Careercow Thomas Kratman - Living SEAL copypasta, Sad Puppy, Sci-Fi "Author"

[Tranhuviya]

THE CRITICS RAVE:

"Kratman is an idiot, and drools."

But Kratman knows his intended audience, and is only too happy to assuage the bloodlust of the red state rabble by letting our valiant SS paladins bust some hippie heads.

"Every word he writes is bad, and that includes "a", "an" and "the"."

Thomas Kratman differs from his colleagues amongst Lind & co. in one crucial way: he actually served. After going to Boston College on a Army scholarship in 1980, Kratman was commissioned with the famous 101st Airborne Division in Panama. This was followed with four years with USARC, and then 5th SF Group - our most decorated active duty Green Beret unit - during Desert Shield/Desert Storm.

He left the active duty force in 1992, and became a lawyer, probably proud of being a IRL version of the Marine copypasta. A very impressive record, to be honest. But we're not here to talk about Kratman's service. We're here to talk about Kratman's writing, and his internet activity.

Kratman's most famous work is the Carrera's Legions series, in which a (surprise) right-wing military man's family is killed and he builds a private army to get revenge on the Islamic terrorists who did it, along with those gosh-darned liberal yuppies and those NWO UN types who allowed them to run wild . The later books of this series feature minor characters based on various internet trolls and critics, no doubt showing the restraint Kratman shows in argument.

These books advocate such moral concepts in complete respect of the laws and customs of war as torture, false-flag attacks, and the use of nuclear weapons on a civilian population. These actions are committed by the ostensible heroes of said books. In short, a bloodthirsty far-right (not the alt-right crock you hear on the news) fantasy.

He also write opinions articles for the men's lifestyle site everyjoe.com.

Kratman apparently also had a argument at some time with the ex-tanker spacebattles.com poster Thanatos (now Athene ) over the gas filters in the M1 Abrams and their protection against ammonia. This left to him no longer posting on spacebattles."

 

[millais]

Whenever people used to talk shit about his novels on the various message boards, Tom "Space Marine" Kratman would register an account, start arguing with people, and challenge random internet posters to IRL fisticuffs. He is a pretty scary dude to meet in person, people who have met him say he has a cold corpse-like demeanor, some of which can be conveyed through his head shot.

You can read most of his books for free on Baen's Free Library. It's mostly a much more edgelordy version of Jace's Tiberius Rising. His main series is about fascist American space marines fighting evil Islams who are busy raping Europe.

Here is his personal website: http://www.tomkratman.com/

He doesn't like the feminist, and in one of his legendary rants he REEEEs hard about letting them into his army. He thinks they are too sex crazy and weak for combat service, then congratulate himself on the time that he banned two of his female subordinates from taking their leave in Cairo, thus singlehandedly saving them from being gang raped by Arabs.

In case you haven't noticed yet, he has an obsession with Islams raping Westerners, and this thing started for him in the early '90s, long before the current migrant crisis.

 

[Lorento]

From the description of the author on Baen's Free Library

In 1974, at age seventeen, Tom Kratman became a political refugee and defector from the PRM (People's Republic of Massachusetts) by virtue of joining the Regular Army.

PRM (People's Republic of Massachusetts)

I already know that I'm going to love this guy and his books.

 

[An Ghost]

He writes stories about internet meanies getting their heads exploded by his Mary Sue and a battalion of renegades not bound by law and he didn't include a single electric hedgehog Pokémon?
Seems like a man who googles himself constantly. Thomas Kratman, I look forward to reading your posts here if you can solve the captcha

 

[AnOminous]

Whenever people used to talk shit about his novels on the various message boards, Tom "Space Marine" Kratman would register an account, start arguing with people, and challenge random internet posters to IRL fisticuffs. He is a pretty scary dude to meet in person, people who have met him say he has a cold corpse-like demeanor, some of which can be conveyed through his head shot.

So the politics of a gasoline huffing Heinlein but without the talent.

 

[Techpriest]

So the politics of a gasoline huffing Heinlein but without the talent.

Pretty much. I'll add some more details on him from what I can dig up on his service records.

 

[FatNero]

Someone buy him a webcam, who's got time to read that shit.

 

[Techpriest]

So I'm basically digging through old Spacebattles threads for Kratman posts, and I found this little gem from RPG.net, where he shows up to defend his book, Caliphate. He pops up around post 273 on the thread though he posts like a one liner a bit earlier. I'll link that post later on, because otherwise, I found the real meat of where everything sort of starts off in terms of the Kratman - Athene/Thanatos feud. Kratman shows up in the thread soon after this and well, it gets interesting.

 

[AnOminous]

So I'm basically digging through old Spacebattles threads for Kratman posts, and I found this little gem from RPG.net, where he shows up to defend his book, Caliphate. He pops up around post 273 on the thread though he posts like a one liner a bit earlier. I'll link that post later on, because otherwise, I found the real meat of where everything sort of starts off in terms of the Kratman - Athene/Thanatos feud. Kratman shows up in the thread soon after this and well, it gets interesting.

To be fair, I agree with at least half of what he said in that 273 post.

 

[Techpriest]

To be fair, I agree with at least half of what he said in that 273 post.

Nothing is too minor to include. Kratman can come off as reasonable sometimes, but he's sort of like Lind in that regard. There's a respectable mask that sort of lulls you into thinking "You know this guy isn't too crazy," and then he says something along the lines of "Gas the sandgoogles" and then you suddenly remember who it is you're actually reading.

Also on the topic of his military service: the fact that he only made Lt. Colonel isn't too surprising, he admits he doesn't have the general political skill or inclination to try to get to Colonel or beyond, but what's really telling is the fact that they never gave him a battalion command. I have a family member in the 80's who was in charge of a full battalion as an Lt. Colonel in West Germany for two whole years, two years after he'd been promoted. The fact is that even during the Cold War or Desert Storm they never trusted Kratman with anything even near that size even in the CONUS, despite him claiming he was a battalion commander in the Reserve, which isn't even true. A poster named Rockhound put it better than I ever could have honestly though:

That Bn command is new. It wasn't on his published CV when I looked it up a couple years back, and the lack of it jumped out at me.

2nd Bn, 319th what? Infantry, I guess....which is, I believe, an Institutional Training (such as running MOS schools for the Guard and Reserve, or administering FTXs, and the like) unit now within the 80th Training Command (80th Training Divison and 80th Infantry Division, as was).
A ~1yr battalion command....in the Reserve? I doubt it. More like someone got promoted/transferred/died, and he ended up in charge of the unit until someone with the requisites came along (and he might have gone back AD in the post OIF rush before that happened)...that's quite common in the Reserve Component.....but is not the same as a Command. If that were the case, I've had 4-5 company commands and have already been a battalion commander (hint: neither are true).

He's playing word games.

The three shorty assignments, back to back, ending in an academic desk job....are not exactly encouraging.

He also makes a remark about only 40% of LTCs getting a Battalion before Retirement. Strictly true. Just not in the way he wants the reader to think.
Infantry LTCs are running about 70-80% (depending on year cohort), in terms of getting a Battalion command. Generally, if you aren't in the running, you won't make LTC in the first place. The balance includes guys who Branched to CA/PSYOPS or SF, retired early, and so on. Almost every LTC gets some form of formal Command tour. The ones not running maneuver battalions are (again, formal) ROTC/OCS/Academy cadre unit commanders, BCT/OSUT and other TRADOC unit COs at the battalion level, and so on.

That 40% figure he whips out includes CS/CSS branch officers, who often simply have no/few battalion-equivalent units to command.

Kratman hits LTC and his CV is then a lot of short-term (abortive?) assignments, and his terminal AD (by his own admission, he was being medically retired) assignment.

When you start playing "....from a certain point of view" with your own Resume, I don't feel the need to belabor the obvious further.


At any rate, Kratman's horribilitude (I coin the term) is a matter of public record....due solely to his own efforts. Rather than threadjack (further), we now return you to Thanatos' mental torment.

TL;DR, he's not a real life Navy SEAL copypasta, he simply wants to pretend he is.

 

[Tranhuviya]

He is a pretty scary dude to meet in person, people who have met him say he has a cold corpse-like demeanor, some of which can be conveyed through his head shot.

Dat thousand yard stare.

 

[AnOminous]

Also on the topic of his military service: the fact that he only made Lt. Colonel isn't too surprising, he admits he doesn't have the general political skill or inclination to try to get to Colonel or beyond, but what's really telling is the fact that they never gave him a battalion command.

I always find it amusing when people put their military career front and center in their public persona in civilian life when they weren't even very good at it in reality.

Dat thousand yard stare.

Looks cropped and put in front of another background. I also have suspicions about that eye color.

 

[Techpriest]

I always find it amusing when people put their military career front and center in their public persona in civilian life when they weren't even very good at it in reality.



Looks cropped and put in front of another background. I also have suspicions about that eye color.

I have no doubt that Kratman was an average, if not spectacular officer who did his job well enough. The thing is that usually, even those officers get a battalion command. My theory is that he let some of his ideas about training or actual engagements and tactics for them slip to someone higher up the chain who then (for very good reasons) made sure he never saw a combat command in his life, and was never allowed any real position of responsibility. A very good choice on their part, but of course like any good lolcow, even decades after the fact good old Tom is still very salty about it. Maybe he was passed over for an actual command by a muslim, it'd explain a lot of his hate even before the current wave of anti-islamic right wing sentiment. As for serving in the 101st Airborne as @Tranhuviya mentioned in the OP, that's not extremely special in the grand scheme of things. However, it's an odd coincidence with the family member I mentioned earlier, he also started his career there. I might be able to play Six Degrees of Tom Kratman.

Also that is the picture he puts on his own website. It's real, I think. At least the stare. Probably the other reason they didn't promote him was that they'd done a psych test and realized he was a total fucking sociopath, or just looked into his soulless eyes.


EDIT: I also found the image for the OP too, if you don't mind adding this

 

[AnOminous]

EDIT: I also found the image for the OP too, if you don't mind adding this

So his fans are people who take WH40K a bit too seriously?

 

[Techpriest]

So his fans are people who take WH40K a bit too seriously?

I'm pretty sure that image is supposed to be a joke.

 

[millais]

So his fans are people who take WH40K a bit too seriously?

No, the "Space Marine" nickname was bestowed on him by his critics in reference to his edgelord fascist political beliefs and obsession with all things military.

 

[Durable Mike Malloy]

He writes stories about internet meanies getting their heads exploded by his Mary Sue and a battalion of renegades not bound by law and he didn't include a single electric hedgehog Pokémon?
Seems like a man who googles himself constantly. Thomas Kratman, I look forward to reading your posts here if you can solve the captcha

There's certainly something of the early Sonichu about his fiction, isn't there? Remember how Chris couldn't seem to win, even in his own fantasies, and his self-insert protagonist was so unsympathetic and unpleasant we wouldn't have even known he was supposed to be the good guy if he hadn't explicitly told us?

Spoiler: And indeed, this is a man who googles himself constantly.

Years ago, I spent a long time stranded in a remote airport where there was nothing to read besides Dr. Phil's diet book and a novel by Tom Kratman. Upon returning home, I mentioned both books unfavorably on my review blog, which is by now long-defunct and was never particularly popular.

Mr. Kratman promptly appeared in the comments section to intimate that - because I had not cared for his book - I was not only a feminist whore, but also probably fat. He really is a marvelous old coot.

 

[Tranhuviya]

Slavery is a part of Islam . . . Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam.” —Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan, author of the religious textbook At-Tawhid (“Monotheism”) and senior Saudi cleric.

Demography is destiny. In the 22nd century European deathbed demographics have turned the continent over to the more fertile Moslems. Atheism in Europe has been exterminated. Homosexuals are hanged, stoned or crucified. Such Christians as remain are relegated to dhimmitude, a form of second class citizenship. They are denied arms, denied civil rights, denied a voice, and specially taxed via the Koranic yizya. Their sons are taken as conscripted soldiers while their daughters are subject to the depredations of the continent's new masters.

In that world, Petra, a German girl sold into prostitution as a slave at the age of nine to pay her family's yizya, dreams of escape. Unlike most girls of the day, Petra can read. And in her only real possession, her grandmother's diary, a diary detailing the fall of European civilization, Petra has learned of a magic place across the sea: America. But it will take more than magic to free Petra and Europe from their bonds; it will take guns, superior technology, and a reborn spirit of freedom

holy shit it's like they didn't give a shit.

 

[AnOminous]

Looks like we're already on page 2 or so, not bad considering he already had a fairly substantial web presence.

holy shit it's like they didn't give a shit.

Seriously, the only guy he could get for a cover quote was his co-author of some other schlock books?

 

[Techpriest]

Looks like we're already on page 2 or so, not bad considering he already had a fairly substantial web presence.



Seriously, the only guy he could get for a cover quote was his co-author of some other schlock books?

Tom Kratman basically has no friends outside of the echo chamber of the far right authors. Ringo at least has some feedback and sanity for the most part, and if I was given a choice at gunpoint to either read any random Ringo novel or any random Kratman novel I would grab that Ringo novel and tear into it with honest tears of joy.

I also love how little fucking EFFORT was put into that cover. I can imagine the meeting for it already.

"So uh, yeah, the book is about Muslims taking over Europe, and there's nukes and crap, and we have to include some kind of freedom thing because this is a Baen novel cover. We expect it by tomorrow."