Never Lie About Your Military Career?

As a former active duty Marine, I never had the opportunity to serve in combat. Would I have, if given the opportunity, Yes I would in a heartbeat. I trained for combat and I wanted to do what I was trained for. I served in a time of “peace”. I served from 1988 to 1998 and during that time the U.S. did send troops into combat, but not in record numbers. We had the Invasion of Panama (Operation Just Cause), where 27,000 troops (6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Task Force Semper Fi; and 1st Platoon FAST were the major Marine Corps units involved) and last a little over 1 month. We also has the Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm), which consisted of 700,000 U.S. Troops and lasted just over 1 month. We had a Unified Task Force (Somalia) which lasted around 5 months and consisted of (25,000 U.S. Troops). Then came the Bosnian War which the U.S. provided support to NATO by supplying 60,000 U.S. Troops. Then came Operation Uphold Democracy (Haiti), which involved 25,000 U.S. Troops, and lasted 6 months.

So the only time I might have even had an opportunity to see combat would have been Desert Storm and that had such a low number of actual troops being involved. There were over 2 million active-duty members in the U.S. Military in the early 1990s, so many of us in support billets didn’t get the call.

But does my not serving in combat make my military contribution any less than those that did serve during combat? Technically no, it doesn’t but I personally feel it does. I did my part for the 10 years I was in and I was a good Marine, but there is still that spot in my mind that tells me I didn’t do enough.

Regardless of my career, I don’t lie about my time in the military, I did what I did and I went where the Marine Corps assigned me to go. It isn’t you get a ton of choices or leeway either.

I don’t say that I earned metals that I didn’t earn, I don’t tell stories that never happened. I have no reason to. But that doesn’t stop the posers (U.S. vs Alvarez) and investigators state that cases are on the rise.

I was never a Scout Sniper Forced Recon Navy Seal Ranger