IMHO, Serving in the military should be enough

Sad state of affairs when a Marine feels he needs to lie to get respect

There was an ex-marine on another forum, any time any military related topic came up he would cite his expertise and insight as a combat vet who had been through it all in Vietnam.
Unfortunately for him in an earlier "who here served" topic he had mentioned his unit and his specific job. His job was office based and his unit was in Okinawa.
It just reminded me of him when I read this bit......

spent nearly all of the next six years with a radio communications unit in Okinawa, Japan