My outfit was pulled back into a big base camp for some rest, resupply and refit. Which one doesn't matter. I was a corporal at the time, a squad leader....

The point is, that did read as if the person who posted it was talking about their own personal experiences.
Fair enough, you've apologised for misleading people inadvertantly - but then you went on to blame those who did react with in a suspicious way that was grounded in that misleading nature of your original post. So it wasn't a case of Mudcatters leaping in gratuitously.

Personal accounts of things that have happened to us matter, and they are some of the most important and moving things that ever get to appear in the Mudcat.