Contact. Wait out. #44. Out of the Loop.

Contact. Wait out. #44. Out of the Loop.

Not so long back I tried to add myself to some of the other battalion groups around Facebook. I wanted to get hold of a video that I was in for a very brief moment and I'd heard that another company had it on their page. I joined their page and figured I'd join some old timer pages too.

I came across one such page and the rule for joining was that I had to prove who I was by explaining my military history. Fair enough. I gave a little detail, and the owner of the page wrote back and asked for a bit more. He wanted to know which company I was in.

A little while before this, my battalion changed from using letters before the company moniker to using numbers. When I told the veteran that I was from number 1 Company, he blew his top. He accused me of being a Walt (liar) and educated me to the fact that battalions always used letters and never numbers, and that because I'd failed at lying so badly, that he was going to send my details to every other page moderator he could find, on all the other veteran pages, so that they also knew I was a Walt.

I was going to try and explain his mistake to him but life is too short. Instead, I just left it. He'll figure it out one day. The story reminds me of all the old keyboard warriors that lurk around the internet who give other veterans a bad name. These guys look down on just about every achievement that the modern soldier has and they try to belittle it. We get it. Life was hard when you were in and we've got it easier. The trouble is that we don't care. We're too busy trying to get by to attempt to explain to you that everything is relative. Your achievements are no better than ours and ours are no better than yours. They're just different. Everybody plays the role asked of them, even the women, even the REMFs, even the R.A.F. Regt, so let's all respect that fact. We're supposed to be on the same side right?