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Q: What's up with vets?
There's quite a few (US) ex-military working in China nowadays, and I noticed how forward they are about the crimes they committed.
When they talk about the bad things they did, it's unclear to me whether they're expressing hindsight regret, or using the corpses of the innocents they slaughtered as a makeshift pedestal. Killing people and participating in acts of violence doesn't give you valid life experience. You can't just throw it in a conversation as ammo against perceived trolls or smartalecs whose political opinons you don't like...
10 years 6 weeks ago in Relationships - China
And here i was expecting a rant about animals.... This is much better. I think people throw it out there randomly looking for faint praise. Thank you for serving our countries. Which in some situations is fair, but i think they may forget that this isnt WW2 , people have different opinions about those attacks/wars and people from other countries are even less likely to congratulate people for that.
Im sure in their minds they are protecting our freedoms while others feel that it is a straight up career choice for people on the fringes of society.
I will say that most ex military i have met have been...... Socially akward. And it does seem to be that the ones in China are a particular brand of crazy.
Perhaps the military is the extent of their experiences. Nothing else to talk about i guess.
mike168229:
I am ex-Royal Navy and not mental. Maybe it's just the yanks.
mike695ca:
Haha @mike. Thats true you always seemed normal to me. But i guess thats the point. This is the first i heard you were military. Obviously not something to hide. But i guess you just have a whole lot more shit to talk about.
mike695ca:
Well shit i take it back. Me and @robk got so much in common people thought we were the same dude! I take it back. Too be honest ive only had one experience with an ex army dude in china. He worked at a place i was teaching at. Real dark dude. And about 2 weeks in to the job he got hammered couldnt get home i guess and decided he wanted to sleep in the locked training center. He threw himself threw the plated glass window/wall and passed out bloody on the sofa till the kids teachers cops found him the next day. Got deported real quick. Just me being ignorant i guess. With the amount of people who serve i guess theres all types. But still, he left quite a first impression!
Robk:
The kids found him bloody on the couch the next day?
I bet they never wanted to learn English again...
"Mommy... everytime I hear "Hello" I see the blood of the crazy man! Please don't make me go back!"
Englteachted:
Mike said he is ex-Royal Navy
Robk said he is ex Army
Vally said he is an ex-soldier
Which one is the faker? Mike and Robk, I have worked with many vets, you know what I'm referring to.
mike168229:
I'm proud of my time in a blue suit but I don't let it dominate who I am and I certainly don't lead every conversation with "when I was in .... blah blah blah". That's when you know you have Billy Bullshitter on your hands.
Hillary oh poor Hillary! it wasn't a bat rather a shoe aimed your nose.... by the way it is derogatory to shoot people with shoes but I couldn't understand the cause of the shooter.
Vets can be around our Board as 'Penta-g-t-son extended arm' in China, or as 'warning' to some posters.
I'm sure, Chinese Gov. is in the know, if poster states his military career on the open tread. So, I don't really see point of somebody admit his 'ex-boots work', except as 'show off' and 'scare you'.
BuTT....during my long 'skying' career, I learned that 'black person's spying undercover on somebody in the dark, must always keep his mouth 'closed'!
Anybody in the mood to guess why?
I'll tell truth this time, I promise! 
skunkman:
...and they're supposed to wear shades too...or maybe just close their eyes...
icnif77:
No, unfortunately your 'assessment' is wrong!
If black person opens his mouth in the dark, his white teeth will 'light' up the darkness.....
similar as this
, and 'undercover' will be gone in a 'blink of an eye'!
skunkman:
Oh icnif, but that's exactly what I meant...you didn't get it...that's alright, your eyes were probably closed...
icnif77:
buTT, I don't get why one must wear shades? Eyes can be open, if mouth shut! What Regiment did you serve? I was in 'no more O2' Regiment! O2I love it! We can tell all secrets here!
icnif77:
'Laughing gas' is dangerous! I think, Russians used N2O in Moscow ''theater 'poison-everybody' rescue mission". Are you English, skunk?
skunkman:
Man, icnif, you sure like to connect things (even the most mundane) to your database (theoretical or otherwise). No, I'm not English...but I sure wouldn't mind some bloody fish n' chips!
icnif77:
The N2O was first synthesised by English natural philosopher and chemist Joseph Priestley in 1772…….Best fish&chips (out of UK, Scotland, Ireland), I ate on Nantucket!
skunkman:
...lucky you...hope to go there someday...and perhaps hop on over to Martha's Vineyard...maybe meet one of the Kennedys...and share some secrets eh?
icnif77:
I was just cycling there, and swimming in huge waves. I didn't meet nobody 'cause my bike can go very fast
. I miss Cape Cod and S. Fl.
I'm in Fuk., some 4000 km from the closest beach in China
.
They are here to save us.
You know, putting themselves in harms way in the name of freedom, only to go home to find there are no jobs that fit their specific skills.
So they come here instead, and teach.
In effect, they put the sword down and pick up the pen... then wish the pen was an M16 
.
I met a few here.
I remember this one guy was a vet from Vietnam. He was kind of funny and spoke whatever was on his mind and didn't give a shit. But he has problems... he acted really tough and I guess being ex-army I called him out on it and he said he didn't really see any action... he was just like a cook or ammo boy or something.
I guess they tell everyone because China is a crazy place and attracts a lot of nutters... this is a pretty chaotic place and kind of like a war zone at times... so maybe they feel at home?
ScotsAlan:
I came across one a few years back in GZ. A lame looking bespecked person with a loud voice.
He had met his GF online and had decided his future was here. He was very vocal about his skills as a machine gunner in Iraq. "i have come to teach" he blasted, and "marry the love of my life"
I recognised his love as being a well known local chicken. I bowed my head to her... she winked.
Such is life.
I'm thinking of inappropriate mentions, like I've seen happen regularly here in Answers, to lend more weight and seriousness to their opinions. Or just tossed in as a stifling conversation-ender when they're losing ground in a discussion.
I swear I heard one mention killing people in Iraq "with regret", in order to hit on a teaching assistant in my school. Thankfully her reaction to it was more negative than he'd hoped, which is to her credit. But honestly, I wonder what these dudes are thinking when they say this stuff. They definitely aren't thinking of the relatives of the deceased. I wonder how the surviving parents and children would feel, if they heard that the death of their loved one is being used as an anecdote to woo over girls, or help wayward vets save face in a discussion...
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right?
Robk:
Yeah I don't get it either... I wouldn't mention that stuff to anybody.
"I killed man with my bare hands!" Doesn't exactly make you the life of the party...
Although, being in the army sometimes has a ton of hilarious stories. Like my buddy whose name was R. Darling. As you know, instructors or superiors normally have to call you by your last name... it is hard to sound tough and not homosexual when you are screaming stuff at a guy like "Get over here, Darling! I am going to work you hard, Darling!"... "Are you eye-balling me, Darling?" They hated him so much.
mike168229:
Lad in my intake was Martin Honey. PTI shouts "morning Honey', Martin replies "morning sweetheart", PTI - "Down and ten".
Robk:
Haha...
I had another guy in my squad named Phil Peon.
"Fucking Peon! Don't quit on me!" - So many good stories.
Vets in real life or online? In real life, how many vets refer to themselves as "soldier" ? Please no one answer this question.
For some strange reason the ccp thinks that the bad behavior of people who are trained killers in a warzone excuses the bad behavior of of normal everyday Chinese people on the street.
Robk:
None that I know of... they all identify themselves are either Marines, Army, Navy or Air Force... or whatever (Rangers, SAS, fucking KGB). I never heard people say... yeah.. I was a SOLDIER...
wtf does that mean? Just cause you marched in a parade and played "Call of Duty" for 1000+ hours doesn't mean you are a "solider" lol
Stickman, from Stickmanbangkok.com also had the observation that you run into many people who claim to be ex-military. Always special forces, always can tell you a little bit about their careers but that the rest of the story is classified.
On the other hand, military types are adventurous and used to dealing with stressful situations, so it wouldn't be that much of a deal to find so many of those who cannot function or realign to civilian life to be overseas.
I've met just as many former Peace Corps members in China...also fitting the stereotype: frequent drug users, trying to solve all of the world's problems if only everyone would just smoke pot.
It does take a "special" kind of person to live in China long-term, we all have our own background experiences that give us the coping mechanisms and self-protection (call them "walls" or "barriers" what have you) to continue living here. Whether that adds to our profiles or detracts over time (perseverance versus moral decay) is a case-by-case basis.
