What to do with a Walt?
Not wishing to create a small amount of thread drift, but at least Charles has served in the Forces, will one day be CINC, knows how to behave and takes his job seriously. Moreover he doesn't wear campaign medals and the honorifics 'go with the territory'. New Zealand decided to award him the 'Austin Powers' QSO petal-shaped medal in the early 1980s - the one with the zig-zag ribbon. Now it is simply not the done thing to refuse a medal (ironically bestowed by the Vice Regal) from a loyal Commonwealth member. Who would want to be a Walt when you are Prince of Wales, married to Camilla and have two sons serving in (your) Forces? (some hint of irony)!
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Spare a thought for Walt
Before you go down the public humiliation route please take time out and think why Walt may be acting the way he is. If he is suffering a mental illness ... and I know of plenty ex combatants that are ... your actions will cause more harm than good.
I suggest you do your homework, make sure you get your facts straight and have a quiet word in his shell like.
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IMO
Ex-Combatants tend to have real medals and stories that they are usually unwilling to share with people that do not understand (such as wives/girlfriends/best civvy mate)
Walts should be humiliated as soon as possible! They do the Armed Forces immeasurable damage with their lies!
Walts should be humiliated as soon as possible! They do the Armed Forces immeasurable damage with their lies!
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I knew one Walt who, to different people, was reportedly the youngest RN captain "of a Corvette" supporting the D-Day landings as well as being an RAF transport aircraft captain on the Berlin Air Lift. In addition he was, amongst a list of other impressive post-nominals we didn't bother to check out, a Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers -who by some unfortunate oversight had never heard of him.
What was true was that at the time he was the Group Managing Director of a well known set of UK listed companies.
What was true was that at the time he was the Group Managing Director of a well known set of UK listed companies.
Last edited by RETDPI; 29th Nov 2006 at 07:15.
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Remember this one from the Summer.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm...name_page.html
I recall at the time of the trial, he was the yongest to set sail with the Task Force, being 2 years old at the time of conflict
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm...name_page.html
I recall at the time of the trial, he was the yongest to set sail with the Task Force, being 2 years old at the time of conflict
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I think a beasting is a bit harsh.
Before you go down the public humiliation route please take time out and think why Walt may be acting the way he is. If he is suffering a mental illness ... and I know of plenty ex combatants that are ... your actions will cause more harm than good.
Before you go down the public humiliation route please take time out and think why Walt may be acting the way he is. If he is suffering a mental illness ... and I know of plenty ex combatants that are ... your actions will cause more harm than good.
I have no sympathy with people that lie about their life. If they can't be arsed to do something special or be someone decent then they don't deserve to pretend to be someone that did.
It's like these re-enactment bunch, dressing up as US GI's and poncing around in jeeps at the weekend. Grow up and join the real army. My Nephew does it and whenever he trys to talk about it I just change the subject, it's embarrasing.
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Sorry Brick, I don't think the 690ESW was within Scud range at Templehof! (or FSB) The Pizzas there were great though 
He was embarrassed to get the Occupation of Germany medal a little earlier - apparently that technically made him a vet of WWII??
He was embarrassed to get the Occupation of Germany medal a little earlier - apparently that technically made him a vet of WWII??
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Yes, I remember that one, Mary. I suppose my current problem and that one pale into insignificance compared to Capt Sir Alan McIlwraith KBE DSO MC 
Looks like he'd have a hard job fighting his way out of a chip-poke!
Looks like he'd have a hard job fighting his way out of a chip-poke!
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What about the chimp who conned his way to an OBE or MBE during the summer? Wasn't he an 'officer' in the VR (T) and made the effort to big himself up at every opportunity, whilst raking in the cash from bogus charity work.
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About five years ago not long after starting a new job as an assistant manager in a pub in darkest scumtown, some guy came in claiming to be ex army raising money for the kid of one of his army mates who had leukemia or something similar. The guy seemed genuine, and wanting to make as impression in my new job, I badgered the owner into having a charity night for the guy. We had donations at the door and planned to raffle off all the promotional bumf that was cluttering up the celler. On the night this character arrives in uniform weighed down by a truly stagering amount of gongs, and goes about thanking everybody for turning up etc. As the night goes on the stories start getting wilder and wilder (knowing nothing about the military I put it down to a few too many shandies). Shortly before closing four of Strathclydes finest burst in the door and walk through the bar taking a good look at all the customers. While im dealing with them (unrelated matter) said character aparently goes chalk white and goes for a cool sharp harp, never to be seen again.
Think the guy was at it. Certainly made me look like a right
with all the customers and the owner. If the police hadnt have come in when they did the guy would have walked away with the best part of £600 and nobody would have been any the wiser. As a result the owner, who was not the most charatable at the best of times, now blanks any kind of charity approaches.
On a lighter note, in the summer i met a guy working as a security guard in a bank who kept us all amused with stories about his service in Iraq with the TA SAS. Won a medal for his part in a covert mission that involved him hand peeling 80,000 spuds in just one day. Why? "Cant tell you that. National security".!
Think the guy was at it. Certainly made me look like a right
with all the customers and the owner. If the police hadnt have come in when they did the guy would have walked away with the best part of £600 and nobody would have been any the wiser. As a result the owner, who was not the most charatable at the best of times, now blanks any kind of charity approaches.On a lighter note, in the summer i met a guy working as a security guard in a bank who kept us all amused with stories about his service in Iraq with the TA SAS. Won a medal for his part in a covert mission that involved him hand peeling 80,000 spuds in just one day. Why? "Cant tell you that. National security".!
After GW1 I spent some time playing a small "Token Brit" walk-on part on a certain well known base in Southern Turkey.
Bored one day , I took up an invitation to go tanking with the Americans and spent a happy few hours,orbiting over the mountains, lying next to the Boomer and watching the operations.
There were a number of others on board who were spread about the aircraft , displaying a total lack of any interest in proceedings.
After touchdown, said bunch of itinerants headed for the flight deck , where I could see much signing of paperwork in progress.
They had just qualified for their Air Combat medals.
Bored one day , I took up an invitation to go tanking with the Americans and spent a happy few hours,orbiting over the mountains, lying next to the Boomer and watching the operations.
There were a number of others on board who were spread about the aircraft , displaying a total lack of any interest in proceedings.
After touchdown, said bunch of itinerants headed for the flight deck , where I could see much signing of paperwork in progress.
They had just qualified for their Air Combat medals.
The problem with a Walt is when people believe him and he ends up in a position of responsibility. Ernest Gann tells of one who beacme a management pilot in a airline he flew for. Although this pilot was the capatin of a DC6, when Mr Gann did his line check it was quite clear that the chap had no more flying skills than a new PPL. He left that airline, went to another and crashed - killing all on board. Obviously there is an element of fraud involved in this which is way above a Walt spinning a few yarns in the pub. But if a Walt prepared to lie about that, what else is he capable of?
Outing is th best policy.
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Are Walts a danger?
Although many impersonators are just deluded by their own sense of inadequacy, there seems to be a worrying and quite unhealthy link between Walts, children and guns. I recall when I was in Air Cadets that there were two officers dismissed from my unit for 'inappropriate' behaviour. At 14 or so we - the cadets - thought these guys were great, plying us with beer, leaving copies of Playboy around etc etc. One of them claimed - though not directly - to have been in the SIS and they used to arrange for a local militaria collector - who would wear a psuedo naval uniform- to bring weapons along to informal weekend camps. This character was locked up twice for child sex offences (though not involving cadets). An illustrative example is at http://www.anzmi.net/mccarthy/mccarthy.html What you let him near your kids? Would you let them wear a hat like that??
Supporting the above poster: if they are prepared to lie about death and destruction, what else are they capable of doing?
Supporting the above poster: if they are prepared to lie about death and destruction, what else are they capable of doing?
Last edited by Cumbrian Fell; 1st Dec 2006 at 08:03. Reason: typos
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A story I heard second hand, but it is worth passing on and I really hope it is true...
Day 1 of the Airshow at a base not far south of Lincoln, a young-ish chap turns up at the gate in a passable impression of an airman's uniform and tries to get in without paying. The guards rumble him immediately, but decide to pursue the matter. A call is made to the SWO, who obligingly delivers a massive b*ll*cking to 'SAC Walt' for the standard of his shoes, his non-regulation haircut etc etc and then invites him to join a work party to sweep out one of the hangars.
Day 1 of the Airshow at a base not far south of Lincoln, a young-ish chap turns up at the gate in a passable impression of an airman's uniform and tries to get in without paying. The guards rumble him immediately, but decide to pursue the matter. A call is made to the SWO, who obligingly delivers a massive b*ll*cking to 'SAC Walt' for the standard of his shoes, his non-regulation haircut etc etc and then invites him to join a work party to sweep out one of the hangars.