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Posted: 3/3/2011 2:52:46 AM EDT
What do you say when people ask you what it's like to kill a man?
I get asked this all the time, usually by kids. I usually just walk away but my buddy likes to mess with people, "It felt pretty good to slaughter that village but the kids wouldn't STFU so I'm really mean to them" etc Is what he usually says. |
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Most that answer it would be lying since the vast majority of Soldiers have not had a man in their sights. A lot have fired at people but to say you have killed a man would mean a certain level of attention and control was needed to confirm that your threat was eliminated. I personnaly would not answer it and would find it a bit offensive for soemone to expect me to have to relive it for their satisfaction.
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Seriously? You're asking this in GD? You're going to get about 50 chest thumping responses from well trained civilians telling you that what they felt when they killed their last Taliban was "recoil". You're going to be completely ignored by your target audience, and ridiculed by others. Why would you ask such an inane question when you could have it answered honestly here:
http://www.ar15.com/forums/forum.html?b=11&f=1 |
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I had a high school teacher that told the class about the first time he killed a guy in Vietnam in great detail. It was intense and riveting. I guess he did it every year for every class.
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I tell them if they really want to know then they should join up and go Infantry
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I was on a mortar team by pure accident that Smoked some guys. That's one of those group absolution things. There are a number on here that have legitimate kills. Most probably wouldn't say anything to that kind of question. I do like to screw with people when they ask though I usually tellem it's fun but sometimes you just wish theyed stop screaming. That or you don't like it cuz every looks at you funny when you get a hard on.
People that ask that are idiots and deserve fucked up responses. |
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I was on a mortar team by pure accident that Smoked some guys. That's one of those group absolution things. There are a number on here that have legitimate kills. Most probably wouldn't say anything to that kind of question. I do like to screw with people when they ask though I usually tellem it's fun but sometimes you just wish theyed stop screaming. That or you don't like it cuz every looks at you funny when you get a hard on. People that ask that are idiots and deserve fucked up responses. I completely and totally agree. |
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I had a guy at a resort ask (my wife broke opsec and told him I was Army, thanks Honey). I told him if he wanted to know so bad he should enlist.
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I had a guy at a resort ask (my wife broke opsec and told him I was Army, thanks Honey). I told him if he wanted to know so bad he should enlist. Hate when my friends do that. STFU, if I want people to know I'll tell them. |
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Every time i hear someone ask that to a combat vet i want to smack the shit out of them. Maybe not an 8 year old, but if you are a teenager or older, you should have enough decency to MYOB.
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On telling kids: for me, half the fun of being a veteran is the embellished war stories and sometimes flat-out bullcrap lies I get to tell to the young ones. Adults/teens: I neither confirm nor deny (opsec?). I think it’s better to let their imagination run free.
ETA: No kills. Wrench monkey/driver/some intel missions |
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I never killed anyone. Never had the opportunity or reason to. I hurt somebody's feelings one time, though.
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I no longer talk about what I did any more. If they dont already know me then I dont tell them that I war in the Army. That way I dont have to answer any questions. Makes things easier for me.
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I never killed anyone. Never had the opportunity or reason to. I hurt somebody's feelings one time, though. I have used this line once or twice with my civie buddies from back home. I love that movie. |
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I had a guy at a resort ask (my wife broke opsec and told him I was Army, thanks Honey). I told him if he wanted to know so bad he should enlist. Hate when my friends do that. STFU, if I want people to know I'll tell them. Truth. To make it worse, this was in the Caribbean, not US soil, and the dude was Canadian. My wife had already been told not to mention my service. Afterward, I won the only fight with her I'll ever win. |
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It doesn't bother me. I'm only ever asked by young kids and they don't know any better. I was also asked by my best friend and ARF member, but I can't be mad about that, because our conversations are like a day in GD anyways.
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Never been asked this question Come to Fort Hood. I get asked this question atleast once a week. |
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I never killed anyone. Never had the opportunity or reason to. I hurt somebody's feelings one time, though. I have used this line once or twice with my civie buddies from back home. I love that movie. What movie is it from? I wanna say Way of The Gun. |
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I have never been asked what it is like to kill someone, though I have been asked if I have killed someone. She was cute and it was a first date so I went easy on her and told her that is not a question you should ask.
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random person:
Have you ever killed anyone??? Me in Arnold voice:
Yez but ze were all bad My typical response. Eta: my other favorite response is: Its been two whole weeks since I kilt me a man, startin to get the itch.
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Quoted: I had a high school teacher that told the class about the first time he killed a guy in Vietnam in great detail. It was intense and riveting. I guess he did it every year for every class. Fear's a helluva motivator, hun. |
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I never killed anyone. Never had the opportunity or reason to. I hurt somebody's feelings one time, though. I have used this line once or twice with my civie buddies from back home. I love that movie. What movie is it from? I wanna say Way of The Gun. Ronin |
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I never killed anyone. Never had the opportunity or reason to. I hurt somebody's feelings one time, though. I have used this line once or twice with my civie buddies from back home. I love that movie. What movie is it from? I wanna say Way of The Gun. Ronin |
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I just say I don't know because other people in my unit were shooting at the same person or same area
I always feel uncomfortable when asked. It's a stupid fucking question, at least when an adult asks. A kid doesn't really know better. |
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Being Air Force I don't have that problem. Usually they ask me what type of plane I fly. That often happened while wearing SSgt
stripes. |
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I dont have anything bad on my concience as I only find the bad guys and pass of a 10 digit grid to either the HIMARS guys or a Cobra or a Hornet, or the Arty battery. We track em they whack em.
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I've been asked a bunch as I have time in multiple branches (still reserve) and am a full time cop, with all 14 years of that in the inner city or undercover in one of America's 20 largest cities. I've been to Iraq twice and both times qualified for the branch appropriate combat award. Most of the times I was asked were from young kids, but some were from adults.
I usually ask the adults if it matters. They have all gotten flustered and that was the end of it. I ask the kids, "Why doesn't anyone ever ask me if I've saved someone's life?" and then launch into one of the stories––age appropriate, of course–– in which I did save a life. |
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Quoted: Being Air Force I don't have that problem. Usually they ask me what type of plane I fly. That often happened while wearing SSgt stripes. Well? Out with it man! What kind of plane do you fly? Oh and I killed a 6 pack just to watch it die. |
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Maybe they think you are a Cypress Hill fan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1cTYTkWqGI I've had people ask me that stupid question. I'm not combat arms. The RATM version is better, IMHO |
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My boss (former Marine) has killed a few in his multiple tours over seas. He will never utter a word about it, ever. I know better than to even ask, it's not something that one should ask anyhow. My Co-Worker asked him how many people he had killed. I gave him a nasty look and said "you fucking idiot" my boss just looked at him and walked away.
Of course the other guy just didn't get it. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I never killed anyone. Never had the opportunity or reason to. I hurt somebody's feelings one time, though. I have used this line once or twice with my civie buddies from back home. I love that movie. What movie is it from? I wanna say Way of The Gun. Ronin. ETA: Wow, alot of posts between me opening this thread and responding. |
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My state is weird. The senior leadership brought up a retired general who fought in vietnam to kinda give a pep-talk.
Like most guard, most of our senior leaders have no combat experience and some have no deployment experience. Just the way it is. Anyway, so they bring this guy up who has about 100 combat medals from Air Medal with V to DSC. He was a pilot in vietnam, so my state (which is pilot heavy) thought he was going to talk about flying. Nope, he talks about killing. How his two regrets in life were that he "Didn't bang more hot chicks (note, his wife was there with him) and didn't kill more dinks!" He talks about taking different guns with him on missions so he could kill people with as many different guns as possible and his disappointment in strangling a guy and never getting his knife kill when he had the chance. He was a qualified pilot, but served on the ground in aero scouts (Doc Bahnson is the guys name) You should have seen the uncomfortable shifts in the room. (GOs and Colonels. I was there as a the junior guy just pinning LTC) I had just gotten back from deployment. Towards the end he asked, "Who here has deployed" about 70% raised their hands. "Who has their CIB?" Couple of us "Who here has killed." Just me with my hand up and 30 guys who outrank me staring at me. he ends with "Well, at least there is one killer out there" End of speech. awkward, but funny as fuck. We still email each other. His sig line is "Fight Fiercely" or FF on text. quite a character. |
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Being Air Force I don't have that problem. Usually they ask me what type of plane I fly. That often happened while wearing SSgt stripes. This. I get asked what plane I fly constantly. Enlisted pilots... HA! |
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I had a high school teacher that told the class about the first time he killed a guy in Vietnam in great detail. It was intense and riveting. I guess he did it every year for every class. In my experience, the type of guy who would do that- share in great detail something like that with that sort of audience- is probably not being honest about it. YMMV |
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Every enlisted Air Force member should be given their own plane.
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Quoted: If they could, they would.Every enlisted Air Force member should be given their own plane. and not no cheap turbo prop, either. I'm talking gen 5, stealthy, thrust vectoring air show capable. failure to do so would show a lack of strategic vision on the part of the nations leadership. You want to be a strategic thinker, don't you? |
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Quoted: Knock it off! Quoted: If they could, they would.Every enlisted Air Force member should be given their own plane. and not no cheap turbo prop, either. I'm talking gen 5, stealthy, thrust vectoring air show capable. failure to do so would show a lack of strategic vision on the part of the nations leadership. You want to be a strategic thinker, don't you? |
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Every enlisted Air Force member should be given their own plane. I'll take an A-10, please. |
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Quoted: sorry.Quoted: Knock it off! Quoted: If they could, they would.Every enlisted Air Force member should be given their own plane. and not no cheap turbo prop, either. I'm talking gen 5, stealthy, thrust vectoring air show capable. failure to do so would show a lack of strategic vision on the part of the nations leadership. You want to be a strategic thinker, don't you? I'm grumpy. Too much shit going on, most of it self inflicted. |
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Quoted: Venting is a good thing. Quoted: sorry.Quoted: Knock it off! Quoted: If they could, they would.Every enlisted Air Force member should be given their own plane. and not no cheap turbo prop, either. I'm talking gen 5, stealthy, thrust vectoring air show capable. failure to do so would show a lack of strategic vision on the part of the nations leadership. You want to be a strategic thinker, don't you? I'm grumpy. Too much shit going on, most of it self inflicted. |
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Quoted: random person: Have you ever killed anyone??? Me in Arnold voice: Yez but ze were all bad My typical response. Eta: my other favorite response is: Its been two whole weeks since I kilt me a man, startin to get the itch. "It's not ME! Why does everybody think it's personal? ... If I show up at your door, chances are you did something to bring me there." |
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My Dad (Vietnam 68-69) was only asked once that I saw and that was a kid of maybe 9 or 10. He said "he was trying to kill me and I just wanted to go home." On the lighter side, he was talking about Thanksgiving meal in the field and told this kid that some one was shooting near him but he just sat there and ate. The kid says "where they like a couple hundred yards away?" "No the bullets were landing just a few feet away but he couldn't hit anything and I hadn't eaten a hot meal in a long time."
And in my 33 years on this earth that is pretty much the most I have ever heard him talk about it. |
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Quoted: Quoted: I had a high school teacher that told the class about the first time he killed a guy in Vietnam in great detail. It was intense and riveting. I guess he did it every year for every class. In my experience, the type of guy who would do that- share in great detail something like that with that sort of audience- is probably not being honest about it. YMMV Certainly could be the case. No way to know. It has stuck with me all these years though. He was a rhetoric teacher and he certainly had a way with words. |
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I've been asked that question a few times and all I did in the war was guard some airfields and dodge the random mortar or stray rounds coming from who knows where. I have a few stock lines when some numbnut asks, "Only when someone took the last chicken patty." or, "Only on the 360.". I'm Air Force, why would somebody even have to ask?
I think the best way I ever saw the question handled was by one of my teachers who was a WW2 vet when some stupid kid asked the question. He got all quiet and started with, "During the Bulge, we were surrounded". Then he goes into a whole story about how the Germans threw everything at them and how bad the action was. Then he gets up to the climax and pauses, then a kid asks, "What happened next?" and the teacher replied, "Well I got killed." I just wish people would just leave well enough alone, the guys who saw real action won't say anything and the bullshitters will just weave a tapestry of lies. Either way, no one comes out ahead. |
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Venting is a good thing.
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sorry.
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Knock it off!
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If they could, they would.
Every enlisted Air Force member should be given their own plane. and not no cheap turbo prop, either. I'm talking gen 5, stealthy, thrust vectoring air show capable. failure to do so would show a lack of strategic vision on the part of the nations leadership. You want to be a strategic thinker, don't you? I'm grumpy. Too much shit going on, most of it self inflicted. Nothing releives stress quite like creating a 100+ page brief-in powerpoint. |
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