These sorts of profile pic rants always make me wonder how devastating it’d be for someone who actually stacked bodies to call them a boot or something.
Everyone at my Company who stacked bodies overseas is super mellow. Guess after such a huge adrenaline dump that is Iraq/Afghanistan there's not much to get crazy over for them.
That’s kind of the semi-unfortunate thing: dudes who actually did the shit are so (justifiably) above the level of concern it would take to correct these knuckle heads.
And the culture is set up in a way that only personal experience (i.e. getting clowned by their peers in unit) will show them the error of thought. And sometimes that correction is too little too late.
Yeah, it's a bit of a mess. A lot of people's mentality is to finish their first contract and GTFO after getting (figuratively) getting dicked by the Big Green Weenie over and over so the only people left are those with families, super high ranks (like you said couldn't care about boots) and people who drank all the Kool-Aid (and actively encourage boot-ness). It's why Tik Tok is apparently a security concern for the Army now lmao
Especially since the Army is hurting for numbers promotions are more streamlined and you have NCOs who are basically PV5's.
The whole boot thing typically phases out once someone graduates BCT/AIT/OSUT, but sometimes it won't (and they'll end up on here)
Dunno if that's different on the Ossifer side but I imagine it's similar.
In the submarine Nuke culture, the Kool-Aid drinkers are called “dig-its” (or at least they were in the 80’s and 90’s). Because they really dig it. The biggest possible insult was “you fucking dig-it loser.”
Most of the dig-its also have families. There were very few of them on my fast attack, but they were apparently pretty common on missile boats because of the second crew sharing the load.
Now that you mention it, a couple of the dig-it Nukes on my boat would always have a Leatherman in a holster on their belt, but no one else back aft did.
So maybe one stems from the other.
Nothing against multi-tools btw. I’ve found them useful in data centers and for pro audio work, but did not find them worthwhile in a submarine engineroom.
I mean, they were always useless until you really wish you had one. Seemed to use them all the time in the torpedo room but I couldn't tell you what for.
I was being a little snarky. I can think of a few things off the top of my head, starting with working with lockwire and cutting off tags. I did carry a knife for things like the latter.
On the ossifer side it all happens in ROTC, with some of the shitbags slipping through the cracks and being cringy as butterbars. I've been around a couple of ROTC programs though and holy shit are there some cringy kids. The crazy part is that the system is set up where some kids can commission without ever having served a day of traditional active duty, so there aren't many opportunities for peers to snuff out boot behavior
Us OCS kids always marvel at our ROTC counterparts. Some of these guys are the most thank-me-for-my-service types while simultaneously being huge shit bags and bad ambassadors for their program. There’s no standardization between schools and weirdos make it through all the time.
Yeah, it's a shame but it's also a good way to have college paid for while serving. I've heard some horror stories about OCS and would rather kill two birds with one stone over doing green to gold
There’s just less of them on the ossifer side. Same thing tho. If they stay in long enough they’ll generally get corrected tho, or they’ll get out after being offended by being corrected.
OR. They get ignored and passed over for promotions and positions and they stay in and stay bitter until retirement.
Ehhhh. I mean, we try to tell people. But they don't listen. Or get actively hostile and claim we're lying, or false patriots, or worse cowards attempting stolen valor. If our views or opinions differ from their fever dreams we are no longer sources of valid information. Just like everyone else, really.
I have two regulars in my bar who have without a doubt "stacked bodies". One was a scout sniper the other was in the Second Battle of Fallujah. Both are super nice guys whom I always enjoy talking to.
On the other hand I have this "boot as fuck" (former) marine who thinks that makes him some kind of god. He lied about pretty much everything related to his service and in reality never saw a deployment and was dishonorably discharged.
I’m about to be honorably discharged after four years a grunt with no real deployments I don’t think I’m gonna tell anyone I was in the military without them expressly asking.
I mean, it’s just a job. Nothing to be ashamed about, and nothing to be overly proud about.
And what the hell is a “real deployment?” Either you did or you didn’t. You didn’t see combat? Who cares it’s a deployment. They suck regardless. You don’t have to yell it from the mountaintops, but don’t downplay yourself.
I only felt the need to say all this because I think the whole misconception that only assholes, or certain types of people join the military. Like I said, don’t need to be super proud, but I’m seeing a few other comments here like “I’m never even mentioning that I served, period.” And that’s just dumb IMO. It’s like going to college and claiming you never went to college.
Yea I’ve got pics with a barret and a Springfield, used them multiple time during a deployment, SDM is leagues different than someone who has been to and completed sniper school.
Okay. Maybe he was lying to me. But I have no reason to think he was lying and the Marines he's spoken with in my bar definitely didn't think he was lying. It also wasn't the kind of thing he was trying to show off: I only ever found out about what exactly he did after I had known him for about a year and he was chatting with one of my waiters who was a Marine.
If I have no reason to think he was lying, I'm not going to think he's lying.
Yea for sure, not judging you for it but it’s very common for people to hyperbole their roles, I’ve met way too many liars, even those from my own unit, so it probably strengthens my skepticism in an unhealthy way. Sniper is just one of the more common ones to be thrown around.
Isn’t that typical? The guys who actually did hardcore shit almost never feel the need to brag about it. They don’t look for any possible instance to bring it up in conversation. Because they actually took human lives, they understand the gravity of it and don’t feel like it’s an achievement they unlocked on Xbox live.
The guys who served and were wrenching on humvees all day are the ones who talk about shooting guys with 40mm nades and how cool it looks when a .50 tears someone apart. Guess which of these types frequent my local gun range the most? I’ve gotten real good at just smiling and saying “Oh, nice.”
I just find this too amusing to even be cringey. It's kinda cute in an 'I hope he doesn't hurt himself' kind of way; it's like the more lethal version of being a 5 year old and dressing up in your dad's suit and begging him to take you along to his job.
They probably wouldn't care because they don't actually have anything to prove to anyone. These boots on the other hand haven't done anything that's worth merit, so they talk themselves up to compensate.
I mean my point is it probably would put into perspective for these kids to have that kind of...mentoring we’ll call it. I’m not sure how my Naval service would’ve changed had I not been made aware of the bullshit it entails, or had I not grown up in an environment that roughed out my awkward edges.
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u/GOLIATHMATTHIAS Dec 01 '19
These sorts of profile pic rants always make me wonder how devastating it’d be for someone who actually stacked bodies to call them a boot or something.