Jon D. Showers; another phony Beirut Marine
Some Vietnam veterans sent us some work on this Jon D. Showers fellow from Reading, Pennsylvania who founded a group of Vietnam re-enactors. In some articles from the local media he claims that he was a Marine Captain and stationed in Beirut. In verbal conversations, it’s been reported that he claims to be Force Recon. Here’s a short bio from the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The picture above was taken from that article. Yeah, I noticed that the crossed rifles were on wrong, too. But he straightened that out in subsequent pictures;
And in other pictures he didn’t even mess with it;
He claims that service dog of his is descended from an actual Vietnam War service dog, you know because we all keep such meticulous records of mutts and which mutt is descended from which mutt.
Remember when soldiers in Vietnam wore Army black berets with the Army flash? Yeah, me neither. But cool picture with Wild Bill Guarnere;
Anyway, the anticlimactic upshot is that the Marine Corps, when asked about Jon D. Showers by his social security number responded “Who?”
So, I’d ask him for proof that his step-father died in Vietnam, and I’d love to see proof that his dog was descended from a dog that served in Vietnam. You don’t have to be a veteran to be a re-enactor, but, then, you should never lie about your military career ever, no matter what your job is.
But, here’s Jon and the boys in action;
Category: Phony soldiers
Yeah, nothing says “credibility” like a guy claiming to be former USMC wearing a field jacket with the 82nd Airborne patch and a Ranger tab.
(sigh) “So many LSoS, so little time.”
Actually as a former Marine, I have in my possession a BDU jacket with an 82nd AA patch.
It was left in a Humvee that mysteriously turned up in our company are in Saudi Arabia back in August 1990.
If anybody knows former PFC Cool (actual name tape) formerly of the 82nd Airborne, I’d like to return his BDU jacket to him…..
I swear, what is it with the Beirut bombing and these SV types? In the past month or so, there’s been something like 4 who claimed to have been there.
Reminds me of all the guys in my field (Naval cryptologist) who claimed to have been on the hook for the USS Pueblo/USS Liberty deployments, but missed movement. A wag observed that if all of them had been on the pier that morning, said pier would have sunk under the weight.
I live in a rural town, population 7,000. I’ve met 3 former Navy Seals. They sure must like it here. The one I ran through VeraSeal was a fake as I assume the others are.
Too young/unrealistic to lie about Vietnam service, too old/unrealistic to lie about Panama/DS/DS/Somalia/OIF/OEF.
Several of those other Beirut liars had short stints of service in the 80s, in between larger conflicts.
I wonder what this sniveling glob of moldy slug snot will say next? These damn things pop up like toadstools on a lump of cowshit!
You are a true word smith.
I’ve always thought the same
I think a Nobel Prize for poetry nomination is in order
Thank-yuh, thankyuhverymuch! 😀
I’m thinking more along the line of United States Poet Laureate.
Lumpy cows hit can be a sign of abdominal distress. Oh, and yeah, the is clearly a turd of epic proportion.
Honestly, that whole “re-enactor” thing has a tinge of strange to me, especially the ones from the most recent conflicts. It ranks right up there with air soft and paint ball.
Concur.
Having said that, I’ve been involved with reenactments and living history programs for more than 40 years. But I can’t see reenacting anything where you have veterans still alive from it. Seems to close to home to me.
The most modern events I ever attended were WWI, but most were Civil War and Indian Wars period. Once you hit the era of 45-70’s and brass cartridges, it gets a little too expensive more me.
Regardless, this Showers fellow is a big time fail. I hope his fellow reenactors get wind of his lying history and fake background.
Do they reenacting fraggings? 🙂
Yeah, those 45-70 casings from Dixie Gun Works do get expensive. I made a Plains-style breastplate using 45-70 casings instead of hairpipe (based on an historic example).
They also get heavy.
What was it that Tom Horn said?
Ole Tom was a packer and tracker for Gen. Miles way before he was a “range detective.”
Considering that each projectile weighs better than an ounce (500 grain bullet, a bit over 434 grains to the ounce) – imagine carrying 180 rounds of that as opposed to the modern 5.56!
Fragging? I’m not sure about that. But keelhauling has a nice ring to it.
Oh, yeah. It’s kind of creepy actually.
Maybe if they used real bullets once they’d get whatever fix they’re looking for and not want to do it again.
He is a reenactor. By definition, reenactors have never been there, never done that.
Interestingly enough, one of the Internet search services shows a “Jon David Showers” in Reading, PA. It gives his age as 53.
That means he was born in either 1961 or 1962. That in turn means would have been all of 21 or 22 years old when Beirut went down.
A Captain in the USMC at 22 in the early 1980s? Um, as the Russian comic Yakov Smirnoff might have said: “Eye . . . don’ tink zo.”
I don’t know guys. I think he’s legit.
After looking at that video, and how he moved, I was reminded of every Recon Marine I’ve ever seen in the field.
I mean, look at the effortless, liquid smooth, and undoubtedly (swift and…) silent patrolling stride.
I mean, I’m certain the only reason I could hear him over the f*cking music was some weird youtube acoustics. Right?
😉
“Captain Doo-Rag”
82nd patch and no NDSM? Upside down crossed rifles? SJ will be pissed.
In the camp picture note the grimace on his face. He barely has the strength to lift that 60.
Another early age 50 something with a mid-life crisis who never served.
Turd
That grimace on his face when he was lifting the 60 was his “war face”…
A maggot of the highest order
Word.
This clown is stuck in fantasy land.
Just blowing in breeze….
He mostly just blows.
Jon D. “Golden” Showers.
The only thing on a Marine’s Utes collars should be his rank insignia . Joe
Showers is a rump ridin’, rectal recon ranger, 1st class with severe cases of FTS (Fractured Taint Syndrome) and Broke Dickitis.
I’m sure he has Sandinmanginitis as well!
I guess these clowns can play “war” if they want, like I did. But shit I was 6-12 years old out in the woods killing Krauts and Nips when we weren’t killing those “blood thirsty Comanches and Apaches”. They just look ridiculous in those ill fitted, wrong period, shit uniforms and holding a rifle or weapon in the “pose for mom” position. Some buy shit with unit patches who either weren’t in Vietnam or were formed afterward. I understand Civil and Revolutionary reenactments better. They happened here on our soil. Just like this guy, a lot were wannabees and either never served or never went overseas. I’ll never understand guys who served CONUS honorably, who aren’t pleased and proud of their service.
Fuck you asshole!
Captain Kickass of the Reenactor Recon Rangerz, A.K.A. scumbag lying phony poser…
Re-enactors? What the hell is wrong with these assholes?
I knew a guy was supposed to join the infantry with me and changed his mind, I find out as an old guy now he’s some re-enactor pretending to be an infantryman in some goddamn dress-up game on the weekends…
Why not just call it what it is LARP’ing for military wannabes and those who never were…silly motherfuckers putting on an old uniform and pretending to fight a battle from 60-150 years ago…to what end?
I get it if it’s a museum event…and you are teaching kids…but playing dress up on weekends? That I can’t wrap my head around under any circumstance…too much work to do around the house, the yard, or my business to be playing GI Joe dress up guy on the weekends. Seems like shit we did when we were kids…not grown men.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
It’s much more fun to dress up in Rennie gear and pretend to be a lady of the Court. And you get to see full metal jousting, too.
I agree. I think these ‘re-enactors’, who most likely never served anything but coffee, are the wannabes who wannabesomething but had no intestinal fortitude when called upon to do so.
Now you in lady of the court dress might be something I could sign up for…riding a horse and jousting could get the adrenaline pumping…so could white water rafting or some high speed country roads on a good motorcycle…
Putting up a tent and sleeping in the dirt some more to pretend to fight a battle that the side I am pretending to be on lost more than 150 years ago doesn’t seem all that exciting actually…when the script’s already know to all the participants it’s more like pro wrestling than pro football.
Shut up you homo you like dressing in ladies gear?
Actually a good bit or reenactor are current or retired military. I started reenacting when I was 15. Started out with Civil War, then moved to WW2 German and US and I was about to go to basic as a 19D but then I got into a car accident and broke my neck along with my leg and have a titanium rod from my knee to my ankle. LRRPing and reenacting are completely different. Most of the time we are setting up displays for people and Vets to come look at and first hand experience what those troops went through. I have seen these guys in action and they’re horrible and I about kicked Jon’s ass. Sometimes we have “tactical” on weekends where it’s private and no public but that is few and far between. 90% of reenactments are public events.
Nothing says ‘real deal’ like having a service dog descended from a Vietnam wardog… especially since those dogs were left behind by their handlers.
Anyone who thinks that leaving their dogs behind was fun for the handlers knows nothing about the fate of those dogs. SEAsians eat anything that has meat on its bones.
Where do I even start with this guy. He was 21 in 1983 and already made it through college and was in the Corps long enough to be promoted to Captain. Ya, that happened. Taking a stab from memory but, there were about 18 Captains who served in Beirut. Dumbass here is not on the list.
We were still garnishing cammo nets with burlap until the 80’s. The first cammo nets with the fancy plastic frilly things we ever had were stolen from Ft. Bragg by R Btry 5/10. Not that I had anything to do with it of course.
We were supposed to be getting the new nets and had no idea how to configure the things to fit our needs. So, in typical Jarhead recon we borrowed some from the 82nd during a night patrol.
Packed them in the Battalion XO’s trailer and I drove them back to Camp Lejeune. Maj David was good man, he knew exactly when to not ask questions. If it wasn’t for Ft Bragg in those days the 2nd Marine Division wouldn’t have had any gear worth using.
We spent weeks putting the damn things together in different configurations so other units could come by and marvel at the things.
Ahhh, the good ole days.
I did reenacting for close to 10 years US Civil war.
It was a blast. It gives you a slight idea of what were the uniforms tactics and what not.
Met some very good people there,, 1st class historians.I also met some head cases who tried to rewrite history, shouldn’t have had pointy sticks, drank all night and tried to screw anything that moved.
And among them there were posers like this one.
I did CW reenacting some years ago myself, it’s been a while, but I found it an interesting way to relive and teach history. I lucked out and found a good unit to go with, some of its members did very thorough research and put it toward their reenacting, I learned a lot from them. We had a few other Vets as well, one was a a VN Vet who did his time in the bush and later became an ordained Minister (our unit’s Chaplain as well), he never rattled off war stories, a sign of someone who has been there, done that, and I saw my fair share of nutjob looney-tune asswart windbags as well, we had one or two try to join our unit that got chased off in no time.
Stupid fat fingers, hit the “post” button too soon. This [Golden] Showers jackwad? FUCK him. He looks to me like one who didn’t have the balls to serve when he could have, talked shit about it, and now makes this shit up, I see it as a symptom of No Balls/Tiny Penis Syndrome, something that every poser has.
If I could, I would send people like this useless brussel sprout back in time to Beirut to the moment before the barracks was bombed, and make him stay there. That might shut him up permanently.
But what do I know?
I spent two (02) years in the old Republic of Viet Nam, i.e., 12 December 1969 until 21 February 1972, as a Field Radio Relay and Carrier Equipment Repairman (MOS 31 L 20) in the Saigon with the Phu Lam Signal Battalion of the 1st Signal Brigade, later at Dong Ha with the 178th Maintenance Company of the 1st Logistical Command, and later at Camp Eagle (Located West of QL-1 between Hue and Phu Bai).
So, watching that video made me smile.
Why?
I don’t know.
Also, I enjoy being in the woods ALL ALONE, ALL BY MYSELF, wearing my United States Army surplus full combat gear, doing lone patrols with LIVE ammunition.
No, I’m not part of any group.
I’m just me, doing what I like to do.
And, I’m not the only one.
Many years ago, I saw a television news report of a Viet Nam veteran in Nevada who was doing the same thing I was, i.e., lone foot patrols in wilderness terrain, with live ammunition.
He didn’t know why, but it made him feel better.
It’s been years since the last time I went patrolling in the woods, and I don’t know when or if I’ll do it again, any time soon.
I’ve got too many health issues and currently, too many medical appointments, which leaves me too physically exhausted and too depressed.
If I’m lucky, on an increasingly rare good day, I’ll have enough energy to pick up my guitar and sing some songs, before I convulse into acute spasms of coughing.
Mox nix.
But, that video does make me laugh, although I’m not sure why.
Anyway, I’m glad I got to be a regular soldier in the United States Army and travel to Germany, the Republic of Viet Nam, the Republic of Korea, Israel, Japan, Australia, Thailand, Ireland, Greece, and Mexico.
I’ve got some good memories.
Most anyone with a serious case of PTSD thinks and acts like you describe. Just want to be alone out in the middle of 40 acres away from the maddening crowd called civilization. Best trips to Wal Mart are around 3:00 am when few are around to distract. Now this RVN re-enactors gig is news to me. Let me guess…they do the Hamburger Hill thing out behind a McDonald’s. Me Lie is the giveaway that tells you these are some strange and needy cats. Curds and Hue are probably their meal of choice when playing war hero. Please don’t tell me these creeps like to play the role so well that they have Vietnamese actors who take a dump in the middle of a field; and later pick and eat cooties from their daughter’s hair. How are they going to re-enact the effects of some really good weed; especially watching out-going tracers dance in the middle of night? POSERS want ALl the attention they can bullshit their way through to a gullible public. Combat VETERANS, on the other hand just want to be left the hell alone!!!
the third pic of him in BDUs – he looks like the crazy MF in the old A-Team show who cameoed at the end of the movie – Dwight somebody or other?
That was Dwight Shultz.
Thank you!
“Howling Mad” Murdock.
Didn’t Hannibal have to jailbreak him out of the psycho ward everytime they flew somewhere?
Yeah.
This clown on the other hand looks like he has taken multiple experimental electrical shocks up his ass.
And probably enjoyed it.
Meatgazer.
What no dope smoking or prostitutes driving up on a moped yelling “Mee boom-boom you long time!”?
Bunch of grown men playing army in the not-so-jungle like woods.
One carton of Kools will get you boom boom long time.
Two cartons of Salems for same same.
He might be telling the truth about his dog.
True, in theory he could be.
What odds would you want before you’d bet $10 on that being true? Based on his documented record regarding being truthful, I think I’d want at least 100:1 or better.
Yeah, and I might be a clone of Frank Sinatra.
And I am a clone of Frank Stallone.
There are Vietnam re-enactment groups now?! That’s all anybody needs… *eyeroll*
I’m waiting for two of the modern re-enactment groups to run into each other in the woods, or better yet, one of the airsoft groups. The resulting carnage ought to be good for about a months’ worth of biased airhead mass media reporting!
All wrong, you don’t call them phonies any more, it isn’t PC. The term is trans-, this guy would be a trans-Beirut marine. See, doesn’t that sound nicer?
Oh geez, Smitty, don’t give ’em any ideas…
I think that you guys are being a bit harsh. It’s not his fault that the reporter transcribed his remarks incorrectly. What he actually said that he was the Captain of his Glee Club, and they toured Lebanon Pennsylvania.
I’ve done a little Civil War re-enacting. Ive always been fascinated by the war, and while there are some real losers there are also a lot of great guys who really know history. But Vietnam??? That’s just weird.
I do Vietnam reenactments and I had the pleasure of running into him once. Now, most of the guys in the group are knowledgeable and pretty cool to hang around with, but Jon is a whole ‘nother story. He rambles on and on about how he’s a captain, the U.S. Used agent orange in Lebanon, etc, etc. Meeting him almost made me want to quit the hobby.
The more I thought about it, there was just something missing in my mind when reading this story, and especially after I realized overlooking the video (which I went back and watched). What a “typical” ambush being sprung in the short film. Man, that brush sure looked like the “bush” in RVN (not!). Such realistic acting, it totally brought fresh memories of RVN back to my mind (NOT!). I was anticipating Roy Rogers showing up on his horse before the clip ended. To put it bluntly, I was UNDERWHELMED by the whole thing. Let me close with this thought….if anything, John D. Showers IMO was himself the descendant of a Chihuahua’s rectum. FYI, at the 58 second mark, notice the spit shined boots being worn. All throughout, notice the exceptionally clean uniforms being worn. Maybe a Search and Dryclean mission???
I couldn’t force myself to watch the entire video, and I think I’ve seen places in the Missouri Ozarks more jungle-like than what’s on that video!
Make that “decended from” vice “descendant of” and I’ll agree wholeheartedly, Jarhead.
This guy dearly needs a tune from Page 12 of the TAH Hymnal:
Hymn, hymn . . . f**k him.
Hymn, hymn . . . f**k him.
F**k him high,
F**k him low;
F**k him hard,
F**k him slow.
Hymn, hymn . . . F**K him.
I can’t help but wonder if this is the same “Pvt Showers” who was a recruit in D-2-1 Armor Training Brigade Ft. Knox, Jan-Apr 86′
Last I saw of that fuckstick he was being led away in cuffs due to thinking he was going to somehow take home half a belt of .50cal, several handfuls of 5.56mm and a few grenade simulators when they did a barracks sweep a few days before graduation.
What are the odds there are more than one Military screwups with that name?
I only needed one reenactment to know that Dogs of War is shit. Jon is a liar and a thief as he not only took my helmet, he took my friends knife, and he’s been lying about his service for years. He is not to be trusted and dont even think about inviting him to any of your events. He gives vietnam reenactors a bad mark and I hope that he will oneday pay for his actions. Plus, not only is he setting a bad example of vietnam reenactors, but he is also shitting on the memory of the men and women who served in Vietnam. I hope I will never have to see his face again as long as I live.
And looking upthread, ain’t that cute, Jon himself (presumably) is resurrecting a zombie thread.
They never learn. Ever.
This dude is a total shitbag ticklemonster-looking clown.
And wouldn’t you know it, Lars appears to be defending him as well.
My kids do Vietnam reenacting to honor my dad, their grandfather who is a REAL Vietnam veteran. Jon allowed my son who was a minor to drive his truck, unsupervised . My son did not have a license or permit at the time nor did he ever drive any vehicle! Jon made these young kids busy their butts while he sat and smoked his weed. He is a liar who NEVER served anywhere in the military! He is a disgrace! I don’t know how anyone allows him to do ANY event anywhere! He puts on a show until the public is no longer around then he treats his people like crap. He treats them like crap in front of the public to make himself seem like something he clearly is not. Stay far away from this phony! He is a disgusting POS! People who actually believe he was in the military actually give him authentic equipment which is sad because they don’t know the real JON Showers! I trusted my son with him because of his fake front. The minute he drove away with my son in the car, he immediately started smoking pot with my 14 year old in the car!!!!! For a 3+ hour drive!!!! If I would have known about it at the time he would have been arrested! Stay FAR AWAY from this creep!!!!!
Yeah, apparently this asshole was just at my grandparents’ house today, trying to rent my grandfather’s old auto body shop to ‘store’ Vietnam era military keepsakes, for a museum.
We called the cops and got that dirt bag out of there right quick. Had I been there, I’d have slapped the shit out of him.
Jon “Golden” Showers – phony recon rectum ranger!