Master Gunnery Sergeant James Wesley Bolden
My inbox has been filling up with this guy whose picture was taken by DeAngelo Williams apparently a running back for the Carolina Panthers (yeah, I had to look that up – if they didn’t play football forty years ago, I don’t know them). He saw what he thought was a Marine and gave up his seat to the guy. I commend Mr. Williams for the unsolicited act of kindness that he apparently extends to all service members, but I don’t think this guy is legit (turns out that I was wrong);
Aside from wearing his cover inside, I’m pretty sure the gloves look goofy in an airport setting. Unless he’s doing latrine inspections while he waits.
But apparently, someone caught up with him in the Philippines recently and found him completely FOS.
Folks say that his awards are out of out of order and that Marines don’t wear their weapons qual badge with full-sized medals. But, even I know the badge doesn’t go on the right side. But without even a last name, we won’t find out his identity and get his records. So, he just goes in the dumbass column for the time being.
You have to admit that’s an awful lot of money to spend on scamming folks, though. It shows real commitment to the lie.
I want to reiterate that this is not to demean Mr. Williams’ good intentions, and I hope the whole experience doesn’t taint the good deeds that he claims that he does for other real veterans. But that’s why we do what we do here.
A better picture;
UPDATE: Our friends at Guardian of Valor got his records and it seems that James Wesley Bolden did serve and he was the rank that he said he was. His records don’t show a Bronze Star or Purple Heart, though. Here is his FOIA;
There is more about his records at GoV. Yes, we doubted his service, but he certainly gave us reason to doubt it the way he was presenting himself and from eye witness accounts. We have been harder on phonies for less than a BSM and a PH, but the dude has problems, so I’ll just leave it here.
Category: Dumbass Bullshit
Scammer Scumbag eruption…and it’s only Tuesday…
What do people expect to happen when they just give shit away based upon appearance to make themselves feel good?
Anyone wearing military uniform outside of their official duty is immediately suspect in my view, whether it’s a phony looking for a handout or a real service member looking for a handout.
..And what’s with large medals while travelling? Maybe he’s expecting a change of command to break out en route.
Yup. Large medals = alphas, which are not worn for anything other than official functions. You also don’t wear badges with alphas. If you want to wear your dress blues on liberty or leave, you wear bravos, with ribbons and badges rather than medals. Oh, and as a master guns he would have two shooting badges, one rifle and one pistol. And, of course, a Marine would never, ever mosey around indoors wearing his cover unless he were also wearing a duty belt.
Oh, and no military alignment on his belt, either.
You can wear badges on alpha. Most do considering it’s the check into your unit uniform.
aka
Check out my dick, you new guys.
Disregard. I’m talking about service alphas while you’re talking about dress blue alpha.
Rah.
“Expecting a change of command to break out en route” HAH! Funny Stuff!
I don’t know a whole lot about USMC uniform regulations, but I’m fairly sure that dress blues are not authorized for flying commercial.
Being a SoCal native, every time I’ve flown I’ve shared the plane with at least one or two Marines. They are recognizable by their high&tights, not by the *civilian* clothes they wear on the plane. Don’t they have to be on official business to wear any kind of uniform?
You’re partly correct. Marines may not wear dress blue alphas or utilities while on liberty or leave. They may wear any service uniform (you would recognize them as the green and khaki uniforms) or dress blue bravo/charlie/delta. Bravos, like alphas, include the famous dress blue blouse, but with ribbons and badges rather than medals. Charlies are the dress blue trousers and white cover with the long sleeve khaki shirt and tie, deltas with the short sleeve khaki shirt.
Nobody legit flies in blues. In fact flying in uniform is almost exclusively done in the service alpha uniform because they are on official business such as checking into a new unit.
Marines aren’t even issued a dress blue alpha coat because it’s never a required uniform to wear except for a few special billets.
I’m just glad the utility uniform isn’t allowed to be worn off base. Seeing so many airmen and army soldiers laying on the floor while in utilities in airports makes me want to kick them in the ass for looking like bums.
I thought dress blues were issued in full now. (MARADMIN 504/07)
Dress Blue Jacket is now an issued and required uniform item.
No shit? Jeez, I had to pay at least $200 for mine when you include the cost of tailoring and getting all the anodized brass!
He and Tiemann (The Round Marine) need to do a get-free-s**t tour together.
Also want to point out, he would be wearing his seasonal dress white trousers, not the blue trousers.
Rerun,
Iv’e been out a while, but I always thought that the dress white trousers were not a standard issue to anyone but the band. Occasionaly a commander could have them designated as the trousers for a certain function, but they weren’t seasonal.
I actually never knew a single Marine that wore them.
Old Dog,
The white dress trousers are now a required uniform item for SNCO’s and Officers. They fall in the same seasonal pattern as the Service “C” uniform.
Thanks for making me feel ancient.
I just submitted you in for SNCO of the quarter.
What a locked on Marine!
Yeah, I am pretty awesome.
uumm let’s see,No SNCO dress White trousers,is that a officer’s EGA on his cover? Cover on indoors wtf? Is that a shooting medal again wtf?Hard to make out his rack but fuck me he is all fucked up.
He was in the Phillipines?
Maybe a Nigerian scammer actually did use those tickets that some lady sent him to fly and see her.
LMAO! He must be quite a sight running around the PI in his dress uniform!
Reminds me of a shipmate who used to joke (at least I think so!) that when he retired he was going to move to the PI and set up a pizza kiosk on the corner of Magsaysay and Gordon in Olongapo. And he was going to wear his choker whites all…the…time.
Was he a visionary?
I know zilch about Marine uniform regulations, but I don’t believe that rolling the excess length of the belt into a little ball and tucking it in behind the buckle is proper. I thought the excess length was tailored to fit. Someone please correct me if i’m wrong.
Marine belts on the dress blues are cut to the proper length and aren’t permanently attached to the buckle and clasp.
They have the loose ends trimmed and use “keepers” to maintain them in place.
I can’t recall the exact tolerance for the overlap of the keepers but you didn’t walk arount with extra material the size of John Holme’s dick flopping around like Shorty Shitstains there.
Yet another fine example why civilians should stop giving things to veterans. Veterans are not victims, offer me a seat no thanks I will pay for my own.
Great point.