Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Question for the military guys

So, was on a camping trip this weekend with a group of guys. One of the guys whom I had never met was talking about his time in the military as we were doing some target shooting. Said he was with military intelligence but had done 17 HALO jumps, 3 of which were combat. Was wounded in a ambush while serving in Bosnia, where there were 15 casualties in his "team". Each story seemed to get a bit more out of the realm of possibilities. Said he served from 1992-1996

Do guys in military intelligence typically go on HALO drops and combat to snatch the commander of a Serbian POW camp? I was thinking BS but did not want to call this guys out since I had just met him this weekend.

Short answer is no to all aspects of that story,

When you encounter these people, it's best to keep handing them beer they didn't pay for and roll film with the iPhone.

Then make a youtube account.




Clark

Having not served, I didn't want to call this guy out right there but each story got a bit deeper. Then after seeing him shoot, I really didn't believe him

There actually are high-speed (legit) people that can't shoot worth a fugk.

But your camp buddy's stories are absurd.





Dave

Delusional at best.

I'm pretty sure you do quite a few more then 17 jumps to get qualified in military HALO (I hated jumping and had no interest in going myself) wiki said 30 jumps per course to qualify MFF.

His dates of service give him 4 years active which is nowhere near enough time to meet the prequisites and qualify for the high speed intel units which might be even remotely connected to something like that.

We had one guy on my first team that couldn't shoot a pistol worth a hoot, but man could he run a M240.

Maybe you were getting yourself a beer and missed the beginning of the story......Once upon a time........










The guys that I know that are real......very quiet and unassuming. Took a LONG time before the stories came out.

He was probably a cook, or what was the MOS of those guys who set up the field showers? It's been my experience that the shorter they were in service, and the further removed from combat, the better their stories.

Was his name Cruise??

The US had people over there hunting war criminals in that time frame. There were also some "normal" MI guys, but they were well back from the tip of the spear.

HALO ops are expensive, complex, and dangerous, so they're reserved for times and places where you don't have good overland access. HALO plays a role, but it's not as widely used as people think. You also have to bear in mind that most of that time frame we were working with/for NATO and the UN, not running wide-open combat operations like we are now. A HALO drop under those conditions is a very big political and diplomatic deal, even more so when the goal is to capture foreign nationals. That's why the kind of people who do that kind of work don't talk about it much. Finally, when I was in, it was extremely unusual for a someone in a standard MI billet to get a slot to HALO school, but things may have changed, especially if he's a linguist. (If he's a native speaker of a language common in that area, then almost anything is possible.) If he actually had been to an accelerated MFF course and actually was on HALO status, then 17 jumps might be about right.

Whether jumps are logged as combat jumps or not can depend on a lot of things. It's possible to run a proficiency jump in an area that's technically a combat zone but where there's no real danger. That's considered a combat jump, and you get the same gold star on your wings that our forefathers got for jumping into Normandy. That said, other paratroopers consider anyone who wears a star awarded under those circumstances to be a sad, pathetic excuse for a man. Air Force folks may get some cool stuff, too, so they have incentive to support this kind of boondoggle. This happens a lot when REMF officers want to get a combat star on their wings at the end of a tour. A lot of times they'll need people to fill up the plane, and if you've got wings, you're voluntold to go.

Getting wounded in an ambush is possible, even far from what passes for the front lines.

The term "team" is loosely defined. It used to refer to a Special Forces A-Detachment, but those often get augmented with lots of non-SF people. An ODA starts out with 12 people, and adding three isn't uncommon. But for all 15 to get hurt in one ambush is 100% casualties, and that's a BIG deal. It's more likely that 15 people out of a specific bunch got hurt in a series of missions that took place over several months or a year.

As for snatching prisoners, umm, no. He MAY have been on the perimeter or watching the action on a screen in a bunker, but chances are very slim that he was in there kicking doors with people who do that for a living.

My guess is that your guy may have done some or even most of this stuff, but he's probably stringing a bunch of stuff together, enriching it, and claiming that it all happened at the same time.


Okie John

Yep. You'd be amazed.


Okie John

Combat veteran:

Perhaps I'm the odd one out, but the only time military comes up in conversation is if someone asks, then it's 'yes I was in the military'. I honestly don't recall spending more than 20 minutes of my entire life talking about 'work' outside of 'work'.

On the other hand, it seems chicks are ALWAYS talking about work.

It may have happened; Hillary was pinned down by sniper fire.

First casualty in Vietnam was an as Air Force MI Sergeant.

A significant number of MI slots are off the books.

I was cleared of those charges I might add....

Two summers ago when I was in Florida, we went over to one our family friends, cousin's house.

he had an indoor pool.

since I was a veteran, he started talking up his military service after he'd had a few beers..

guess when he throws out military acronyms people don't know what they are but are easily impressed...

He was in ATC, then also was trained and assigned to G2, after that Ranger School, SF and Delta Force, then
was assigned to Seal Team 6....

I couldn't believe it... I was sitting in the pool at the home of the other guy who had shot Osama Bin Laden...

His cousin, who is also a disabled Army Vet... told me that she hoped I didn't believe that BS..

I assured her, as soon as he said he was ATC, and then was assigned to G2 and then SF....it took
a lot of my efforts to not be rude and laugh my ass off...

She asked me did I know what ATC was, she didn't... I told her when I served in a Chopper Unit, it stood for
Always Taking Coffee.. but the Army called it Air Traffic Control...

on top of all of this, G2, SF, Ranger, Delta Force, Seal Team 6....

pretty impressive for a guy who served 4 years and got out of the Air Force as an E 3...Airman First Class...

Claimed he was now working for a big security firm doing highly classified stuff... Caroline told me he was a security
Guard at the local mall...

for the life of me, I don't know what is in these guys head...they gotta be the biggest limpdicks on the planet...

Here's an off the books MI guy who was the first casualty of VN according to the article.

http://www.wsmv.com/story/16022082/first-vietnam-war-casualty-was-tennessee-soldier

This book talks about one of the high speed intel units a little.

https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Pablo-Worlds-Greatest-Outlaw/dp/0802123783

And her was part of a team. Not much was said about the rest of the team.

Mall Ninja......