You can't spell "poser" without p-o-s.
One of my very first posts on this here blog thing was about one of the ace military bloggers around, the dude who calls himself Blackfive. See the thing here. After I wrote that post I exchanged a few emails with Mr. Blackfive, pointing out the discrepancies in his timeline and very politely asking him for some class numbers so I could verify his credentials with some people I know who are still active in those sorts of things.
He replied with some bullshit about how he'd altered some of the dates on the website because he was so top-secret he had to fictionalize portions (which is a big bullshit alarm in and of itself). He said he'd really enlisted in 1983, not 1986. The problem with that is that he's posted a government issued photo ID [here] that give his year of birth as 1968, which would have made him fifteen when he enlisted. Neat trick, that. Anyway, he blathered on a bit about how he wasn't going to give me any class numbers or any other information that could be used to identify him, because he'd received threats and wanted to preserve his anonymity. Fine, I pretty much forgot about him after that.
I was doing a Google search on something unrelated the other day, and darned if the weasel didn't pop up. Apparently he's published a book, and of course now his identity is a matter of public record. On a whim, I went to my early post, and lo! He's either edited or deleted the posts in which he explicitly referred to himself as a Special Forces soldier or Ranger (oops, except this one). Sadly, the Google caches to which I linked have expired and reflect the edits or that the posts have been deleted. Gone are the lovely phrases "Blackfive is, and always will be a Soldier, a Paratrooper, a Ranger, a Green Beret, an American Fighting Man" and "I was a Special Forces Light Weapons Expert."
There are few things in military life that are reviled more than posers. Claiming honors to which you're not entitled denigrates the sacrifices of those who have earned them, especially those who have died doing so. Makes me a little sick that he's a hero of the milblogs.
He replied with some bullshit about how he'd altered some of the dates on the website because he was so top-secret he had to fictionalize portions (which is a big bullshit alarm in and of itself). He said he'd really enlisted in 1983, not 1986. The problem with that is that he's posted a government issued photo ID [here] that give his year of birth as 1968, which would have made him fifteen when he enlisted. Neat trick, that. Anyway, he blathered on a bit about how he wasn't going to give me any class numbers or any other information that could be used to identify him, because he'd received threats and wanted to preserve his anonymity. Fine, I pretty much forgot about him after that.
I was doing a Google search on something unrelated the other day, and darned if the weasel didn't pop up. Apparently he's published a book, and of course now his identity is a matter of public record. On a whim, I went to my early post, and lo! He's either edited or deleted the posts in which he explicitly referred to himself as a Special Forces soldier or Ranger (oops, except this one). Sadly, the Google caches to which I linked have expired and reflect the edits or that the posts have been deleted. Gone are the lovely phrases "Blackfive is, and always will be a Soldier, a Paratrooper, a Ranger, a Green Beret, an American Fighting Man" and "I was a Special Forces Light Weapons Expert."
There are few things in military life that are reviled more than posers. Claiming honors to which you're not entitled denigrates the sacrifices of those who have earned them, especially those who have died doing so. Makes me a little sick that he's a hero of the milblogs.
posted by Mimbreno at 6:58 PM
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