Stolen Valor

When I was at IBM I saw 2-3 guys fired for that reason....claiming they had a degree and did not or had some degree in English lit and claim they had a degree in applied science.....or computer science. No days they always find out and get called out on it.

A lot of stuff is extremely specialized these days. I mean - extremely specialized where many employers won't even considered a "generalist" who should be able to learn on the job. As for me - an engineering degree with a minor in liberal arts. Truth be told I was hoping to meet girls.
 
I work in a civilian organization within the DoD. We have a "chief engineer" but it bugs the heck out of me that they refer to him/her as "CHENG". CHENG is the chief engineer on a warship, not some civilian in a cush psuedo-management position.

jeff
 
Tom Cotton too.... hey but let's not get political. Riiiight.

Unethical people in all areas; it is not a party thing.
No, wasn't implying any party affiliation at all....I think most of them on all sides are pretty much equally unethical. OT, but I do have a sore spot for your Senator after his crass, opportunistic, attention grabbing and almost ghoulish in its timing reaction and proclamations after the Nine-O-Nine tragedy...but I took that a bit personally..
 
Almost all of my coworkers are ex-marines. I work for a DOD Contractor. A lot of people I deal with think that I am also ex-military. I make sure to set them straight right away. I never even tried to join as I have bad knees. To all of you that served "Thank You" I think the ones that fake it have something wrong with them as in mentally ill. Who the heck would even do such a thing.

I worked with a few ex military. Even in different services it was amazing how many ended up serving in the same places. A former AF officer (previously enlisted) told stories about serving in Alaska and the size of their mosquitoes. For some reason he previously served in Korea, where an ex Army mechanic coworker was stationed.

As for me - I thought of it in high school Took the ASVAB and got a decent score. Kept on getting literature in the mail and call after call from recruiters. My vision would have precluded aviation, but I got a brochure about becoming a nuclear submarine officer. One recruiter called and suggested that maybe I should shoot for a service academy nomination. After a while I got tired of all the calls.

As for the rest of this topic, I'm waiting to see how long it lasts before it gets locked.
 
Pretending to be something you're not has always bugged me. I don't know that I would harrass a guy doing it however. Let the loser be, unless he's being a problem. Follow him out to the parking lot? Nah, seems excessive.

Here's a real vet story about Captain Jim Lovell, Commander of Apollo 13.

From Wikipedia: In the film, Lovell has a cameo as the captain of the USS Iwo Jima, the naval vessel that led the operation to recover the Apollo 13 astronauts after their successful splashdown. Lovell can be seen as the naval officer shaking Hanks' hand, as Hanks speaks in voice-over, in the scene where the astronauts come aboard the Iwo Jima. Filmmakers initially offered to make Lovell's character an admiral aboard the ship. However, Lovell said, "I retired as a Captain and a Captain I will be." He was cast as the ship's skipper, Captain Leland E. Kirkemo.

And that's how real vets are: what they did. what they earned. Nothing more.

Let's keep the examples out of politics, though. Plenty of bad actors claiming to be, or have done, something that is not the case. We need not look only at politicians to find bad actors, though politics has plenty of examples.
 
Maybe not in terms of claiming military experience, but once I was still in grad school but visited a friend of my parents in Southern California. She had a son who had recently started working as an electrical engineer on the LA Metro system. He showed me some of his work, and it was pretty obvious that he was a real engineer. However, his mother couldn't stop bragging about her son and that he insisted on going to the best schools including a Catholic high school and UC Berkeley (where I went). He just sort of stood there and said nothing.

Later in the trip I met with another friend of the family that knew the other family we met. I mentioned some of the stuff I was talking about earlier. One of the kids flat out said that he was a Cal State Long Beach graduate, and that mom had a habit of saying untrue things.
 
It is entertaining to see folks doing this get called out on YouTube... I liked the SEAL hunter guy, but YouTube censored him...
 
I'm now going to my PTSD class every 2 weeks. We see a couple of "RAMBO" warriors come thru every now and then. After they get called out they either bow their head in shame or they leave. We forgive the ones that are truly ashamed at what they did and rally around them with support. Yes, it's wrong what they do, but there is more in forgiveness than in humility.
"Mess with the best, die like the rest!" US ARMY 11B/62J
sergeant.jpg
 
My daughter is a Mechanical Engineer, graduating three years ago.

My Father-in-Law was a fraud, never had anything close to a degree but still tried to pass himself off as one. Water under the bridge though.
 
I was really offended that Blumenthal didn’t even wait for the flames to be put out from the Nine oh Nine B17 crash before he shot his mouth off about warbirds needing more scrutiny and oversight. He couldn’t have had any insight into the cause of the crash, or any facts, but still had to yammer on about banning warbirds from the skies..
 
In the article it says this is debated often … they referenced Salon, really … So, he actually went to war … that other clown lied that he did … I know what this is about …

It's kind of a fine distinction between whether or not he was an "Army Ranger" or that he had a Ranger tab after going to Ranger School. However, it's still a controversy.
 
I was really offended that Blumenthal didn’t even wait for the flames to be put out from the Nine oh Nine B17 crash before he shot his mouth off about warbirds needing more scrutiny and oversight. He couldn’t have had any insight into the cause of the crash, or any facts, but still had to yammer on about banning warbirds from the skies..
We are OT, but yes it was truly shameless and contemptible as were the folks clucking and nodding around him at the presser.
 
Remember this old thread

 
Any person who graduated Ranger school is entitled to call himself a Ranger, and the school is opened to all armed services not just Army. They are also entitled to wear the Ranger tab the rest of their military career regardless how they are reassigned later. They would have not made that regulation unless they wanted things to be that way. Of course anyone is free to differ. If it were only for the 75th Ranger regiment then they would not have set up the school that way or the uniform device either. There are sailors who can say they are Rangers. This is a school were students have died just trying to complete the training.

Here’s what an Army spokesman said about it in an article published two weeks ago: “There is no official U.S. Army policy regarding the use of the term ‘Ranger,’” said Lt. Col. Gabriel J. Ramirez, a spokesman with the Army’s Office of the Chief of Public Affairs. “The designation ‘Ranger’ has been associated with soldiers who either graduated from Ranger School or are assigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment.”
 
Back
Top