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I served 8 years in the Navy including Desert Storm and Bosnia. I'm uncomfortable when people thank me for my service. Don't know if they're sincere or covering up some things they did or said towards the military in the past.
The problem is the anti-war movement of the 60s & 70s targeted the military instead of the politicians. It was easy to identify and have access to military service members but near impossible to gain access to politicians unless you were a rich lobbyist. So the protestors took their anger out on the military. That anger and hatred carried over for decades on college campuses. The hatred towards the military returned around 2003 and continued until around 2008 on some college campuses, northeast, and northwest parts of the country. The most glaring was the 2008 decision of the Berkeley city council to pass a resolution to send a letter to a Marine recruiting station telling them they were unwanted and I welcomed intruders to their city, ordering the city's attorney to find a legal means to evict them from the city, and issue a free noise and protest permit to a vocal anti-war organization for right outside the recruiting station. To add insult to injury the mayor of Berkeley even dressed in pink to join the protest telling the Marines through a bullhorn to get out of his city. There were many other examples of such behavior around the country during those years. Vandalizing ROTC & recruiting buildings, teachers trying to keep military recruiters from school campuses, professors singling out military veterans for ridicule, teachers harassing students whose parents were about to be sent to Iraq, and the bombing of the Times Square recruiting station are all examples of the blatant and absolute hatred some in our country have towards the military, both the organization and the people. I hate individual service members for who they are and what they did but I don't hate everyone in the military. I hate aspects of the military I feel are wrong but I don't hate the military as an organization. I'll try to find a particular article to show an example of rabid hatred towards the military.
i think after 9/11 it became all partriotic to be thankful to the military...isn't that when the saying "thank you for your service" started? my husband who was in the marine corps hates when people tell him that. he finds it annoying. he tells me he didn't join for anybody, it was for himself and he hates when a stranger tells him that...he says some of his vet friends say the same thing...i don't know, i just know how much it bothers him.... question to other veterans: does it bother you when a stranger finds out you've been in the military and tell you "thank you for you service"? just curious if my husband is a weirdo
Your husband is far from a weirdo. I am the same exactly way. Honestly, its not even the fact that they say it, but I don't know what to say. Your welcome? Well, I didn't join for you so saying your welcome to that person doesn't sound right. I just wish people would stop saying it.
Your husband is far from a weirdo. I am the same exactly way. Honestly, its not even the fact that they say it, but I don't know what to say. Your welcome? Well, I didn't join for you so saying your welcome to that person doesn't sound right. I just wish people would stop saying it.
Feel the same way. Don't thank me for my service. Just don't treat me the way Vietnam era vets were treated. Those thanking me have no idea what I did in the military. I watched over the ship's steam turbine engines, flash type distilling plants, trained for fire fighting and emergency first aid, and was my division's DCPO (division damage control petty officer). I was a horrible machinist mate but I was a fantastic DCPO. A DCPO's job is to inspect, repair, and maintain all the firefighting equipment, emergency lighting, and water thighs doors, hatches, and scuttles. I went through many inspections and not one of my equipment failed inspection. Even got a commendation for it. Don't care about the commendation. For me, what counts is every time we had a fire not once did any of my firefighting equipment fail when needed. Because of that, all fires we had never got a chance to become big fires and no one lost their life to the fire. Some people's military service was supply or cook or paperwork; all jobs necessary for the military to get the job done.
Your husband is far from a weirdo. I am the same exactly way. Honestly, its not even the fact that they say it, but I don't know what to say. Your welcome? Well, I didn't join for you so saying your welcome to that person doesn't sound right. I just wish people would stop saying it.
My husband and most of his friends feel the same. For me and the spouses I know, I really don't like it when I get thanked, I kind of just smile awkwardly and say thanks.
I shall always have ultimate respect to the soldiers, that were simply drafted after they turned 18, then tossed into the meat grinder of battlefield, when their country was invaded.
I shall always have ultimate respect for volunteers that, regardless of their age or physical condition. left their families, and went to the active duty, when their country was invaded.
I'm a veteran and I wish people would stop "thanking" me "for my service".
Why? Because it's just a trained response at this point, fully Pavlovian, and very very few people sincerely mean it.
While I was glad to do it at the time and made two trips to the desert and saved a good chunk of change, it was all for naught: I came home to a horrendous job market and a housing market where rents were skyrocketing. But here's the kicker: I couldn't use the money I saved for a (could've been several) down payment on a house because loans weren't available either. That's what's disgusting. I lost my wife due to the stresses of the housing situation and paying 60% of my income in rent, I don't even blame her for leaving. I forgive her, please forgive her. Forgive me too.
Is it any wonder I support hanging the bankers who really run this country? Lets face it the politicians are just for show. At the end of the day we're told to support Israel...OR ELSE. How dare you question "our greatest ally".
And on the same token we're supposed to support the WARS to destabilize the Middle East...or you're unpatriotic. But why do you think we even fight these wars? Oil is only part of the story. Siphoning untold Trillions away from taxpayers into the pockets of crooked defense contracting companies is a bigger, but still only part of the story.
While we've toned down the war drums a bit, we're still supposed to worship the men who fight it, not just the privates and sergeants doing the dirty work, but also the generals who oftentimes are just as disgusting as your average politician.
So please don't thank me. Rather, I'd rather seek forgiveness. I'm sorry. I was young and dumb, partly brainwashed, but partly wanting to do the same "for my country" that my grandfather and his generation did. I was wrong. No one is serving "their country" anymore, but we ARE serving a tiny little country of about 7 million located at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, and we are serving the interests of Bankers, Oil companies, and Defense Contractors.
And the media puts on a good show doesn't it?
Were you as entertained as the average person who saw bombs being dropped on Baghdad with those "cool" looking black-&-white cameras with the target in the middle? Maybe you saw it through "night vision". LOL.
Well I'm willing to guess the people who died in those bombings, 99% civilians to be sure, weren't quite as entertained as the fat American public sipping soda and munching on potato chips, cheering, while human beings died and while a bunch of mostly young 18-25 year old boys stood at the Kuwaiti border waiting for orders to drive north.
The military, like any government institution, is flawed. Members of the military, from four stars on down to privates, should be criticized just like any other public servants when they commit acts worthy of criticizing.
Ironically, the knee-jerk "How dare you criticize our brave soldiers?" attempts at shutting down a discussion (as opposed to rationally discussing an issue) is precisely the sort of thing that is labelled political correctness by the same crowd (the ones who rail about political correctness are generally of the same group that castigates those who dare to criticize the military).
It's perfectly fine to 'support the troops', but support does not entail carte blanche immunity from immunity from criticism. More to the point, improvement can only come from adjustments made due to the critical analysis of shortcomings and outright failures. Demanding that an institution not be criticized is to hinder its continual development.
i think after 9/11 it became all partriotic to be thankful to the military...isn't that when the saying "thank you for your service" started? my husband who was in the marine corps hates when people tell him that. he finds it annoying. he tells me he didn't join for anybody, it was for himself and he hates when a stranger tells him that...he says some of his vet friends say the same thing...i don't know, i just know how much it bothers him....
question to other veterans: does it bother you when a stranger finds out you've been in the military and tell you "thank you for you service"? just curious if my husband is a weirdo
It had started long maybe as far back as Clinton vs Dole in 1996 from talk radio host in the initial response to the so-called seminar caller, one who added the veteran claim or being from the opposite political wing from a script to get on the talk show and flip the subject when on air.
It doesn't bother me, except when used as I really don't believe your claim but I will throw the line out in case I really did serve way. We have a national holiday set aside for the very thankful thing after all
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