People are capable of severe stupidity all over the world, it does not end with the services or the bike world for that matter.
Old Jack used to say there are two types of people in this world those who do and those who wish they did !
We all know that they are out there, but I still laugh at myself for finding it strange that people are like that.
I assume that these type of people who claim to be something they are not is because they are either intimidated by
those around them who have lived life or done the things they regret having not done.
I read a lot of books about the Vietnam war and the sixties, it is a period of history that goes hand in hand with the chopper/hippy thing and it also had the best music, but it seems to me with this particular conflict that for a long time Vets were frowned upon because of the political turmoil during that time and for a long time afterward. When the vets finally got accepted with the Veterans march, the wall etc. it suddenly became acceptable to be a vet and then it became cool and all sorts of people were claiming to be vets some with a very small link and some with no links at all. It is just human nature I suppose that for whatever reason guilt that they did not act or just wanting to belong cause them to act the way they do.
Take for example these guys wearing the sons of anarchy cuts and forming "support" clubs, they need to belong and want the world to look at them and think they are real 1%ers, same kinda thing...I think.
Just to give you a giggle and not be to heavy, the night after my wedding back in the dark ages, we were having a session for just the bikers after family had gone home and a lot of drink was consumed. My good friend Paul had been at Cadwell race school in England the week before and told all about the day, and how it had helped his road skills on the bike. He told us a funny story about a chap crashing because the breaking point he picked turned out to be a hedgehog and it kept moving toward the corner and eventually the bloke could not brake enough for the corner and off the track he went. All very funny, we laughed at the poor chaps unfortunate luck, however half an hour later another man we knew, he had a bike but never used it and hung around with us all the time going everywhere in his car but was useful, preceded to tell Paul's story right back to him....we laughed so hard and he got such a hard time about it that was the last we saw of him for a long time.
For vets of any conflict I think there will always be those who will claim to have been there when they were not and no matter what way you look at it it is disrespectful but I think they are to be pitied to a certain extent because their own lives must be so empty that they have to pretend to be something that they are not.
Be good!
Dyna you have a wonderful way with words that capativate your readers.
.....
) to risk everything for this great country, were removed from the fullfillment of their potential and the positive influence they would have had on so many, by that very service and sacrifice. And, as ironic as any novel, the very people who shirked their duty and subscribe to a lesser existence for the good of the communal "group" survived to rise to power over the people they loath for their sense of duty. We who served and serve to defend our freedoms were and are unable to decide what those freedoms are. That's done in Legislature and is where the power to preserve is just as fundemental as holding the rifle steady at the enemy of freedom. What so many could not take from us by force, a few are able to do with the sway of votes. That's where the battle is forming up......we need those volunteers, but also need the education in civics that fxrdude wrote of to ensure our youth understand where ALL battlelines are. 
