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americus 2.0 · 02-21-2015, 08:19 PM

Story

"I thanked him for his service.



“No problem,” he said.

It wasn’t true. There was a problem. I could see it from the way he looked down. And I could see it on the faces of some of the other vets who work with Mr. Garth when I thanked them too. What gives, I asked? Who doesn’t want to be thanked for their military service?

Many people, it turns out. Mike Freedman, a Green Beret, calls it the “thank you for your service phenomenon.” To some recent vets — by no stretch all of them — the thanks comes across as shallow, disconnected, a reflexive offering from people who, while meaning well, have no clue what soldiers did over there or what motivated them to go, and who would never have gone themselves nor sent their own sons and daughters."

This is where I vent a little......

See, as a vet this irritates me. I wasn't in during war (went in in '92) and I don't know what they've gone through in Iraq and Afghanistan, but as a vet I know what it's like to live the military life, and as the former spouse of one who went to Iraq and know folks who came back injured or in a box, I know the stress- just in a different way.

Don't assume you're talking to the very people you think you're talking to when you say, "Don't thank me." Don't assume we don't know, don't assume we didn't go, don't assume we didn't send our kids. As much as you say we don't know jack, well you don't either. Don't assume we don't mean what we say.

I respect the fact that you enlisted for whatever reasons you did, but you need to get over yourself. You chose to enlist knowing you'd go over there. War is hell. Is it easy for me to say that right now from the comfort of my home? Sure it is, but I've lived the military life from both sides so don't tell me I don't know. I just know in a different way.

I know what it's like to be on the phone with my loved one who is over there and all of a sudden he says, "Oh [BLEEP], gotta go" and drops the phone while I hear sirens going off in the background that indicate they're getting shelled or bombed. I didn't hear from him for 2 days. I know what it's like to hear all hell has broken loose in the area where they are, yet we're not given a SITREP. I've dealt with the PTSD, the nightmares, the depression my spouse had to go through, and if you think we don't deal with it, you're very, very wrong. I have stories of my own and don't tell me they are less important than yours.