so...there are no cooks in the armed forces?

[sendec]

Do the Security forces also handle general policing on AF bases? I thougth there were separate security and police units.

[blackmind]

#1 was mid 20's, slight build, wearing a visor upside down and backwards. He had on a basketball jersey and had a tat on his arm that said, "Thug life 4-eva". Appharently, he's a Navy Seal.

Of course he is. He's one of the undercover Navy SEALs assigned to infiltrate the gang culture in-country.

-blackmind

[blackmind]

Well appearances CAN be decieving and a lot of SF operators are of about medium build. SF operators are triatheletes, not body builders, especially SEALs cause of thick body mass makes it much harder for them to successfully pass their swimming requirements, though I serisouly doubt any ex-SF will let themselves get serisouly out of weight..(feel free to prove me wrong)

This rings true. My brother was in the army '88-'92, air assault and airborne qualified, and after OCS and soldier-of-the-year at Campbell, he was grooming to get into Ranger school. Plans changed and he didn't do that, though.

Anyway, he said that Rangers were lean, medium-built guys, not hulks. And he said it was not uncommon for a guy to go in at about 200 lbs. and come out about 170.

-blackmind

[blackmind]

I also heard about the C4 going off when stomped on when lit. In the first gulf war I saw a few Combat engineers using bits of it as heat tabs to warm their coffee and they told me that it would detinate that way.

I thought I had always heard that C4 was not something that could be lit -- that it had to be detonated with those little thingies like they used in Die Hard.

I did not know that C4 could actually be used to burn and provide heat in small quantities. IS this true?

(Trust me, I don't go looking for my tactical knowledge from movies like Die Hard...)

-blackmind

[Capt. Charlie]

C-4 burns VERY well without going boom. So does dynamite and TNT. And yup, strike it or contain it while it burning, and... boom!

[PDshooter]

When I went back into the guard in 92. They wanted me to be a "Cook" I said "No way" to that 04:00 wake-up!!!!!!!!!
I instead became a 63B, 11B..........

[D.S. Brown]

LOVE THIS THREAD!

Guys I can't believe most of you don't ask the easiest question to expose these posers! What's your MOS? I was a dirty nasty leg (infantry) from 86-90. Nothing amazingly special. Still it annoys me when I run into these tools. I am obligated to "out" them.

At the range I work at part time I meet a plethora of them. For a while I felt like the original poster of this thread. I was meeting more "S.E.A.L.S, S.F., Delta, and Rangers that didn't have a clue about disassembling a Glock, Sig, H&K, Beretta, or any of our 1911's. One guy came in wearing a tee-shirt with an Army logo on it. He didn't have the look. I baited him with this question, "what did you do in the Army?" His serious answer was that he was a Special Forces Green Beret Airborne Ranger/Sniper. I asked him what MOS that was. His response, a blank look he then asks what's a MOS, (pronounced like it rhymes with loss), and then he repeats the first above answer. I decided to play a little. I asked him what the numerical designation of the MOS was. He insists that that information is secret and repeats original answer. Mind you he is very serious about all this. I ask him where he took basic and airborne school and when he went through RIP and SF School. His answers were NOT Ft. Benning and or Ft. Bragg or any of the myriad of places these guys train to earn those tabs and he didn't know what RIP was (Ranger Indoctrination Program) Did I mention that he is with buddies of his. I look him in the eye and say sir you may have been a Power Ranger but there is NO way you were a U.S. Army Ranger! He gets angry and informs me that he will never come back to this place again. I told him I would try to weather the loss.

I know the above is a rant but fakes like that burn my butt. My grandfather was an electrician in the Navy aboard a fleet tender during WW 2. Whenever I asked him what he did he said "I put batteries in flashlights." I never really knew what he did beyond being an electrician. I work with a guy who will tell you he painted ships in the Navy. The owner was an O-4 in the Air Force, a former manager was in the Army with a few different MOS's. Another guy that was ex-Army and our former training director was the real deal when it came to bad asses. You would never know it talking to him. He was a cav scout in the Army, a 19D I believe. He was also a cop around DFW and he is on his way over to Pakistan to work for the State Department. It's the third time he has been overseas in two years. Long story short he rarely speaks about anything he's done and will only do so in when pressed. Even then it's not in great detail and he is usually giving a great deal of credit to other people for their contributions over his. Then you read an incident report faxed to his wife by his supervisor in Iraq. She faxes it to us. It details how even though he was wounded in an ambush of his convoy from Bagdad Airport he managed to rescue the principle and save the lives of other members of his team. Let's just say that he would never have shared this info with us and when asked just simply said those things had to be done, anyone would have done it no big deal. Somebody mentioned a quiet professional. This man is that. He carries himself as a warrior. It's an easy going attitude that exudes confidence without trying because he is in a dangerous business, so really what's there to worry about. This in contrast to a 23 year old cop wannabe that worked with us that had no problem telling you what kind of bad ass he was and how he worked as a "federal officer" in the highest crime infested neighborhood in Dallas. He worked for a security company that was given funds by the fed for the work they did, I think HUD. That made him a "federal officer." He would also go into great detail EVERY chance he could about the gun fight he was involved in and how a particular Sig P228 saved his life. I don't know how that occurred because it certainly wasn't his shooting of said weapon. No quiet dignity there. Just a poser wannabe.

Best,
Dave

[Hamhawk96R]

"In the town of Yelm, we have J. Z. Knight, who makes a tidy profit by channeling words of advice from her previous existence as the mystical warrior Ramtha, who apparently ruled Atlantis or some such thing. I don't really keep up."

She deserves every dollar she gets.

[Jeff22]

SENDEC: The Air Force Security Police were split into two specialties in the early 1970s -- Security and Law Enforcement. Security guarded aircraft and missle fields and provided perimeter defense, and the LE troops drove around in squad cars providing the services that a regular municipal police department would provide, as well as augmenting the Security Specialists as required. (I was a LE Specialist in the ANG. In 1980 the LE Academy was 6 weeks and 3 days long and the Security Academy was 8 weeks and 3 days long. Lots of overlap in the cirriculum, but LE only trained on the S&W 15 revolver and the M16 and the Security troops also shot M203s and M60s and spent more time in the field right at the end of training)

In 1997 or so the career field was retitled "Security Forces" and they did away with the seperate specialties. (which I felt was a mistake, but it didn't affect me that much because I had cross-trained into being a combat arms instructor in 1991 and then retired in 2000). I don't know if various bases have a training program for the cops selected to pull Law Enforcement duty or not, or how they work that.

[LAK]

sendec

Do the Security forces also handle general policing on AF bases? I thougth there were separate security and police units.

Yes; when I was in the Law Enforcement specialists and Security specialists were two separate AFSCs. The Security Forces if I am not mistaken simply combined them.

[mrcalm7]

a few years ago i found a web site on the net that exposed people claiming to be navy seals.

I saw that too. It was funny to see cops, and people in gov't positions claiming to be things they were not. If you go to Sniper Country.com there's a link to it from what I remember.

[joshua]

Well back in the days I use to hump them hills in nam with Master Sgt Gunny Technical Major John Rambo we didn't care what MOS or AFSC we were in. We just cared how many ears we had in our charm holder. Shoot I even had enough time to shoot a couple of dozen camel jockeys in Iraq. Yes it was Al Salem Iraq. I snipe them from 1000 yards and cut 'em in half with my M29 sniper rifle topped off with my super secret scope. I was only 15 when I went to nam, reason my 60 year old eyes couldn't anything over 1000 yards. I did make Staff Sgt Gunnery specialist and I can retire. Yes I made more money than the Brigadier Admiral. I was awarded star medals, bronze, silver and gold. When I put my mess dress I look like I was an olympic champion. Got to go, I got flashbacks of nam and everything else in between. josh. MSgt USAF 25 Oct 85 - still active.

[sendec]

Point of info, SEAL is always all caps, unless you are refering to the kind that balances a ball on its nose at the circus.

Actually, being a seal would be pretty cool. Body surfing, fresh seafood, sunning on the beach - where do I sign up?

[MillCreek]

Guys I can't believe most of you don't ask the easiest question to expose these posers! What's your MOS?

And if someone claims to have been in the Navy, ask them what their NEC (Navy Enlisted Classification) was, or for an officer, ask them what community they were in. If they say they don't remember, ask them what it said on their DD-214! If they don't know what any of these things are, you have to wonder about their veracity....

[Eghad]

A good Mess SGT was worth thier weight in gold......

however if you call them Mess Sgts today they get thier feathers ruffled

its Food Service SGT now...lol

I had the hardest time with that when the Army converted over to the term dining facility.... I still called it a mess hall for a while

[Rojoe67]

Yep it's all one happy family now (since about 97)....... This includes the National Guard unit I am in now as well. To put it simple and to the point, what used to be 3 seperate career fields is now one. Combat Arms Instuctors, LE Specialist and Security Specialist are now in one field. Often still called Security Police but known as Defense Force Members as well. The change was made for a number of real world reasons. I think it has worked out very well.

[blackmind]

Point of info, SEAL is always all caps, unless you are refering to the kind that balances a ball on its nose at the circus.

Actually, being a seal would be pretty cool. Body surfing, fresh seafood, sunning on the beach - where do I sign up?

This is true, as with all acronyms. If a letter stands for a word, it should be capitalized.

I've always thought that the acronym "SEAL" was one that stretches the rules, since it stands for "SEa Air Land"... Why include the "E" in "sea"? Just because it makes a cutesie acronym that's pronouncable and looks like a real word.


Oh, I'd rather be a sea LION. They're way cooler than regular seals.

-blackmind

[XDoctor]

That and because if they were SAL's, it would only be a matter of time before someone called them SALLYS. That can only end in pain. SEAL is much safer for the general population.

[Arizona Fusilier]

Well, this talk reminds me of the best chow I ever had in the Army.

When I was at Fort Drum, we ended up doing an AT evaluation of some New England National Guard units (I say that because it was the mountain battalion scattered across Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine). Talk about a boondoggle, we went North up to Canada in order to insure there was enough snow.

At any rate, we ended up in Quebec, and the local Canadian unit there, like others in Quebec, take after the French military tradition of mess. In other words, fantastic, rich, nay opulent, food! And it was all you can eat, much like our Navy. You should have tasted the desserts!

But then again, every meal in Ranger school was a godsend, wasn't it?

[pittbug]

My buddy was a humvee mechanic in the army during Desert Storm, not exactly a cook, but not SF either.

[Massan]

Its funny when you see some 20 year old walk around saying he was a Navy SEAL with multiple deployments despite the fact that it can take years to fully train one team and they work on rotations for deployments that spans over a year for one deployment. I always ask the posers I see(not a lot thankfully, they piss me off) stuff like what class were they in, who was their swim buddy or class leader or how long it took them to get their Trident. One of the most outrageous answers I got from a guy was that he was from Class 30, he was the class leader and didnt need a swim buddy and it took him 1 week to get his Trident cause he was that good. Intresting considering the fact that if he was in Class 30 that would make him about 60 something years old and the guy was only 30-ish, not to mention EVERY man that goes though BUD/S has a swim buddy and if a trainee is extremely lucky and skillful the earliest he can qualify for his Trident is 6 months. That means he woulda had to have completed jump school, STT, language school, etc all within a week. I mean, if your gonna bs bout something least make it convincing.

[NJ-Dirtrdr]

I've been browsing TFL for a little while now, never had a reason to become a member until now. I take strong offense to the posers this thread is referring to. As a member of our Armed Forces, I accept the risks and hardships that go with it. I accept that look in my wife's eye when I tell her we didn't get the duty station we were hoping for, and I would love to be able to plan a vacation to make it up to her, but I can't easily do either. Heck, I'd love just to be able to finally have some time to fix up that 'ol car in my garage, but that will have to wait also. The path I've chosen is 100% my choice. The irony is that I fight for these posers' rights to say whatever they want to say, yet somehow they are cheating the true veterans. While not knowing their supposed MOS is embarassing and telling, not knowing the brothership and quality of people they would have gotten to work with had they been what they said they were is their loss. They can take credit for our work, but they have no idea what they missed out on.
-TWG

[Byron Quick]

I just recently met a guy who claimed to be a cook in the military...now.

You could have knocked me over.

I know a Green Beret NCO who was in Laos. I've known him since he retired and returned here to his hometown. About thirty years ago.

I know him fairly well. The only reason I know he was Green Beret and in Laos is that my uncle was also career Army and knew some of the details of his career. Another of their childhood friends retired as a full colonel. A mustang. The retired colonel and my uncle have told me about the man. I wouldn't even know he was in the military to hear him talk. He's never mentioned it.

But, he can't hide it. Time you see that old man stand up; you know you're looking at career Army. And when he levels those eyes at you...it's like looking down cannon barrels. He's a nice guy. He just looks at everyone like a redtailed hawk looking at a rabbit.

[Recon1017]

Imagine the look on my face when a couple of weeks ago, I finally found out that he's retired from SEAL Team 4. No wonder he can shoot!


Is there such a unit as Seal Team 4???

[joab]

Is there such a unit as Seal Team 4

Yes

In 1983, tensions between the US and the tiny Island-nation of Grenada caused the US to invade the island to ensure the safety of the US citizens living there. SEAL Teams Four and Six were attached to the US forces to aid in the islands assault.