Last night I went out to have a cigar and somehow ended up sitting next to another “Marine.”

At least that’s what I was told.

Parris Island? Check.

What was your MOS? Didn’t know what MOS meant.

What platoon? Couldn’t remember.

What unit? Things started getting fuzzy.

Then came infantry, Guam, MP, Kuwait and somehow retiring as an E-8 after roughly seven years.

And the deeper the conversation went, the less the story made sense.

The funny thing is, this isn’t even the first time I’ve encountered this. Last year I met another supposed Marine who told me he was a Major stationed at Camp Pendleton—but couldn’t tell me where because he was apparently “black ops.” He also claimed he never went through the normal Marine officer accession pipeline.

So this week on The Field Op Podcast, we’re talking about stolen valor.

Why do people pretend to have served?

Why do some veterans exaggerate the service they actually had?

What does the law really consider stolen valor?

And what are you actually taking when you claim a title, rank, deployment, medal or military experience you never earned?

You don’t have to be a Marine for me to respect you.

You don’t have to be a veteran.

Just don’t pretend to be something you’re not.

Because you can memorize a few stories.

You can buy the shirt.

You can learn a couple of phrases.

But you can’t fake the brotherhood.

The Field Op Links:

https://linktr.ee/thefieldop

#TheFieldOpPodcast #StolenValor #USMC #Marines #MarineCorps #Veterans #VeteranCommunity #Military #MilitaryLife #MilitaryVeteran #SemperFi #VeteranPodcast #MilitaryPodcast #VeteranStories #EarnedNotGiven