Get it off your chest

electric69

Seeing as i am currently banned from AH i decide to post this topic here.


Basically ive been living in Florida for the last 6 weeks. Tonight(sat night) i went out with a large group of ppl who are in the same business as i am.Everything started off very innocently in a pub, followed by a nightclub,then onto another night club and then back to my appartment. Having only recently moved here it was very important for me that i kept everyone happy (being that there was approx 40 ppl in my appt who were very closely involved with my work) and that everything went plain sailing.

When i reached the first night club i got talking to a Scottish guy. I was wearing a Leinster rugby jersey and he saw the "bank of scotland" sponsor on it.....neway....got talking to him for a while.....he was a catholic guy in the British armed forces, he was leaving for Iraq tomorrow morning.We briefly talked about football and then talked about rugby for a while. He was very much so interested and concentrated on religion ( Catholic V protestant ) while i was tying to bring out the positives of the sport in terms of the non-religious divide.He was very much so anti-english and American..
When we all got back to my appartment after the last club everyone was chatting and drinking and having a good night. Then the scottish guy, who we only met a few hours previously decides to pull one of our big kitchen kinfes on one of the Icelandic guys, and threatens him and a few other guys. I was outside at the time, trying to get the ppl outside to keep it reasonably quite.
As soon as i got back inside i was asked by 1 of the Norwegian girls did i want everyone to leave. After hearing what had just happened i said yes.

It took about 20 mins just to get everyone to leave the appartment. In my attempts to get everyone to basically calm down, i got threatened a number of times as some of the people thought i was a "friend" of the scottish guy.

My house-mate was stuck with him for 20 mins by himself trying to get him to calm down.When i finally got back into the appartment after sending everyone on their way ( just my house mate and theScottish guy left) he continued to go fu*king mad. He was telling me to sit down and that he was going to bottle someone (i.e me) The guy that i lived with went out for a smoke and i finally got to talk to the crazy Scottish guy one on one.

I knew exactly how to calm him down and he left to go back to the Air Force Base which is about 10 miles away.

What I want to know is why did he feel it necessary to pull an knife on a Icelandic guy and American guys. He is supposed to be fighting with them ( although from what he said to me friendly fire kills happen a lot!! ) but he in truth is completly against them. Is he really just completly f*cked up in the head or is this the norm for military guys?

Thanks for taking the time to read the long post!

pid()

electric69 wrote:

What I want to know is why did he feel it necessary to pull an knife on a Icelandic guy and American guys.

I'm not being smart but you should try asking him this. None of us know. I could speculate by saying it may have been a mixture of drink, drugs, a bad upbringing and so on. That's a balls that he ruined what seemed like a very good night. I try to stay away from people who are hung up on religion and the war in Iraq.

lushballs

Just another bully drinking alcohol=chaos

LegacyUser

He's probly cracked up with thoughts of headin to Iraq!!
cocoa beach,is that near satalite beach & patrick airforce base....??great part of the world!!

axer

And how is this a personal issue?

LegacyUser

'Well, I guess put yourselves in his shoes. You witness a multicultural group out and about, you befriend the 'leader' in a club where you are very wary. Going back to a house where you have had trouble striking up postitive conversation so far. Eh, yeah, all that and the fact that you are heading off to IRAQ?!'

Victor

The OP had a bad experience. I'm leaving this for the moment.

On topic please.

masseyno9

DavidsLynch wrote:

'Well, I guess put yourselves in his shoes. You witness a multicultural group out and about, you befriend the 'leader' in a club where you are very wary. Going back to a house where you have had trouble striking up postitive conversation so far. Eh, yeah, all that and the fact that you are heading off to IRAQ?!'

So its acceptable to pull a kitchen knife on someone??

And if you were so "wary" why would you go back to the house?

the_syco

OP, do you know was he over in Iraq on a previous occasuion? If so, this may be a burst of post-traumatic synsrome, or something.

Also, as you were outside, the Icelandic guy may have said something to piss off the Scottish lad. Some people think that they are safe, and can slag off anyone they want, without any sort of retaliation. The Scottish lad may have just snapped.

Finally, the Scottish lad will probably have never fought with the Americans or English. I'm pretty sure that they are in a different sector.

Manic Moran

Finally, the Scottish lad will probably have never fought with the Americans or English. I'm pretty sure that they are in a different sector

Eh? There's no Scottish sector. The British Army doesn't much distinguish outside of regimental tradition between Scots, Welsh, Irish, Nepalese and English.

My immediate guess is that the Scot was drunk, and the Icelandic said something that pissed him off. If, in your opinion, he was truly sober, correct response would have been to call the cops. That would have attracted the attentions of the military authorities. If indeed he had been a little off-the-edge, he should have no business going to the Mid-East. No, it is not normal for military guys to go pulling knives on civilians. Tends to give us a bad name.

NTM

electric69

jhj wrote:

He's probly cracked up with thoughts of headin to Iraq!!
cocoa beach,is that near satalite beach & patrick airforce base....??great part of the world!!

I kinda guessed that maybe that had something to do with it. And yes he was leaving for Iraq from Patrick Airforce base today (the following day)

Eh? There's no Scottish sector. The British Army doesn't much distinguish outside of regimental tradition between Scots, Welsh, Irish, Nepalese and English.

yep he is in a regiment full of english.He never stopped talking about the whole Catholic V Protestant thing the whole time and about how much he hated the English and Americans (being in America and in an mainly english,protestant regiment wouldnt exactly suit him!)

My immediate guess is that the Scot was drunk, and the Icelandic said something that pissed him off.

yep everyone was very drunk.I tried to find out how it happened but from what i gatered the Icelandic guy is one of the nicest guys you could meet and wouldnt try and start anything. Everyone left pretty much immediately after the incident.The scottish guy stayed there for about 45 mins with myself and my house-mate trying to calm him down. He was kicking doors and puching walls at this stage.He wanted me and my house-mate to go with him and find some random american and kick the crap out of him. The only person who we wanted to kick the crap out of was him at 4 in the morning.

I try to stay away from people who are hung up on religion and the war in Iraq.

Yep, me too. When i first got talking to him in the pub he was just talking about football and rugby, then came out the whole religion thing.I found another scottish guy who i knew and introduced him and i basically got away from him. About 5 mins later the scottish guy who i knew came over to me and told me that he was f*cking crazy.The next time i saw him was in the cab on the way to another club and he was still bull****ting on. Then he followed us from the club back to the house,stopping off to abuse some people working in a 7-11 on the way.

Was it just the fact that he was drunk and heading away to Iraq that he flipped? he said that he has a wife and kids back home too.
The whole thing looked to me like one of those vietnam veterans going crazy like you see in films.is this what the army does to you?

the_syco

electric69 wrote:

Was it just the fact that he was drunk and heading away to Iraq that he flipped? he said that he has a wife and kids back home too.
The whole thing looked to me like one of those vietnam veterans going crazy like you see in films.is this what the army does to you?

Some people can't handle the stress of combat very well. Sounds like he didn't switch off. That, and the fact that he went out clubbing rather than being at home with his wife and kid isn't good.

Manic Moran wrote:

Eh? There's no Scottish sector. The British Army doesn't much distinguish outside of regimental tradition between Scots, Welsh, Irish, Nepalese and English.

Ah. Was led to believe that the Scottish were put in a town a fari bit south of Baghdad.

Manic Moran

the_syco wrote:

Ah. Was led to believe that the Scottish were put in a town a fari bit south of Baghdad.

During the Fallujah operation, the Black Watch were moved into the American sector near Baghdad to backfill as the Americans wanted more of their units in Fallujah. This only lasted a month or two, the British were eventually returned to their home sectors. It was quite a wake-up call for the British Army as well, they realised that their traditional 'no helmets, mingle with everyone' philosophy which was working well down South may not have been appropriate for the American sector after all, despite their previous comments.

NTM

I have a dear friend who I love to bits, but who is 75% of the time on the outskirts of conversation and pub-life action. This, in my opinion, seems to stem from his life before I knew him. It's always best to know when to say stop with regards to bringing unknown people into an already brimming group when out on the town. Especially if you plan on getting drunk, and the new guy is heading to Iraq. So, in future, I would suggest being more cautious. You can't blame a man for pulling a knife when you didn't know him beforehand, you took the decision to invite a randomer to your party, you didn't have adequate control over your group of colleagues. I dislike blaming any person in particular, however you are the one looking for advice on this forum, and I would listen to Manic Moran too, he speaks the truth.

Talliesin

electric69 wrote:

What I want to know is why did he feel it necessary to pull an knife on a Icelandic guy and American guys. He is supposed to be fighting with them

So, someone who joined the military to defend his country - though he already has issues about just how that country is made up given his anti-English and anti-Protestant sentiments - is instead of defending his country persecuting a pointless ill-thought out and relatively dangerous mission largely on behalf of another country whose president is a Protestant bigot. Do you really expect him to be happy?

David Lynch wrote:

You can't blame a man for pulling a knife when you didn't know him beforehand

Well, you certainly can blame him, it's hardly acceptable behaviour in any guest. I agree it was incautious though.

electric69

electric69 wrote:

Seeing as i am currently banned from AH i decide to post this topic here.


Basically ive been living in Florida for the last 6 weeks. Tonight(sat night) i went out with a large group of ppl who are in the same business as i am.Everything started off very innocently in a pub, followed by a nightclub,then onto another night club and then back to my appartment. Having only recently moved here it was very important for me that i kept everyone happy (being that there was approx 40 ppl in my appt who were very closely involved with my work) and that everything went plain sailing.

When i reached the first night club i got talking to a Scottish guy. I was wearing a Leinster rugby jersey and he saw the "bank of scotland" sponsor on it.....neway....got talking to him for a while.....he was a catholic guy in the British armed forces, he was leaving for Iraq tomorrow morning.We briefly talked about football and then talked about rugby for a while. He was very much so interested and concentrated on religion ( Catholic V protestant ) while i was tying to bring out the positives of the sport in terms of the non-religious divide.He was very much so anti-english and American..
When we all got back to my appartment after the last club everyone was chatting and drinking and having a good night. Then the scottish guy, who we only met a few hours previously decides to pull one of our big kitchen kinfes on one of the Icelandic guys, and threatens him and a few other guys. I was outside at the time, trying to get the ppl outside to keep it reasonably quite.
As soon as i got back inside i was asked by 1 of the Norwegian girls did i want everyone to leave. After hearing what had just happened i said yes.

It took about 20 mins just to get everyone to leave the appartment. In my attempts to get everyone to basically calm down, i got threatened a number of times as some of the people thought i was a "friend" of the scottish guy.

My house-mate was stuck with him for 20 mins by himself trying to get him to calm down.When i finally got back into the appartment after sending everyone on their way ( just my house mate and theScottish guy left) he continued to go fu*king mad. He was telling me to sit down and that he was going to bottle someone (i.e me) The guy that i lived with went out for a smoke and i finally got to talk to the crazy Scottish guy one on one.

I knew exactly how to calm him down and he left to go back to the Air Force Base which is about 10 miles away.

What I want to know is why did he feel it necessary to pull an knife on a Icelandic guy and American guys. He is supposed to be fighting with them ( although from what he said to me friendly fire kills happen a lot!! ) but he in truth is completly against them. Is he really just completly f*cked up in the head or is this the norm for military guys?

Thanks for taking the time to read the long post!

The fella sounds like a walt to me if I am correct on a few things. You are/were in Florida right?! Why would a member of Her Majesty's Armed forces who is shipping out with his Regiment be in Florida?! Also, its a bit odd for a devoutely proud Scots man (who apparently hates all things English) to go and join HMF dont you think?!

In appearance, how did he look? Was he clean shaven/crew cut hair? You can generally spot a squaddie a mile away! Did he metion who he served with?

And no, not all soldiers are physchopathic maniacs who want to dine on the blood of the innocent.

Talliesin

Deleted User wrote:

Also, its a bit odd for a devoutely proud Scots man (who apparently hates all things English) to go and join HMF dont you think?!

Wouldn't be the first, strangely enough.

kryogen

just explain to your friends that you had just met the guy and you were as shocked as they were when he went off on one.....tell them your embarassed by it and move on!!! it wont be a big deal as long as they understand that you didnt really know the guy either..

on the other side of things,

what in gods name would an anti english/american scotsman be in the british army and fighting in Iraq??? i know you cant answer the question, it just boggles my mind!

Manic Moran

kryogen wrote:

Why would a member of Her Majesty's Armed forces who is shipping out with his Regiment be in Florida?!

Hot-weather training? It's the middle of summer, you're not going to get anything near Iraq-levels of heat in Dorset. Or he may have been speaking indirectly: The week before I mobilised for my Iraq jaunt, I was to be found in Ireland.

what in gods name would an anti english/american scotsman be in the british army and fighting in Iraq??? i know you cant answer the question, it just boggles my mind!

Why not?

Scots love a good punch-up, same as the Irish.

Also, its a bit odd for a devoutely proud Scots man (who apparently hates all things English) to go and join HMF dont you think?!

Not a bit of it. The Scots make sure to distinguish between British and English, even if the Irish aren't so discerning about it.

There was an incident in WWII when a German merchant raider came alongside a ship flying the Red Ensign. When they were demaning the surrender, they called over "Are you English?"
The response they got was "We're nae fookin English. We're Scots! British!"

I'm fairly sure the Welsh have a similar policy. In any case, go up to a member of the Scots Guards, and say something negative about the Queen. Write your will out beforehand.

NTM