Sadly the number who claim to have served in Vietnam is three to five times those who did. There are so many phoney SF types it is pathetic. I ran into a fake here who tried to tell me he had a DSC. That was bad enough. Next he tells me the man who was with him. I about fell over as the man he talked about served with me in 68-early 69 and he was long gone when this clown claimed he was blown off a mountain in Laos. The Stolen Valor Act has been watered down.
When I first came back, no one had crossed into Cambodia with the CIA.
Now, when I talk to some of them, it seems that every soldier in VN went into Cambodia, but can't talk about it, 'cause it was "classified", doncha know?
Then there are the ones that can't even get the units straight.
Ask one of them (that you suspect is a glory-robber), what the numerical designator of the Americal Division was...and you get a blank stare, yet gazillions of them were assigned to it,'cause that was the unit of the My Lai perpetrators and they all knew those guys, personally.
It used to piss me off, but now it entertains me, especially when you get one that is about 50 years old and you know there is no way he was in VN, but he's got a war story which begins with: "Now this ain't no shit..."
It'll be the same way with the Iraq/Afghan vets and the glory -robbers with them, too.
I'm already hearing some of it and invariably, it starts with: "When I was in the sand box..."
It has been my experience through the years that most vets (and I'm speaking of combat vets) will not discuss and tell stories with just anyone.
They have to learn to trust you or you have to have some established, visible bonafides before they will start talking and even then, they use "code" words, so to speak, to test to see if there is an actual connection there.
As it should be amongst Warriors.
We’ve got a local guy who sells American Indian goods (wooden toys, blankets, leather goods) at flea markets. He wears a Viet Nam Veteran base ball cap and tells crazy stories. He claims the government won’t acknowledge his service and he spent two tours in Viet Nam and the last six months in a bamboo cage.
I’ve pretty much ignored him; he’s a waste of skin.
His stories are as authentic as his “American Indian products.” The tags on the blankets say they were “Made in India.”