I kind of get the idea he was either a non-combat guy like a driver or a clerk or cook, or maybe he was even a 4-F who never served at all and bought his jacket at a surplus store to try to impress people. I know he had his name on the pocket label, but you can have that done easily.
shareIt's like saying do you think the Uni-bomber was a PhD student at U.Michigan? Mentally ill can sometimes get through early adulthood and accomplish things, before going off the deep end. You then ask well why didn't anyone notice, why didn't he get help? It happens. Lee harvey Oswald had mental problems but he was a Marine radar tech stationed in Japan as a 20yo.
shareI wasn't even thinking about mental illness when I began to doubt his combat experience. It's more that Travis just seems like the kind of person who would lie and exaggerate his personal experiences to make himself seem more impressive. He didn't seem to know much about firearms when he was buying the guns from Easy Andy, for one thing.
shareStolen valor back then would have gotten you a beating or worse from unhinged Vietnam vets. It’s not like today where they just harangue you on camera at the mall. Back then a lot of assaults and murders went unreported/unsolved…the world wasn’t very high tech.
No Travis was a combat veteran and his increasingly unstable behavior was at least in part caused by combat stress. Most combat vets have trouble reintegrating back into the civilian world…Travis’ behavior….the isolation, the inability to communicate with people…it’s classic ptsd from combat stress.