Former Marines

[PHall]

You got a Marine recruiting station there in Austin?
Swing by there and tell them about this guy.
If he's legit they'll tell you. If he's a poser, they'll lead the posse!

[CAPObserver]

From Wikipedia:

The Navy Distinguished Service Medal is bestowed upon members of the Navy or Marine Corps who distinguish themselves by exceptionally meritorious service to the United States government in a duty of great responsibility.[1] The term "great responsibility" implies senior military responsibility, and the decoration is normally only bestowed to senior Navy Flag and Marine Corps General Officers. The decoration is rarely awarded to enlisted personnel, and then only to those who hold extremely senior enlisted positions such as the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy. Additional awards of the Navy Distinguished Service Medal [2] are annotated by gold award stars.

My personal comments:

This was previously mentioned but I thought the above worth posting.  If your sure that he was wearing a DSM (a picture of the medal can be seen on wikipedia) that is to me the single biggest indicator that he is a poser.  I have been the military for 22 years (the first 6 as an enlisted Marine) and I have never seen a SgtMaj or CSM, or SGM with a DSM.  Even a Legion of Merit is very rare for enlisted Soldiers or Marines.  Typically peace time awards are awarded within the "pyramid of honor" meaning that one is unlikely to be put in for DSM if you don't already have a Legion of Merit (LM) and Meritorious Service Medal (MSM) and Commendation Medal (ARCOM for Army, NACOM for Marine Corps) and Achievement Medal (AAM for Army, NAM for Marine Corps).  This is because the awards are based not only on performance but level and scope of responsibility.  The "so what" of that is if he was wearing the DSM, but not a LM and MSM as well as a NACOM and NAM that is in and of itself very suspect.

One question I would have; was he wearing the Combat Action Ribbon(CAR)?  If he was running around with combat awards (Navy Cross and Silver Star) then he would have had a CAR on as well.

I agree with the previous posters that the fact that he was wearing a DI cover (brown round) and a DI belt is highly suspect.

I also agree that if your identification of the Navy and Marine Corps Medal is correct and he was wearing a V device on it then he is a poser.  That award, while it can be awarded in a war zone is not awarded for valor in combat.

[jb512]

I'm sure he had all of those on his rack.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but those top four that I saw were the Navy Cross (dark blue with white stripe in the center), DSM (dark blue with yellow stripe in the center), silver star, and the Navy/Marine corps medal that's blue/yellow/red.  It did have a V on it.  I didn't have time to see any more than those...

[Noble Six]

As stated Drill Instructor Candidates(bobbies), Drill instructors and Junior Drill Instructors wear OD webbed belt without eyelets and NCO brass plate, Senior Drill Instructors wear  black patent leather or smooth leather Sam brown belt with brass buckle, Chief drill instructors wear no belt.

The limitations for drill instructor duty are Sgt-GySgt, Longer if in a staff position at DI school, as stated earlier it is against Marine Corps regs to wear the smokey of post or while not on DI duty.

Could be a poser,could just be a super moto retired SgtMaj at an rotc.  The world may never know

[whatevah]

This thread was dead for 3 years... locked.