That is ridiculous. The person that said that is a Public Affairs Officer (a glad hander) that came from the Coast Guard, until recently their checks were signed by the Secratary of Transportation. I don't know if the culture has changed since my time, but most of my buddies that were in the Navy, Air Force, and Marines, did not consider the Coast Guard part of the military. They were kind of like the folks that rescued people.
If you are a puke, so is he.
Oh, I am certainly a puke, no doubt about that. And now I deconstruct your best attempt at attacking the wrong person.
You're right, it is ridiculous, which is why I called it out in the first place. But you are correct, I was a "glad hander", a relatively small group of Coasties interdict migrants by shaking their hands. Oh, you meant my public affairs job (you do realize the Marine Corps has far more "glad handers"... what's the saying "Every Marine is a Glad Hander"?
I'm pretty sure all of our checks were "signed" by the Treasury (you know, where the money comes from once it is taken from the tax payer (or printed)), but if not, DOT was "signing" the checks 10 years ago, which I guess is a relatively short time.
And no, the culture hasn't changed, your friends are still wrong (of course, it would be interesting to know the percentage of your friends that did their jobs v. training).
"They were kind of like the folks that rescue people."
There we go. You got one thing right. That's actually one of the statutory (big word for "required") missions of the Coast Guard.
DevilDog said:
I guess it is not out of line to call someone a "puke" because he did not serve. I actually admire and tried to talk my daughter into the Coast Guard and my son to CGA. They have a great mission. So do we also consider the lifeguards in Atlantic City military because the pull people out of the water on a daily basis?
I am sorry if I thought the wrong person called that gentleman a puke. Please accept my apologies.
It WAS out of line to call someone a puke, but that was someone else, not me. Frankly I don't really care when people try to excuse their ignorant comments with a "I actually admire" comment.... I actually don't really care, just like I'm actually not sure your daughter or son would have made it in the Coast Guard. Agreed, they have a great mission. When Atlantic City lifeguards are serving on 110' cutters in the North Arabian Gulf (look it up on google maps) or plucking Marines of of the shores of Japanese islands, or patrolling the coast of Vietnam, or flying over Korea, or escorting vessels in the Atlantic, or attacking Spanish ships in the Carib, or British ships off the U.S. coast in 1812..... well then MAYBE we can consider the lifeguards of Atlantic City to be "the military"... but maybe they'll also need a little something like 14 USC 1.
So please, if you're going to apologize, or make fun of a service AT LEAST TRY to sound smart doing it. I realize I didn't include pictures in my first post, but most of this stuff should be pretty clear.