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I just thank people for their support if they thank me for my service. No big deal.
On the less military side of town where I live, people will ask and I'll say no, I'm not military because I simply don't want the attention.
I told my wife that when I'm out of the military, people who we meet after my time is done probably won't even know I served. I don't wear any shirts, hats or have anything hanging on the wall.
Give $100 to a vet, Ben Fountain, author of the “Billy Lynn” book, half-joked,
saying it would at least show some sacrifice on the thanker’s part.
Yeah, please don't do that. Since getting stuck on recruiting duty against my will I've had one guy
pay for my lunch before I could say no. I felt really bad.
I just thank people for their support if they thank me for my service. No big deal.
On the less military side of town where I live, people will ask and I'll say no, I'm not military because I simply don't want the attention.
I told my wife that when I'm out of the military, people who we meet after my time is done probably won't even know I served. I don't wear any shirts, hats or have anything hanging on the wall.
Thank you, Army Guy, for making this so easy. Anyone who wishes not to be thanked has only to wear clothing that doesn't indicate "military". For some reason, the market where I usually shop has many elderly men shopping with/without wives. Some of them, the ones in my age bracket or a bit older, are wearing caps with the unit/ship/theater in which they served. I thank them for their service. Not one of them has ever expressed displeasure at being thanked.
There are other men who shop in the same store who are in jeans/sweats/chinos and regular winter jackets (it's really cold here!) Since I have no idea if they are ex-military or conscientious objectors, I don't thank them for their service.
As the Barefoot Contessa is so fond of saying, "How easy is that?"
.......I told my wife that when I'm out of the military, people who we meet after my time is done probably won't even know I served. I don't wear any shirts, hats or have anything hanging on the wall.
I'm like that. People are surprised when they find out I'm a Vet. It may be because of the above (though I do my plaques, framed commissioning paper on the wall......buried somewhere among multiple ballet and fantasy pics), that youthful appearance runs in my family, that I'm a belly dancer, or my attitudes are not what one might expect from a Vet.
Various people do know I'm something of law enforcement (properly a researcher) but ex Navy seems to come as a surprise to most.
A, B, C and D.
A: As to what I was alluding to earlier, let me just put it this way that at times I might have similar feelings a Brit might have about an American in WWII. IE, in that case, great that you are now on board but realize some of us have been in this for a while before.
B: I avoid my ROTC unit annual reunions because I have no wish to be around people who are still playing the game 30+ years after the fact. My military units reunions are fortunately away on this or that coast and that situation makes it quite easy not to go to them. Hence, my isolation from that time is probably another reason why people don't see me as a Vet.
C: Part of the side of doing intelligence then and LE research now is that back then, one learns not to talk too much about it and now, one learns not to talk too much about it because a lot of clueless people are more than ready to say their often wrong opinion of how things should be done. It is only when I'm in circles of people who know and understand that I do open up.
D: There is a lot of camouflage that has been built in my life. When I was in the Navy, I learned to conceal my military marching style with my dancing, such as ballet, moves. I can strike up an innocent conversation to interrogate someone (in the Navy, my best was when I did it to a Chaplain). Equally, I know enough about enough subjects such as art, engineering, and biology that I can pull on a subject to conceal other things I might be.
To sum it up, I am proud that I once served in the regulars and I served honorably, but that was a long time ago, and I have moved on to other things, that while who I was then is part of me now, I have since changed vastly from who I was then.
In combat sometimes there are things that are so over whelming you simple cannot be awake, you cannot be above it, you cannot be neutral, you cannot be untouched by it, simple as that... You see it, you feel it, you experience it, you live it and it will be with you for the rest of your days...
We Where Soldiers
I would rather be thanked than spit on like the Vietnam veterans had experienced. Vietnam was an unpopular war but the public had no love for us vets whether serving in Vietnam or not. Just traveling in uniform was asking for problems for some of us.
I knew a man who was a Marine, and he said it meant a lot to him when people would come up to him and say "Thank you so much". Being grateful is a good thing. More people should try it.
Ran across this on-line... Wondering what other vets think about this?
An other article. Another experience. Interesting to a degree.
The title "Please Don’t Thank Me for My Service" is a bit trollish, an attention getter. Mr. Garth never said what the title states. Mr. Garth explained himself well.
I grew up to always acknowledge a "thanks". And "you're welcome" would always be the minimum response. Matt Richtel (the writer/journalist) will never take that away from me.
Last edited by Poncho_NM; 03-05-2015 at 11:56 AM..
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