Oh thats okay. As long as theyre not misogynistic or aggro I have no problem with role-players. I think its odd that they need to engage in fantasy to actualize their masculinity...Although I think bikers on $50,000 Honda Goldwings, in full leathers, who are 60+ are kind of silly. And guys in bars who insist that theyre ex-Special Forces commandos.
The wannabe bikers you describe are freqently just slightly sad aging married guys trying to live out a manly fantasy because of a mid life crisis.
They really don't mean any harm, and I think that is better than divorcing a long standing wife and the complications and stress with that.
Pretend soliders are a favorite subject of mine! I worked bar in London and Yorkshire and there are tonnes of those around. They always end up talking to the bartender because basically it is your job to speak to customers.
Usually they are sad lonely men too, but as far as I can tell they do this for a multitude of reasons.
Some do it by way of self preservation. They seem to think that if they convince other people they are a dangerous former solider, they will be left to drink in peace. Why they don't just go to an off license and buy booze to drink at home is puzzling.
Then again, maybe they live in a depressing bedsit and want to feel like a person again.
Some do it thinking it wins them respect and friends. Shame really, as they just become a joke in the pub.
Some do it and they really were in the military, but not what they claim to be. From what I have been told by real ex servicemen, around 75-90% of military roles are non combat and support.
I genuinely heard a lot of people tell me that they were "trained to kill".
Everyone does get trained to use a gun and go on a fitness course, but only a minority go and actively get out in the firing line. Anyone can go on "patrol" but this often amounts to literally guarding an installation or barracks miles from the front line.
The real soliders hate guys like the above and call them "Walts".
Walt is short for Walter Mitty. A character in a comic strip who had a boring office job but lived adventures in his imagination.
The ones who go as far as claiming to SAS or SBS are really putting themselves at risk. From what I have heard from real soliders, while marine commandos and paras are happy to bulky and terrify Walts who pretend to be former members, the special forces are known to be violent.
My favorite "Walt" was the "boyfriend"of a former fuck buddy of mine. Mixed race Jamaican girl who worked door in a neighboring borough. It's a London thing, keep fuck buddies out of the immediate district. It is less hassle.
According to her he was a serving SAS man who had been taken hostage in Iraq, had had some unspecified terror cel burn his house containing his ex wife and children, and plus he was a total growling Alpha male who could beat every MMA champion with one hand tied behind his back. He had degrees from Oxford and could shoot rainbows out of his arsehole.
Me and this girl started banging on and off. I was single. She had a high sex drive and we used a lot of protection.
When I asked her about her boyfriend, she claimed that as he was off in Iraq and Afghanistan (this was 2005-7) so much he has allowed her to have a fuck buddy, just as long as she always used a condom.
After a while, her stories about his guy got more and more far fetched. There was something about him going to prison because a member of his unit was refusing to fight in Hemland province on conscientious objectionable grounds.
I got a bit annoyed with her, and although I liked her and we had great sex, she was always banging on about how great it would be when this guy left the SAS and they went and lived on a cruise ship and had babies.
I knew she was not the one, but it's not the most enjoyable pillow talk, so I ended it and told her that this guy was probably taking her for a ride.
We fell out and did not talk for a few months.
Then it all came out that this guy was married, his current wife was an ex affair. His first wife had two of his kids. His current wife had two too, and she had contacted my fuck buddy telling her that she was just another victim of his lies.
The SAS story was long running but he had never even been in the Boy Scouts, as was in fact working at a recruitment consultants. He also had not finished high school.
My fuck buddy had been sending texts to a spare phone that he stupidly gave to his wife when hers broke. So this wife told the poor girl he was a bullshit merchant of the highest order.
They also got divorced later in the year.
My fuck buddy apologized to me and showed me a photo of him. Turns out I had given him my details at some point about some work I had gone to that recruitment consultants for. If she had shown me that months before, I could have blown the lid earlier.
I forgave her, cause the tragic thing was, her father was in the military and he had died when she was a little girl. She was looking for a guy who matched up to her unrealistic view of a miltary hero father figure.
I knew I was not that. When she asked me to go full time, I turned her down. I had never banged her while she was single, so i knew I would never trust her. She had even told me about other guys she was fucking. I knew she liked me, and I liked her, but you can't build a relationship on no trust.
It also freaked me out a bit when she started calling me the same pet names she called her next full time boyfriend.
Anyway, I saw her Walt again. He had been sacked from the recruitment consultant, presumably because of his divorce and dishonesty, and was working at an upmarket supermarket.
I would go in there to buy expensive groceries and all him "Andy mcnab", I don't think he ever worked out who I was.
I hope the real SAS catch up with him. Poetic justice.
