ass" is but as far as I'm concerned that was a hell of an ignorant thing to say. |
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Yeah, just about ALL of the top valor awards except the MOH and Distinguished Flying Cross, although he does have an Air Medal up there... Quoted: His highest award is the Distinguished Service Cross....the second highest award, just under the CMOH. Also has a Silver Star. He fought in two wars....probably Korea as well as Vietnam. This man is a no-shit hero. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Sjer, you need to ask that man for the honor of taking a true patriot out for breakfast some time. I did that for a friend of mins uncle when I found out he served in Vietnam as part of a QRF for guys that fell into shit. He had been awarded several Purple Hearts and a couple of medals I didn't recognize at the time, It was without a doubt the best meal I ever ate with anyone. I feel like he was kind of lonely You can change that real easily. Have a meal with him once a week. Ask him if you can stop by once in a while. |
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Found a for sale add for a rifle and called the guy to go look at it. Little old chubby man in his 80's answers the door and we go inside his house and I start to inspect the rifle. I noticed his Romney bumper sticker on the back of his car and we began to talk. Anyway we start talking and hit it off pretty good. After about 1 hours of some pretty good laughs, he mentions that he had some medical problems. Which leads to a discussion about the VA. I start talking to him about his service, he has lightened up and takes me to the back of his house and low and behold it is full of military plaques and memorabilia. I was skeptical at first, but the guy had 100's of photos of his life. Amazing things I did not understand. Many many plaques with patches he had earned in different countries. Lots of books and some of them signed by his friends who were the authors. He told me some amazing stories, I was truly humbled. He let me take a single picture of one of his displays and here it is, he was very humble and did not want me to tell anyone about his service. He said his family knew and that was enough! He said LRRP and Delta also but I am not military. Any of you who are military can explain this stuff. Thanks http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt3/sjerdude/photobucket-4975-1348788132696.jpg Trust, but verify. If his name is on this list then he is legit. http://www.homeofheroes.com/distinguishedservicecross/index.html Sadly there are a WHOLE lot of fakers out there, even old folks. |
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Sjer, you need to ask that man for the honor of taking a true patriot out for breakfast some time. I did that for a friend of mins uncle when I found out he served in Vietnam as part of a QRF for guys that fell into shit. He had been awarded several Purple Hearts and a couple of medals I didn't recognize at the time, It was without a doubt the best meal I ever ate with anyone. I feel like he was kind of lonely Now I'm .
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