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05-09-11, 12:33 PM
I was over in Melbourne, FL for the weekend at the Vietnam and all Veterans Reunion. Met a lot of good people and got to hear Ross Perot and some others give some good talks.
After the parade of the different veterans groups I went over to some trees to get out of the hot sun for awhile. I sat down on a picnic table bench and I saw a lot of commotion at one of the other tables. There was this older guy there wearing a Seal hat and I watched about 20+ people come up to him and shake his hand and compliment him on being a Seal. I sat there and watched him some and watched the people all around him. I could see he was getting tired of it.
After he stood up he looked at me, walked over to me and asked me if I was a poser or the real deal. I still had my vest on from the parade with my cpl stripe and Nam patches so I told him I wasn't an officer or a gunny and I didn't have the medal of honor. I said I was just a Parris Island Marine out of the 60's. Then he surprised me and asked if he could sit down. He sat down next to me eyeball to eyeball and introduced himself as Chief Jim "Patches" Watson from the old Seal Team 2. He was ****ed because he had just run into a "Seal Poser" he said. He had walked up to a guy who was wearing the Seal pin, tri something or other and had a silver star pin on. When the Chief asked him which team he was with the poser said team 3. Well Jim explained there was no team 3. I said that we Marines ran into that quite often. F'in poser this, f'in poser that, the Chief was ****ed. He began telling me of Seal history. He did 3 tours in Nam and was one of the Seals that wrote the book, he came from the old UD bunch.
Real interesting man. He gave me his card and the names of a couple of books he had written; Point Man and another; Walking Point. Maybe someone here has read one of them. We talked intently for about 30 minutes, still eyeball to eyeball, and only one guy interrupted us to shake the Chief's hand real fast.
As I could see my wife was getting bored I finally stood up and told the Chief it was a pleasure meeting him. He told me Cpl, the pleasure was all mine and he asked who I had served with. He told me he had heard of us, we had quite the reputation; though he was never in I Corps, the Seals were all down in the delta. Kinda made my day to meet such a real hero in person.
After the parade of the different veterans groups I went over to some trees to get out of the hot sun for awhile. I sat down on a picnic table bench and I saw a lot of commotion at one of the other tables. There was this older guy there wearing a Seal hat and I watched about 20+ people come up to him and shake his hand and compliment him on being a Seal. I sat there and watched him some and watched the people all around him. I could see he was getting tired of it.
After he stood up he looked at me, walked over to me and asked me if I was a poser or the real deal. I still had my vest on from the parade with my cpl stripe and Nam patches so I told him I wasn't an officer or a gunny and I didn't have the medal of honor. I said I was just a Parris Island Marine out of the 60's. Then he surprised me and asked if he could sit down. He sat down next to me eyeball to eyeball and introduced himself as Chief Jim "Patches" Watson from the old Seal Team 2. He was ****ed because he had just run into a "Seal Poser" he said. He had walked up to a guy who was wearing the Seal pin, tri something or other and had a silver star pin on. When the Chief asked him which team he was with the poser said team 3. Well Jim explained there was no team 3. I said that we Marines ran into that quite often. F'in poser this, f'in poser that, the Chief was ****ed. He began telling me of Seal history. He did 3 tours in Nam and was one of the Seals that wrote the book, he came from the old UD bunch.
Real interesting man. He gave me his card and the names of a couple of books he had written; Point Man and another; Walking Point. Maybe someone here has read one of them. We talked intently for about 30 minutes, still eyeball to eyeball, and only one guy interrupted us to shake the Chief's hand real fast.
As I could see my wife was getting bored I finally stood up and told the Chief it was a pleasure meeting him. He told me Cpl, the pleasure was all mine and he asked who I had served with. He told me he had heard of us, we had quite the reputation; though he was never in I Corps, the Seals were all down in the delta. Kinda made my day to meet such a real hero in person.