<< OH GOODNESS, COME ON, I MEAN LOOK, DO YOU KNOW, LOOK ~ MAIN ~ THE BOLD AND THE 7.30 REPORT >>

‘NAM VET NOW GERMANY VET

Anti-war campaigner Ward Reilly, previously disinclined to reveal certain details of his Army service, seems to have learned his lesson:

My name is Ward Reilly, and I was a volunteer Infantryman, having served as a mortar gunner in the Weapons Platoon of Co. “C”, 1st Bn 16th Infantry(Rangers), from 1971 to 1974. I was extremely lucky to have been stationed for 30 months at Panzer Kaserne near Stuttgart, Germany.

There. That wasn’t so hard now, was it?

Posted by Tim B. on 12/04/2005 at 11:21 AM
  1. Gee, and he wasn’t a Ranger, either… quelle shocque…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 12 04 at 12:28 PM • permalink

  2. But, to give him his props, Charlie got nowhere in Stuttgart…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 12 04 at 12:37 PM • permalink

  3. But he was in Cambodia with John Kerry.

    Posted by Mystery Meat on 2005 12 04 at 01:17 PM • permalink

  4. In other fake-nam-vet action, the Thom-v-Tex show is apparently still in progress.  Oh it just does my poor heart good to watch this.

    Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2005 12 04 at 01:22 PM • permalink

  5. Well!  I certainly fucked THAT up, now didn’t I?  Still, a little bit of scrolling will reward the curious reader with poor green Thom’s latest and retardedest blusterations to date.

    Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2005 12 04 at 01:25 PM • permalink

  6. I thought that to call oneself a “veteran”, especially in US parlance, one had to be a Veteran of a Foreign War and not just an ex-serviceman. Does anyone here know for certain? Because Ward might still be lying even as he tries to tell the truth after having been caught in his original lie.

    Posted by andycanuck on 2005 12 04 at 01:36 PM • permalink

  7. Andy,

    Generally, no. In the U.S., veteran is a term used to describe anyone who served in the military in either peace time or war time. Distinctions are made when it comes to certain veterans health benefits and federal hiring preferences, however, for which a veteran needs to have served in a campaign or suffer a service-related disability to be eligible.

    Posted by Lawrence on 2005 12 04 at 01:56 PM • permalink

  8. Mr. Reilly may be admitting when and where his service was (since he now knows that anyone can fact-check him), but I doubt he will ever actually “come clean”.  Nutballs like him seldom admit everything.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2005 12 04 at 02:02 PM • permalink

  9. OT:  Gah!  I can’t stand it!  A friend of mine, who used to be “conservative” but is now “liberal” because the guy she married is a liberal, is now taking THAT TONE with me.

    You know the one:  That you-poor-stupid-benighted-right-wing-dupe tone.

    I mentioned that the mass graves in Iraq were created by Saddam, not the US, and she said, in THAT TONE, that those graves were obviously propaganda—no one could prove that there were over 200 mass graves, and the US propaganda forces (whatever they are) had no doubt found a few, but those were the result of war, and after all, the US had supported Saddam in the Iran-Iraq war, so those few graves were the fault of the US.

    I choked down my ire, as she has been a friend for a long time, and said that in any event, Saddam had some responsibility to share.  She then launched into that tired bullshit about Saddam not being part of 9/11, blah blah blah, and that “Islamophobes” were obviously dupes of the Christian hypocrites in the WH.  I asked her what she actually knows about Islam.  She replied, IN THAT TONE, a representative of a nearby mosque had “shown” how Islam is merely a part of the Judeo-Xian heritage at their local Sunday school class, and it is too bad I am so blinded by prejudice!

    A.  I actually got my fucking Ph.D. in multiculti bullshit; I know way more about multiculti stuff than she does, and I was a liberal (and still am, in many ways) long before she got married;
    B.  I’m not a dupe;
    C.  I CAN’T STAND THAT TONE OF VOICE ANY MORE!

    Posted by ushie on 2005 12 04 at 02:03 PM • permalink

  10. I have a feeling that our armed forces in Vietnam were “extremely lucky” that he was stationed in Germany, too.

    Posted by paco on 2005 12 04 at 03:54 PM • permalink

  11. Well!  I certainly fucked THAT up, now didn’t I?  Still, a little bit of scrolling will reward the curious reader with poor green Thom’s latest and retardedest blusterations to date.

    Hey, what’s the problem? It linked to a tasty review of the Buell XB9R. Nice.

    The Thom Lyons show is priceless. Tex’s best work to date.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2005 12 04 at 04:25 PM • permalink

  12. Tex could not have invented a better foil than Clueless Thom. This from the Victorian Greens Party link is hilarious:

    he is one of the most highly educated Greens and potentially a great asset to the State Government

    LMAO!

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2005 12 04 at 06:37 PM • permalink

  13. ushie-I know exactly the feeling having been a leftie in the past and y’know it’s cause we DON’T UNDERSTAND..
    Eventually you will come to argue about it and if you are really good friends your friendship will survive.Never be quite the same but will survive.

    Posted by crash on 2005 12 04 at 07:48 PM • permalink

  14. Frankly, I’ve always felt that people who use THAT TONE on their friends isn’t much of a friend.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2005 12 04 at 08:16 PM • permalink

  15. Well, in keeping with the “liberalism as a secular religion” concept, it does seem that many liberals merely consider their conservative friends to be uneducated heathens who must be converted at all cost.

    The fact that there are a lot more conservatives who are former liberals than there are liberals who are former conservatives doesn’t seem to register much.

    Posted by PW on 2005 12 04 at 09:20 PM • permalink

  16. It would be interresting to know how Panzer Kaserene got its name.

    Posted by Susan Norton on 2005 12 04 at 09:40 PM • permalink

  17. Susan — When the allies garrisoned Germany in ‘45, they took over most of the existing Wehrmacht barracks compounds (Kasernen) still standing.

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 12 04 at 10:05 PM • permalink

  18. I believe he served in the Specialist Tactics Unit Battalion at Sang Bang and Dang Nong.  It was real hush-hush.

    Posted by slammer on 2005 12 05 at 01:35 AM • permalink

  19. I notice he’s still including his incorrect battalion nickname in his unit designation, ie “1st Bn 16th Infantry(Rangers)”.

    Ranger units are elite light infantry that are part of Special Operations Command, and he’s trying to make you think he was some sort of commando. The battalion he belonged to is a regular leg unit.  The trick here is that this is NOT a Ranger unit; that would be singular, “Ranger” rather than plural. His battalion had a nickname of “Iron Rangers” and the infantry regiment he belonged to had a nickname of “Rangers”, dating back to the days before there was a Ranger battalion. They are not in any way, shape, or form Ranger units, though, and you don’t usually include the battalion nickname in a unit designation like that.

    See http://www.riley.army.mil/view/article.asp?id=623-2002-05-16-50878-08

    Posted by Ernst Blofeld on 2005 12 05 at 03:38 AM • permalink

  20. Ushie, give her a copy of one of Robert Spencer’s books for Christmas. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam & the Crusades would be the best bet, as it’s written with the attention-span deficient in mind and is a really easy read.

    Hell, if you can’t get one in time, and she’s in Oz, I’ll post her my copy. Maybe she can be reverted to Right Wing Death Beastery.

    Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2005 12 05 at 07:08 AM • permalink

  21. Hi, thanks for the understanding; much calmer now.  Arbed, I mentioned an Ann Coulter article to her and she said, “Oh, she just wants to get in on it.”  What, I asked.  “If Clinton were still president, she’d be on her knees, too—Coulter’s just jealous.”

    I shudder to think what she’d say Spencer’s deal was…

    Posted by ushie on 2005 12 05 at 07:41 AM • permalink

  22. ernst blofeld — For that matter, there were no battalion-size Ranger formations during the VietNam war.  Rangers were platoon-size elements doing LRRP-style missions,  an organization that persisted into the 80’s in the Ranger units operating as part of the Texas Army National Guard (AFAIK, the only Reserve Compnent Ranger unit ever formed.)  The organization of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 75th Infantry (Ranger) all occurred postwar through the Reagan Administration.

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 12 05 at 10:28 AM • permalink

  23. Ushie:  About your “friend” with the “THAT TONE” voice (*) ... I’d like to think that Nilknarf Arbed has the right idea, and that giving her a book will put her to rights, but really, I don’t think that.  I don’t think she’ll read it, and I do think she would take that as a provocation for an ugly argument.  Sadly, I think RebeccaH is more likely right about her, and that she’s not likely to remain your friend much longer.  And it SUCKS when this happens.  Good luck. 

    (* in my mental ear, it sounds like Arianna Huffington, only without the Zsa-Zsa accent; your description may vary)

    Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2005 12 06 at 12:07 PM • permalink

  24. Stoop, it sounds like I’m her five-year-old child, when she talks like that…

    Posted by ushie on 2005 12 06 at 01:42 PM • permalink

  25. Ushie: What I found helpful is to maintain a spocklike calm and demolish their blathering anti-Bush dementia with logic - point by point.

    If they say Bush lied, state the facts and pass the onus on to ask them to present their evidence of Bush’s lies. Show them a dictionary.

    When they claim that Saddam’s mass graves are BS and/or a product of evil US propaganda, ask them for evidence that supports their claim as anything greater than the ignorant gasp of leftist hyperbole it is. Mention Halabja and Saddam’s Anfal campaign, or even the Marsh Arabs and the Shiite uprising.

    It’s best to be well armed with figures you can belt out. Nine times out of ten it’ll leave them sputtering and defenceless.

    Supportable facts are the precision-guided munitions of informed debate. Which is why the left generally tries to browbeat everyone into submission with their multiculti cudgels of guilt and self-loathing.

    Your ‘friend’ may never openly admit being dispatched, but deep down within that clingly mote which may still recognize reality, they’ll know they’re full of **it.

    Hell, your stealth attack on their inherited certainty might even cause them to do their own research - if only to disprove you. The net effect of which might even lead them to a fortunate epiphany.

    Anyway, If you had a worthy friend at the start they will still be your worthy friend.
    Otherwise…Good f’n riddance!

    Who needs an star-struck moonbat idiot as a friend.

    Posted by monkeyfan on 2005 12 06 at 04:05 PM • permalink

  26. Ushie: While Monkeyfan’s advice may require more forebearance and discipline than most folks are likely to sustain most of the time, it certainly is the best approach.  I wish you luck with it, but I must admit, it hasn’t worked for me.

    Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2005 12 06 at 06:35 PM • permalink

  27. Stoop Davy Dave—Actually, a book can be a big help… but hit with the flat, not the edge…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 12 06 at 08:46 PM • permalink

  28. Page 1 of 1 pages

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.

Members:
Login | Register | Member List

Please note: you must use a real email address to register. You will be sent an account activation email. Clicking on the url in the email will automatically activate your account. Until you do so your account will be held in the "pending" list and you won't be able to log in. All accounts that are "pending" for more than one week will be deleted.