“Nope. I really don’t care for someone using their military rank on their sleeve all the time”
The term Colonel is also a title, from the commonweath of Kentucky as in Colonel Harland Sanders.
But Colonel West was army. I know plenty of retired Navy Chiefs who are still called chief. And there’s some Army Majors who are calked Major, although you won’t hear any Naval Lieutenant Commanders which is the same rank called Lieutenant Commander they just call them Commander but that’s not as frequent as either Chief, Major or Colonel or perhaps Naval Captain which is the same rank as full bird Colonel.
Allen West was not a full bird colonel he was a lieutenant colonel which in the Navy is called a Commander.
I don’t have a real problem with it but it’s kind of strange when a Lieutenant Commander wants to be referred to as Commander or Lieutenant Colonel wants to be referred to as a full bird colonel. Whereas a Major which is a Lieutenant Commander in the naval Services is sometimes referred to as Major for some reason.
He’s a full blown nut. In a race with Kari Lake it would be a photo finish.
It’s a funny thing.
My dad was a 30 year Navy man and retired as a Commander. His last seagoing duty was as XO aboard the USS Bristol which served at the tail end of the Cuban Missile Crisis. After that, he requested shore duty so he could be with his family, and that pretty much signaled to the Navy he was going to serve as an administrator.
The reason I say all that is my dad was a Navy guy. He acted it and looked it. And years later, he still looked it with his crewcut.
And even though nobody else ever referred to him with his title of Commander, none of my brothers and sister’s friends, none of his peers or friends, and nobody in my family did, all MY friends referred to him as “The Commander”.
And it wasn’t derisive or sarcastic. It was with great respect, and it made me damn proud.
And here we are, nearly fifty years later, still getting together, my best friend and I.
And he still calls my dad “The Commander”.