Military Enthusiasts in Exeter Compliments
By Ray Li ‘28
Exeter Compliments is a unique space, one of love and appreciation, one of humor and laughs. Yet at the start of this school year, a new and peculiar side of the student population has revealed itself within the Exeter Compliments Instagram space. This is a community one would seldom relate to Exeter Compliments, in fact, one might even say they were polar opposites of each other considering the intended nature of Exeter Compliments. The community in question are military enthusiasts, who have made a sudden surge in their presence in the space.
The emergence of military-based comments all originated from one anonymous individual who appears to have a peculiar relationship with the T-34-85, though an absolute beast of a WW2 machine, the word “aroused” is one seldom relates to this tool of war. Following this comment, another mysterious fellow would follow up with a post regarding the M26, who’s obsession with the tank more than rivals the T-34-85 individual. Describing the M26 as “arousingly beautiful” and “Breathtaking”, one could easily mistake his words on the vehicle as audience members commenting on a model show. Our second character ends his comment with a shot fired at the T34-85 individual, insulting its capability on the battlefield.
Our T-34-85 individual however, comes back strong first by comparing both tanks not in terms of battlefield capability, but rather using the scale of “pure pleasure/tank”, an interesting benchmark no doubt. Finally, he finishes strong by using the large forehead insult, one which lands surprisingly well on the M26.
In the midst of this heated argument between our two characters, a third enters the arena, carrying the pride of the IS-7. We can see true passion in their words by the sheer amount of adjectives which even an Exeter English teacher would be proud of. However, in the midst of tank admirers, one sound voice of logic seems to stand out, calling out the faults in all the above mentioned tanks, a fourth character who now enters our story. Following sound logic, our fourth character proceeds to push forward his candidate of….. The T26e1-1. Now we can all see the author of this comment for who they truly are, someone with too many hours on War Thunder.
Now we enter the period where people move away from tanks, into aircraft, starting off strong with an Apache fan, which is based to be honest. Yet later, we get a fighter jet fan, whom after glazing fighter jets proceeds to name what is really an interceptor, and a tactical bomber/strike aircraft in the forms of the F-14 and Su-24 respectively. Someone who clearly watched Top Gun once and decided to then search up sweep wing aircrafts and started to decide how to defend their pointlessness.
Finally, we conclude this period of Exeter Compliments with one from its founder, acknowledging the chaos he has wrought upon the space, ending the saga, for now.
