Met a sniper today

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My grandfather was awarded the Purple Heart in WWII, and you know what? I don't even know exactly why. Never talked about it. All I know is that he only had two fingers left on his right hand, and a huge scar just below his lower right ass cheek from the skin they took off to graft over his missing fingers.

I was never really that close to him, but the day we buried him I cried like a baby. Not so much because I knew I would miss him, but because of the pride that swelled up in me...Also, being military myself, I know of the sacrifices the every soldier makes.
 
I call BS artist.

I have yet to meet a vet who actually was in combat that likes to discuss the subject or brag about it. Maybe with their own comrades but not with family, non military friends or strangers. I know several Vietnam vets and none of them like discussing the subject. All of them where grunts though one was a Medi Vac pilot in the later stages of the conflict. There is a WWII vet, who saw extensive action in the Bulge, in my town who still will not discuss the details of his service. Not even to his family. All the info gained about his service came from offical military records. I believe it is just to painful for him to relive those memories. I believe he was the only survivor of his platoon during the Battle of the Bulge.
 
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I have only heard stories from vets who are no longer acting like themselves. For example, one vet that I care for at the nursing home has alzheimer's disease, and he sometimes will think that WWII is still going on, or he will tell stories about all of the dead bodies...

I don't think that anyone in their RIGHT MIND would care to relive or "enlighten" the rest of us about what they have lived through.

This man's son has told me that he has NEVER heard the stories from his father that I have heard.
 
My dad was in combat in WWII. Never talked about it. He taught me how to shoot. A Remington, bolt action .22LR. He never fired it. Said he'd had enough of that, but he wanted me to be skilled in firearms just the same. Taught me the manual of arms.

Just before he died in 1999 at the age of 93, he made a tape, two reels. He talked about his time in the military from the day he was drafted till he was liberated from a POW camp, sent home, and then mustered out. Amazing!!

After he died I found a box that contained a bunch of medals and CIB. Bronze Star was one of them.
 
A lot of my extended family has served in the military, and they never really talked much about it. I only remember my grandfather talking about his service once, and he served for over a decade.



Tho, I know for a fact some snipers are just plain crazy (or atleast this one). When I was in high-school, every single week they had guest speakers and they found this crazy viatnam sniper who writes books today. First, he went on a rank about how women shouldn't be in the army because they cain't shoot well (a few teachers actually left in disgust, most of the students thought this was cool because the administration wasn't happen). Then he started telling everyone about his kills and that if we are lucky.... we will one day get to kill a man.

One of his stories was about how he waited for some guy to finish his meal to shoot him, and he was sadden by the fact that he couldn't shoot the entire base.




Someone looked up his name on google (cain't remember it) and he is the real deal. Had several metals and pictures of his service..... just reallly.... insane.


Wouldn't want to meet him at a gun range.




This is the 2nd time my high-school messed up badly with guest speakers. The first time was after 9/11 and they had a muslim person come in who didn't know ANYTHING about the religion. Infact she was a quacker 2 months ago ..... apparently someone who jumps from one religion to another. Again, everyone thought it was hilarius except the teachers.
 
My Grandpa will pull me aside and tell me about some of his experiences. We haven't spoken in a few months, but when he speaks, I listen. Pretty harrowing tales. And he has the scars and fruit salad to back up his stories. I always feel foolish, about my experiences, when I compare them with his.
 
I had a relative who has since died who did serve in WWII and did not talk about his experiences. Is there any way I can find out, at least, where he was and who he was with?
 
I have met, worked with, and known personally, eight snipers.

Two of them were real.

Neither of them ever talked about it, unless we were alone, and we'd had a lot to drink.
 
when someone I don't know or have known only for short time asks me what I did in Vietnam, I always use the ole line "That if I tell you --then I would have to kill you" and change the subject and laugh about it. but after I have known them a while I tell "That I tried to stay alive as best as I could.
:evil:
 
A friend's dad is south Vietnamese. He mentioned something about being trained as Special Forces or a Ranger back during the Vietnam war by the US. The guy has lots of battle scars and several faded out tattoos that did look like one of the monikers used by SF. He says he was captured and survived through one of the "re-education camps". I've heard various stories and each time they seem pretty sincere, solemn, and not by any means a boisterous "bragging rights" story. His wife has said the same stuff before about him and my friend (his son) has been with him back to Vietnam several times before to retrace how the country has changed since he came over to the US shortly after the war and married.

He is a bit weird and has a heavy accent, but some of the stuff is interesting. I talk to him on occasion when I'm over at their house after going to the range or one of us has purchased a new gun. Nice guy, when you can understand him.

I know a (young, 3rd BAT 75th RGR RGT IIRC) Ranger friend who has talked about several moments in Afghanistan once or twice when asked but said he saw mostly mountains and miserable snow. Most of his voluntary stories revolve around amusing things during Ranger school like eating leaves when sleep deprived and hazing, and he had a few since he recycled some phases.
 
Don't know if it's that the guys who've been there just don't care to talk about it so much as it is that there's ain't money of said guys that have been there in the first place. There's not a whole lot of folks that join the military. There's probably not a whole lot of them that see combat. There's even fewer of them that are Rangers, Green Berets, SEALS, and snipers. Chances are, you're not likely to meet a real sniper, 'cuz there ain't an awful lot of 'em.
A lot of folks won't talk about it even if they've been through it. Other folks (not many of them, thankfully) ain't got a shy bone in their body. They're the kind of folk who, when they hit their seventies, will glady share information on the state of the nation of their bowels and gall bladder.

Oh, don't you hate the guys that have a buddy that's a SEAL? There is no telling them that the SEALS don't carry Desert Eagles in .50 caliber (so that they can use the rounds from the M2 machine gun off shot-down US planes. You can't prove the friend to be a liar, 'cause he ain't there.
I have a friend the Secret Service, in the Mall Protection division. He tells me about how they carry silenced .44 Magnum revolvers...

Never met a 'Company man' or anybody claiming to be one. Anybody know where I can meet agent XXXL?
 
I met three Navy Urban Sniper instructors

At ranch in North Eastern Washington. They brought a few of their toys to play with and were preparing a training session for the next week. They had an assortment of traveling concubines with them(at least one of them was a wife).
The day we left was the day the others arrived to take part in the training. The ranch owners were a little disappointed in that a lack of rain would prevent them from firing grenades or tracer rounds.
 
geist said:
....are their any sniping records out there for most confirmed kills after vietnam? i met someone who i was told held some record. and i was curious if there was anyway to verify. he never really spoke of it himself.
Click to expand...

Yes there is a website that lists snipers from all wars and nations. Not sure it's totally accurate, as there are only six snipers listed that served in Iraq.

http://www.snipercentral.com/snipers.htm
 
I have met more "navy seals" than I can recall...I think that is the most lied about job in the military.

I also sadly have a very close family member that I dont speak to much anymore who got either DD'ed or let go honorably after 2 years from the USMC. He claims that after his father had a heart atttack, he was the only male in the family to serve as head of the household (this would have been about 40 years ago). Personally I think it was the DD, considering his anger issues. anyway over the years he has acquired more and more USMC tattoos now wears dog tags and a Sgt ring. Everyone thinks he was a drill sergeant and now he has the tattoo's and memorabilia to "prove" it. Hell he even patches and medals in a display case that a drill instructor from the USMC would have. It is disgusting.

As for people who brag about top secret stuff....I believe that is all crap. I have found there are two universal things about TS info:
  1. NOTHING good is ever classified, so chances are you dont want to know about it anyway, and once you do, you wish you didnt.
  2. Its not "cool" all it does is alienate you from your friends and piss off your significant other when they talk about their day and then expect you to recount yours.
.
 
The frauds are usually pretty easy to point out. They usually start things off with "in the military..." My experience has been that those guys are the ones that were probably in the reserves and got discharged for medical or something like that.

I met a USMC sniper instructor before. How did I know he was? It said so on his t-shirt and with his imaginery lat syndrome.:neener:

The guys who really did it don't talk about it often. Then there are the real sneaky (smart in a way) guys who slightly imply it and are good enough to let people draw their conclusions that they actually did something when they never really did. I've only met a couple of those guys, thankfully...
 
Met one sniper and only was aware of it because his mother told me she found some certificates in his belongings about making x no. of kills (Iraq). He wouldn't talk about it. He didn't appear to be overly bright and was having a lot of trouble with drinking, etc., maybe because of what he had been through.
About security clearances, a lot of service people have secret and top secret clearances. It depends on what they want you to be involved in and if you can pass the proper background check. I had a top secret clearance during a 9 month period I worked for JOCCINCAL. When I got transferred from Alaska to Dobbins AFB in Georgia, it dropped to secret.
 
ya if someone wants you to have TS or TS SCI bad enough..you will get it generally. But then again, I think they scare away most of the people that wouldnt qualify with their speeches and list of disqualifications, of course then I have heard of the dumb things too that get scrutinized.

Anyway, half the TS stuff you would never know was TS unless someone told you exactly which part of the transmission or project made it so...and like I said...the stuff you would know is TS immediately you probably dont want to know anyway.


Back to snipers and fakes...what do you think is more lied about snipers or seals?

Anyone ever met someone with the tattoo of a branch or unit you know they were never in???
 
I had a neighbor that told me some very tall tales of his days as a SEAL, I have never been in the military so I did not know if they were true.
A few months later I went to my cousin house and met her boyfriend who I knew was military. I saw a picture of him doing a halo jump and asked and it tuned out he was SEAL but did not really want to talk about it beyond the jump. I told him of my neighbors tales and he call bull**** he told me to ask him what team he was on and what class he was in. when I did it was pretty sad to see the look his face and he never did answer those questions.
 
I happen to have known a "real" sniper. My first cousin who did 3 tours in Vietnam as a Marine from 1968 - 1972. Most likely in reconnaisance.

Although a few years older he was also my best friend and I was his. In 30+ years I never was able to get him to talk about it. (I knew he was wounded, because we went to see him in Hawaii at the Naval hospital when I was still just a kid.) Once or twice I could tell he wanted to talk, but he just "zoned out" and got a far off look. He was the nicest guy you'll ever meet and not at all intimidating despite being 6'5" and a bear of a man. You got the impression though that he was not a guy to mess with even in the least.

I didn't know he was a sniper until 1982 when I happened to be seated next to an older Marine officer on a plane going to Charleston. We had a good talk and it turned out he not only knew my cousin, but served with him.

My cousin liked deer hunting and always went for a head shot. His rationale was that he didn't care about mounting deer but venison shoulders were his favorite part and he didn't want to mess up the meat. I personally witnessed him take deer at 300+ yards (some probably quite a bit further) with head shots regularly using an old surplus '03 Springfield with a cheap scope mounted on it.

He died of cancer 8 years ago and the couple of times I visited him when he was sick were dreadful. Through it all he never complained and didn't want anyone to worry about him.

At his funeral one of his friends from years past in the Marine Corps saw to the military part of the arrangements. In a box next to his coffin were silver and bronze stars, the bronze with 2 oak leaf clusters also there were 2 purple hearts and an assortment of another dozen or so I did not recognize.

We never knew. Not his wife, mother, brother or me, his best friend. After he died his wife opened a foot locker that she had never seen the inside of in their 20 year mariage and found his dress uniform, the medals, 37 fired rifle shell casings and a St. Christopher pendant on a chain with his dog tags - that's all that was in the locker. I have the 37 shell casings. They are .308/7.62 NATO caliber. I taught his son how to use the Springfield and it's still taking deer at distances I think twice about with my Weatherby.

Sorry for the long post, but this thread dredged up some memories and also pissed me off.

If you ever meet a REAL infantry sniper, you'll probably never know it. If someone comes out and tells you they were/are a sniper you are more than likely listening to the words of a liar effusing themselves with false and stolen honor that good men have given their blood and often their lives to legitimately earn.

Don't be impressed. You should be repulsed instead.
 
What a coincedence!

I got a letter from this organization today in my email box http://www.udtseal.org/ they have a store where you can make it even easier to pretend you are a seal http://www7.mailordercentral.com/smallstores/home.asp

I dont know how they got my email address, I have worked the facility that houses the SWCC group that is based at Stennis, MS but I dont recall giving them my email address. Anyway speaking of the merchandise stuff, I get hats and shirts from a lot of places that I go. And a lot of them are military, I have always been to embarrased to wear any of them and usually they end up just sitting in my closet. I have two special boat team 22 hats from the Stennis facility that look pretty cool, but I could just never wear them (although I may give one away as a gift to a military historian that I know). I dont know how people wear this stuff if they are over the age of 18...I understand how kids like it and I have given my brother who is a 13 a few SEAL and ranger shirts as well as almost a whole woredrobe from the pentagon and NASA lol. I do wear pentagon and NASA hats often, but thats because I contract for them a few weeks a year and I am proud of what I have done there.

I just dont get it...
 
My son-in-law just was commissioned an Ensign at Pensacola in January. His Gunny was a sniper in Iraq before coming home. He is now back in Iraq, he volunteered to go back and do what Marine's do. I took a picture of him with my 17 year old son, and he is as hardcore as any man I've ever met. It was cool to see the mutual respect between Navy Officers and the Marine Drill Instructors. Mike Z
 
I've met a few of those real ones, from looks you would never know.

2 instructors joked a bit, the last time we had a break in a pub (americanized version):
1 says he shoots 1 dollar coins for practice at 100 metres, sometimes.
Other laughs and says that he's not that rich - he can afford only shooting quarters. And if the budget is really tight he opts to smallest coins which he sets sideways - this way these doesn't get damaged that much. I do wonder what the shopkeeper would say when to hand him/her a handful of holed coins..
 
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