Who said I had any valor?

Whenever I tell people that I'm a veteran on the internet I'm attacked. I'm told that I'm not a real veteran; "Stolen valor!" is the usual cry. I'm told that if I am a veteran then I'm definitely not an infantryman because infantryman aren't black. I'm told that I'm not a hero.

Let's do this backwards, shall we?

Firstly, I've never claimed to be a hero. I'm a veteran, sure, but not a hero. Have I done things that people might deem "heroic"? Sure. I've got some medals. Lots of veterans do. That doesn't make me a hero and I would never claim that it did. It's a cliché for a reason; All the heroes I know are dead. A hero throws himself on a grenade to protect his squad, steps in front of a bullet for a friend, charges towards a vehicle-born improvised explosive device to save the men at his checkpoint. Plenty of those to laud and applaud. I'm not among their number. I did none of those things. I am not a hero.

Second, while it's true that black men are under represented in the infantry and, indeed, across the board within US military combat arms positions, we do exist. Black infantryman aren't fucking unicorns for Christ's sake. One in five soldiers in the US Army are black and 22% of that number are combat arms. So, of around half a million soldiers, one in five is black and, of that one hundred thousand, one in five is combat arms. 20,000 soldiers. How unlikely is it that I'm one of those soldiers? Are these impossible odds? I think not.

Third, "Stolen valor!". This comes up usually because of my reluctance to post pictures of myself on social media. The amusing thing about this is that it's almost always invoked by people that would use my personal information to hurt me in some way. Really, in any way that they can. These pigs, these swine, will no doubt use any personal information that I post on Twitter or any other social media to track me down and harass me. Not just me, of course, but the people that I love and that look to me to keep them safe. So what do I do? Bow to my ego, post pictures of myself, and put my loved ones at risk so that people won't call me names on the internet? I think fucking not. Having "Stolen valor!" screamed at me over twitter is the absolute least of my worries. Having someone attack my family on Facebook, at best, or in the street, at worst, is a much more concrete concern. These people are certifiably insane. I would never subject those that i care about to the abuses that they'd wish to perpetrate. Call me all the fucking names you want, I can take it, but you will never get to my people. That's a level of the game that no one wants to take it to with me. This I can promise you. Some would call me a feral, an animal, and a savage. Trust your own assessment. Maybe I am all of those things and, if that's the case, then you should not attempt to corner me.

I'll continue to say that I'm a veteran, because I am, and they'll continue to attack me. It's ok by me. I can hack it. I used to load my weapons and fight terrorists for my country; fascist swine on the internet doesn't scare me. These days my weapons are my words, and the terrorists domestic, but the fight is the same. I'm ready for it.

Read the name of the fucking blog, man.

I'm ready for a dirty game.