That's the easy way to tell when you're an experienced veteran like yourself, but for a layman who's been fascinated by fighter jets and anything warfare, it's even easy for me to tell only because on top of that military enthusiasm and quite historically knowledgeable, not to mention the 10s of pros I've had extensive convos with and have been on countless forums where the majority of the members were ex-military and you can EASILY tell the things they know and can and cannot talk about coupled with their extensive knowledge of all things military as well as the things that are OPSEC. On top of that, being from the ol' country, if your part of a family that has two or more male siblings, you're automatically required to serve mandatory service and believe it or not, your time & rank is determined through a lottery ballot LOLOL. If you're unlucky, you get chosen to serve as a solder which is 3 years or lucky, an officer which is 1 year 3 months. Doth my older brothers and myself lucked out and all 3 got to be soldiers and I was assigned to the EADS sector.
Not that experience gave me the ability to instantly recognize a phony or not, but it helps to certain extent when another member here on this forum (and I won't mention is name since you probably already know who it is as well as others and honestly, I respect him quite a bit but this part disappoints me to no end) whom I've called out on MANY occasions yet beats around the bush for the strangest reason because he is a USAF veteran and seems to value the respect of a pilot more than a crewman which is an embarrassing shame. However, he always prefaces his super knowledgeable posts with "when I was with the USAF" and he goes on to speak as if he was a pilot, but he NEVER WAS ONE, but rather a crewman for the F-16 and the F-111. I know this for a fact because he mentioned it on an old forum that is now defunct that he was a crewman and spoke about an one instance where he was awarded a friendly flight in an F-16D (you know how the USAF gives those to exemplary crewman a free 20 minute flight in an F-16D and even let them take temporary control of the stick etc. and then land and give them a soaking of champagne and a cake etc.? Right? You're familiar with that, I'm sure. But since I joined this forum and noticed him with the same username and demeanor, he had already been on here for a while. Not once did he EVER mention or admitted that fact and always presented his points in his posts as if he was a fulltime pilot which to me is the ultimate form of disingenuousness, especially coming from ex-military personnel since there is NOTHING shameful about being a crewman whatsoever. Quite the contrary, those who served in that capacity are about as noble as can be considering that without them, those pilots who get all the glamor and accolades are nothing compared to the crew whom the latter actually own the aircraft, not the pilots. I found that to be a real shame.
Well, I used to care about people stolen valor a lot, not that much now since I am getting older, I just sort of let it go and think it would be easier to just humor these people, unless this is for official thing (like marching at the VFW or getting benefit and stuff like that) Say, if I went to a bar, and hearing story that is obviously not true, used to be when I just got up and I will confront these people, but now I will just laugh at it and move on.
As I mentioned before, I don't understand why people would want to claim experience that they did not have and think there are something glorious about that. I mean I served two tours, coming out broken and have problem even just looking at my old uniform, countless hours laying on my bed replaying scenario of "What if I did this" That's not a fun thing to do. That's probably why I was mad when I was younger because I just felt unfair that these people claim all the glory but none of the baggage. I don't know.
On the other hand, In a forum like this, it's more important to read the content of the post than to believe who people claim to be. I mean, anyone can claim to be anything, but I wouldn't just buy someone saying they were vet just because they said so, it's always what's the content and what they know. I try to post stuff that I know and learn stuff that I don't, and that's whether or not I would say I am a vet, claiming anything just wouldn't do. At the end of the day, each one experience his/her own life, be it a soldier, or a baker or an accountant. It's a lot more to listen to people story, than what he or she claim to be.
As for the last part, I have a pretty good idea who you are talking about, I didn't know that about him, maybe he had a good reason or maybe he doesn't, I don't know, embellishing service resume are quite common tho, I mean even Reagan did that when he said he saw the death camp firsthand. Sometimes it probably just for kicks, and sometimes they may really, really wanted to be part of that but can't for whatever reason, but as they say, "You weren't a part of it for a reason." I think people wanted to belong to something or a part of something bigger and started to imagine thing and started to embellish their resume. It's a shame that people think their own service is not enough and have to fabricate something else, for me, I am more than gladly to be one of those logistic guys or Rear Echelon type. I mean, people tend to overlook the achievement these folks made because their job is more or less safe and boring, but still, they are part of the team, yes, they may not be able to tell you exciting war story, but that does not mean their job is not important. I mean ask any frontline guy how big a role is those supply clerk plays? or the Quartermaster, I for one can tell you I can't live without my QM.
