Professionalism at Showbattle events...

[Legion Etrangere]

One item that is seared into my mind after this past weekend's event is the necessity for new, beginning reenactors to realize that professional historical reenactment is more than just collecting the gear and blazing away with the blanks (or heaven forbid, the nightly booze up).

You should also be proficient at:

1. MAKING CONTACT AND TALKING WITH THE PUBLIC about your impression, your uniform, equipment and weapon as well as the *history* of the unit you are portraying;

2. LISTENING to veterans talk about *their* experiences (leave your story about finding a Mk II widget on eBay for another time);

3. SMILING and taking an interest in what the person(s) has asked you at the weapons display table.

In short, you need to be an expert at public relations!

[Legion Etrangere]

I read this off the Vietnam War Living History forum this morning and decided to repost it here for consumption. It was written by "ST" who is the forum moderator on that forum. It speaks volumes about the "reenactor mentality" I have been preaching against for donkeys years and is, of course, disgraceful to the men we seek to immulate. You actually want to reach out and *throttle* the bastard who acts like this ... and then I realize its how most reenactors act!

Most people who know me know that I've never bought into the standard reenacting explanation that "we do this to honor the vets." (I've never chastised anyone for saying that; I just don't agree with it.) When asked, I've always told others that I do it for a host of reasons (which I give) but also out of respect for an era that had a significant impact on our history - whether it's CW, Spanish-American, the World Wars or VN. I mention this because this past weekend, I saw one of the most shocking displays of behavior I’ve yet witnessed in this hobby. I'd have loved to hear what motivations these guys use for what they do because "respect" and "honor" were nowhere in sight.

I went to an area timeline event that I go to every year. While touring a GP medium tent housing both a sizable WWII and VN display, a gentleman turned to one of the VN 101 AB reenactors and asked him if he really was airborne.

“Uh . . . no.” Silence.

The gent responded that he had been airborne - 101st, in fact – and served in Vietnam.

“Uh . . . okay.” Silence.

The vet added that he enjoyed his time with the 101st. “Joining the airborne saved my life,” he said. The reenactor looked uncomfortably bored.

“Um . . . sure.” You could literally hear this "reenactor" roll his eyes. He couldnt' wait for the man to move on.

The vet realized he wasn’t going to get any discussion from this clown, so he turned to another member of this “reenacting” group:

“Are you really airborne?”

“Uh . . . no.” Bored silence.

With that, I just had to get out of there. The reenactor seated by the tent entrance shot me a bored glance and went back to staring off into space.

Here was a man with a story to tell - and from the looks of things, quite anxious to tell it to them, too - and these so-called "reenactors" weren't interested enough to give him the time of day. And to be so blatant about it . . . what were they thinking?

I went back the following day and it seemed to be more of the same: If you were in the organization, you seemed to get the most attention; if you were a spectator, piss off.

For the record, this was an event that actively promotes itself as "honoring the vets," so you'd think that was part of the fundamental purpose of registering for the affair. And to be honest, I did not sit with them the entire time on both days - they could have treated every other vet with kid-gloves - but that doesn't diminish the fact that they disregarded this one in particular. I don’t know if the vet ever got someone to talk to him; there were at least four of these clowns, and all of them seemed more concerned about talking with each other than acknowledging the mob of people who had filed into their tent.

The only time they seemed willing to talk to someone other than one of their friends was if a woman or child came up and asked a question, and even then it was a bit of a joke. Chests were thrust out, guts were sucked in and you could see that “Ha! I’m an expert” look come over their faces. While I was there, they just seemed bored and almost resentful that they were “stuck” there.

The kicker: They had the gall to ask for donations from the public to help maintain their collection.

Unbelievable.

[cookie]

So very true - and all too common.

[savoy6]

not meaning to necro-post...i just found this though and had add a little something...
my experience with re-enactors pretty much across the board here in the SE US has been much the same as in the post.....if you aren't interested in joining their group... F- you......when i was trying to decide whether to get into reenacting or do historicaly based airsoft those kind of guys sealed the deal for me....when i'd ask questions about gear or uni's i'd get blown off once they found i was an airsofter....(which is kinda hard to take from a 40+ year old guy in a set of 4X M42s....who's accusing me of "playing soldier"..WTF???). the people that were most helpfull to me were the actual WW2 and Korean war era vets that i met as customers in the boat dry storage that i worked at.these were the guys that related their experiences,gave me advice on what unis they wore and how they wore them,also how to set up and use my web gear and weapons...(i.e. changing mags on the Thompson...lol..) ...and were VERY supportive of what i was doing....so i've always gone with their opinion..lol..
the thing i see here is that most of the members are very welcoming and the groups that do exist have good relations with their local verteran's comunities....
just don't write all of us airsofters off as multi-cam wearing tactical turtles......there is a lot of historical interest out there.....as an example,the indochina/algeria thread over at airsoft canada is more than 40 pages long...lol...not to mention the world wide plethora of WW2/Korea/Vietnam airsoft sites out there..

[Legion Etrangere]

savoy6,

Thanks for your comments about reenactors. I think many on here will click 5x5.

Having interviewed two dozen soldiers (WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the Foreign Legion) the one item each of these gentlemen sounded off about was the lack of respect given to those who served in combat by "overweight pretend soldiers".

One veteran told me that he approached a WWII British Airborne group back east to talk about his experiences in WWII as an infantryman, only to be blown off by several overweight "paras" who were digging into burgers, fries and softdrinks. He said, "... they were so overweight I could not tell if they were just fat or pregnant."

One 5th Special Forces veteran I spoke to last year at an airshow made mention that a group of Vietnam War reenactors he approached were so disinterested in him and so interested in the beer they were drinking they took no notice of him. When he asked if the beer was cold, one reenactor turned to him and said (and I quote), "Sir, yes the beer is cold, however we can only serve members of our unit per our unit bylaws." The reenactor then turned his back on this combat veteran and began talking about the latest uniform acquisition.

Last year I attended a WWII event as a member of the crowd and saw how one WWII veteran was treated. I walked among a display and watched as a grizzled WWII Pearl Harbor survivor asked several questions to a WWII GI reenactor (busy stuffing his face with a burrito). This man was in his 90's, his hands shook; he did not have long to live. NO ONE in the unit shook his hand or asked him a question. NO ONE came forward to introduce themselves and thank him for serving on the USS CALIFORNIA. They barely took an interest in this hero. Later, I was told the daughter of this gentleman came back to register a protest with the way her father was treated.

I've seen this attitude for nearly 30 years and it was one of the reasons I left WWII reenacting with the larger organizations. One unit I used to be in where I counted several among my close friends would not even get up to introduce themselves to either WWII, Korean or Vietnam War veterans who walked into our AO .... much less render a proper hand salute to current reserve or regular military. I was even told by one extremely rotund reenactor (who seemed to garner the respect of many in this unit), "theres no need to salute anyone. If you start saluting someone your just gonna make us get up and then well all have to salute."