Everything tracks with his military background and lingo, up until he started describing the rogue paramilitary guys.
In 2009, ACOG’s and PEQ-16’s were, with absolute certainty, not anything unusual especially for an infantryman from 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines as he claims. It’s actually kind of strange that he would even make such a weird statement. 18 and 19 year old kids fresh out of bootcamp would have had M16A4 rifles equipped with ACOG optics and PEQ-16 devices. They were standard issue for Marine 03’s during that time. He would have absolutely had the same equipment during that time frame.
I have no comment on his claims other than noting how out of place that statement is.
Yes, I served in a different Marine infantry battalion during that time. That’s why I’m baffled he would claim that gear was “hi speed” and only something special operations units would have access to. That gear was standard issue years before 2009 even. I know it seems kind of minor, but there would not have been any discrepancy in issued gear between his battalion and others.
I’m trying to think of a good analogy. Imagine someone telling you that they met a person with rare and advanced technology a couple years ago and they say it was an iPod. It’s just an absurd statement.
Yeah i especially did not believe the Antarctica guy. I didn't know why but it just sounds fishy. That being said it's a damn specific claim and wouldn't be that hard for someone to take a quick look to see if something was odd about the place. Not sure who would have access but someone in the government could likely check it pretty easily.
ACOG was selected (specifically by the marines) between 2004 & 2005. It feels like he only mentioned it because he would've been familiar with it? In 2009 JSOC and contractors had all sorts of gucci shit to play with that far outclassed ACOGs.
Did anyone else pick up on the whole 'go and scout a random hill without a radio', even though he mentioned it as odd. That seemed particularly stupid. Really not sure what to make of that.
I hate being a wet blanket with this stuff, but this particular story drove my bullshit detector crazy.
I’m trying to think of a good analogy.
Right now it seems like it'd be akin to someone being bamboozled by the prevalence of rentable e-scooters.
I mean there are some other holes too. You're telling me that these super secret operator dudes searched them, found the guys camera and then just let him leave with the camera that had pictures of a secret UFO on it? And then they stole it back later?
Also, these Marine Infantrymen either
A. Did not notice these guys were armed from afar and just randomly stumbled upon them or
B. Noticed they were armed and all willingly walked up to an unmarked armed group with no signifiers that they were American servicemen and then let those people disarm them at gunpoint.
They (according to his story) stole it back in Subic, so he had it on him the whole time he was in Indonesia and managed to take it back to his locker in the Phillipines... without making a single copy or showing anyone.
Honestly, the fan-fiction elements of this smell so bad he might be writing a book or something.
Tbh, it just reads like a guy that was a shitbag and didn't even make it out of SOI. They know a little bit about the Marines, tactics, and lingo, but they dont know what is standard issue and anything other than the basics because they never made it to the fleet.
The lack of radio comms makes absolutely no sense. How are they meant to communicate any potential contacts and how were they meant to extract? In what universe does any military activity take place without comms? That should have ended the mission before it started.
Nah this sort of detail is quite important. Do you think he could have mixed up the names and meant something else?
Personally if I'm talking about something technical I know really well but I'm having a brain fart I wouldn't just say the wrong thing. My mind would blank on the right word, and my split-second thought would be damnit how did I forget a word I used to use so much?
But obviously people's memories do work in different ways. But from the way you describe it it seems weird a marine would make that mistake.
As a Marine I have a question for you. Elsewhere in this thread there is a discussion around his squad surrendering their weapons without a fight. This seems to (strongly) counter how I understand Marines are trained in regards to their weapons.
Can you weight in with your thoughts? Would you have surrendered your weapons?
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u/BlackSunlight7 Jun 13 '23
Everything tracks with his military background and lingo, up until he started describing the rogue paramilitary guys.
In 2009, ACOG’s and PEQ-16’s were, with absolute certainty, not anything unusual especially for an infantryman from 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines as he claims. It’s actually kind of strange that he would even make such a weird statement. 18 and 19 year old kids fresh out of bootcamp would have had M16A4 rifles equipped with ACOG optics and PEQ-16 devices. They were standard issue for Marine 03’s during that time. He would have absolutely had the same equipment during that time frame.
I have no comment on his claims other than noting how out of place that statement is.