I don't believe you speak for most military types, or at the very least not the ones who frequent these message boards. I have frequented boards such as NCIS, JAG, movies with military themes and so forth, and most of the posts I see indicate that the smaller mistakes bother the majority of veterans more than your post would have me believe, hence my use of the word "vent."
And just how sure are you that the ones getting to them are actually smaller mistakes and not actually major mistakes?
I know first hand about being accused of ranting and griping about small, minor,inconsequential mistakes that are not. That are actually huge assed mistakes,but the ones dismissing them as minor are and were clueless of them even being mistakes at all (which is why they presume them to be minor)
Also... how do you know that those that ARE ranting on actual small mistakes really are military and not poser wannabes which are in high abundance? Grondig66, ConundrumNSA to name but two off the top of my head.
I will repeat... Most people are not in a position to differentiate minor from major military mistakes but the military (and a few nonmilitary that either grew up around the military or very well read/studied).
To these people...any mistake the are able to spot is a major mistake. Any mistake the cannot spot must be minor to them otherwise they would have spotted it (in their eyes)
Again... most of us ACTUAL military could care less about minor mistakes. Yes, we will point them out...more as a game,rather than a rant. But serious mistakes we WILL bust on.
For the most part... Most of those trashing for minor mistakes are not going to be military. They're merely riding the military's coattails.
And no offense.... But I kinda doubt that you are in a position to determine what is or isn't a minor/major military mistake or who is/isn't military based on little more than their say so.
I joined the Navy to see the world, only to discover the world is 2/3 water!
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Skvoznyak
9 years ago
I was basing my examples on yours, especially the ribbon example (the most recent one I saw was absolute outrage over the Army of Occupation ribbon being upside down). My point was that small or large, a lot of them are going to vent. True, some of them may be convincing (at least to us non-vets) wannabes who never served, but I see a fair amount of outrage on stuff you've called minor.
And while most of us have never served, there are some things that we're going to catch that you might not expect us to (indoor salutes when not called on the carpet, a Private First Class wearing PV2 stripes, an E-5 being "reduced" to E-5 at her pre-trial JAG hearing, and so on. Not having served doesn't mean total ignorance, so I'm afraid I can't bank on your general rule any more than I can bank on your "most of us" without having access to a military personnel database.
And no offense, but I kinda doubt you knew what examples I had in mind when I typed up my post, but we both know that you yourself classified incorrect ribbon wear as a minor mistake and that was one of the glaring ones I was thinking of at the time. I appreciate all the answers that you've given me, but it wouldn't have been the worst thing if you had asked what I had in mind instead of talking down to me with your last one.
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