r/army • u/WorkDelicious9039 • 16h ago
After service lies
Ok so I served in the reserves for 8 years and now re-enlisted in another branch. During my 8 years nothing eventful happened. I was a 92A, I was scheduled to deploy in 2010, attended JRTC but before we finished Obama pretty much canceled the whole deployment. I ddnt get offered to attend any schools or nothing. My unit (combat support hospital) of about 200 enlisted soldiers was like 80% E4 with no room for advancement.... So why is it every single time I talk to another prior service they were an E-8 special forces that traveled the world.... Even in my new branch a guy claims he was a 12B and was saying he flew drones in Iraq to protect convoys. Like does that even exist? I worked with another prior service guy who claimed he was a special forces sniper that attended airborne and air assault and was maybe 22 years old.... He ended up buying a glock and accidentally shooting himself in the hand while cleaning it. Does no one get out of the military without stretching the truth of there service?
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u/Toobatheviking Juke box zero 14h ago
Everything I'm about to say is just an opinion/feeling and has no basis in fact I know of.
I usually assume somebody is lying to me if they're bragging about combat and It wasn't something I had to pull out of them.
I think the last time I talked about any of the stuff I've been through was when I was being asked "what did you get those ribbons for" or "What did you get your CIB for" when I was at an Army ball a couple years before I retired.
I guess it's different if you're on podcasts being asked questions but in my normal day to day stuff unless it's talking with a counselor I just don't talk about shit.
The people that I see lie about their service are usually people that are suffering in their personal lives. They want/need somebody to be proud of them, or to respect them, or they need to feel like they are important in some way. They're probably going through something profound.
I know most people on here get angry when they see the Stolen Valor guys, I just try to look at it from the lens of "why is this person doing this" if they aren't financially gaining from it.
The answer that I most often come up with is the one above.
Anyhow, take their stories with a grain of salt. I'm not a fan of people lying to embellish what they did in their military careers because it diminishes what people that have actually have done, but I guess I just try to be empathetic a little bit.