A question to my fellow veterans

[Revanchist]

Does anyone else feel embarrassment when you are thanked for your service?

I spent twenty years in the Navy, mainly as an avionics technician but also doing other jobs such as quality assurance and running a safety department. Never in those twenty years was my life ever in danger, unless you count the risk of food poisoning from the ship's galley. I maintained aircraft on board one of the safest deployed locations in the entire military, an aircraft carrier. I was never on the front line, never had to touch a firearm after boot camp and never had to deal with someone shooting at me. Those who had to deal with those things deserve to be thanked, but I don't.

[Bandit]

1. My service was involuntary and I was completely against what we were doing.

I feel no pride in my actions other than I managed to make it back alive and in one piece. I do not wish to be thanked for doing something I opposed so strongly.

[sarisataka]

2. Always

and I have been in several combat situations. I was just doing a job with unusual requirements.
I thank them and ask that they support the vets who were not as lucky as I and need medical, social and psychological care.

[Ranchemp.]

3. Not at all.

I served with honor and I'm not in any way uncomfortable with someone thanking me for my service.
And I disagree that you don't deserve to be thanked, you put on the uniform of your country and were ready to give the ultimate sacrifice, that deserves a hearty thank you.

I served in combat, that doesn't make me more deserving than you or anyone else who served, whether in combat or not.

[Glorfindel]

4. Yes, but I can appreciate the motive behind the "thank you."

It does me no harm and, I hope, makes the other people feel a little better somehow.

[Marrah_G]

5. Service doesn't always mean holding a weapon or being in a war zone.

[Ranchemp.]

8. Very true.

I have just as much respect for those that protest an unjust war as I do for my fellow vets and I thank and salute them too.

[Lasher]

6. Yes, but I have always felt uncomfortable when praised.

I've learned to just say, "Thank you." In the past I've tried to say I didn't do anything to deserve it or something like that. But then I'd take a chance on making someone feel bad when they were trying to be nice to me.

My advice is, just say you appreciate it and let it go at that. Unless it's Kindergartners. They're fun and the'll believe anything. When I go to the school on Vets' Day I make up all kinda shit about holding off an enemy battalion with a rubber band and a stapler. Threw grenades with my teeth, that kinda stuff.

Happy Vets' Day, Sailor. My dad was in the Navy during WWII. Earned the Submarine Combat Patrol Badge 6 times aboard USS Nautilus (SS-168).

[MADem]

7. No, it's more about the people recognizing a generic volunteerism. It isn't personal.

When they thank me, they're actually thanking the people who are buried in the Punch Bowl, or Nettuno, or Arlington--or who are parked in beds in the rehab facilities and veterans' hospitals around the country.

It's not about me--it's about those folks. Living, breathing, in-CONUS servicemembers and vets who have much, if not all, of their health are stand-ins for those who make far greater sacrifices.

So no, it doesn't embarrass me at all, I understand the sentiment and I don't mind being a proxy. I realize that is all I am.

As for serving in an aircraft carrier, it can be a little hairy if you don't know what you're doing!

[rudolph the red]

9. The only way that they are going to know is if I bring it up,

which I only do with friends and family. It's not like I walk around wearing a sign.

*edit for spelling error.

[Mariana]

10. Yes.

Most of them who do that, in my experience, are pro-war right wingers who watch Faux News. I don't think most of them really mean it - they're doing it because they want everyone to see how patriotic they are. It's easy and it doesn't cost them anything. You won't catch most of them actually doing anything to help veterans.

I know there are many people who are sincere in their appreciation. I've known some of them. But the absolute strangers who walk up to you in public and say thank you? Most of them are full of shit.