Quote:
Originally Posted by CDN_Stalker
Is exactly that. I'm sure that's where the fine line is, I bought it like this, am not pretending to be a member by keeping it on. Then one has the "impression" aspect to deal with, someone else could have bought the BDU like that, thought "Hey, I'm going to do an impression of a 10th Mountain Ranger for airsoft" and add all the little bits and peices of gear to fill out that impression, maybe include a rank or something. Then it becomes more of an issue to those in this thread (and the thread regarding Lerch's uniform impressions).
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Theres no such thing as 10th Mountain Ranger.... unless you are referring to a 10th Mountain Division patch with a Ranger tab(just means you completed the course, nothing to do with a unit).
As for the calico jack thing; it's not an official patch. Also, it isn't just a SEAL thing, in my Battalion you would see some LAVs sporting a calico jack flag on it haha
As for the trying to be realistic in an impression, ok but Rangers, Special Forces, etc don't wear insignia on their field uniforms. Hell I haven't seen one SF guy even wear his unit an qual badges when walking around KAF.
As for why you see patches on uniforms in surplus stores, well lot of reasons.
1.) The veteren is just getting rid of all of his old uniforms, etc some will take the time an remove badges, others just want to get rid of it all.
2.) Family members have the uniforms an offload them at a surplus store
3.) Someone else could have bought a uniform an the patches an put them in than after getting bored returned the uniform or maybe the surplus store employees put the patches on, etc
As for reenacting, honestly how many people that put on the badges are knowledgeable about all the insignia an history of the unit, etc. Yes, there are a lot of guys that are true reenactors, but you can't deny that there are some people who just put the badges on for shits n giggles becuase they think it's cool.
Also, how many true reenactment events are their in Airsoft? Only ones I know of are InCountry events to me they are like living history events, etc where you are actually "reenacting" as best you can, ie living in the field, humping the kit, etc. A bit different than the typical air softer who's running around for a few hours one saturday for a typical skirmish where it's not reenacting anything an everyone is dress differently.
IMO, reenacting history(ie WW2, Vietnam) is a bit different than trying to look like a modern day soldier. I dunno, to me when you try to look like a modern day soldier an wear all the patches its a bit poser'ish an isn't on the same level as reenacting the past.
As for the you don't really have to earn unit patches, well depends on the unit, some you actually have to earn ie like a Ranger Scroll and Special Forces. Other units like a plain jane Infantry Divison, yea you are just randomly put into the unit after you are done your initial training.. even though it isn't very hard to complete basic training, etc you still "earn" the patches IMO.
But really, for the guys who want to wear all the Special Forces insignia, Ranger, SEAL, etc visit SOCNET and armyranger.com and find out what the real guys feel about it.