I hate to be an ass, but stop "thanking me for my service on Memorial Day"

[Recursion]

I'm not one of those vets who gets irritated on being thanked for serving; I do actually enjoy that. What bothers me is the idea that Memorial Day is in particular a day to do that.

We have Armed Forces Day (last weekend, in fact) to honor people who are currently serving. We have Veterans' day to honor veterans. By all means, buy me a beer this November 11th (I can be found at the American Legion Post on Capitol Hill in all likelihood; for a beer I will certainly sign you in).

Memorial Day is for honoring the fallen. It's not even limited to those who died in war. It's for remembering those who shaped our lives and are not with us in the body anymore. Love does not end with the life of the loved, and Memorial Day is (in theory) the day we set aside to honor that.

Obviously the bigger problem is the furniture sales. It's definitely not a day to buy a widescreen TV really cheap. But here we are.

That said, I think this is the right time for Rolling Thunder to do what they do for POW/MIA awareness. So maybe I'm a hypocrite. *shrug*

[Scuba]

1. If you want to thank a veteran, fallen or otherwise, for his/her service....

... then stop sending the next generation of veterans into unnecessary and illegal wars.



That's all this veteran asks.

[Ishoutandscream2]

2. Out of the park!! Grand slam!!

I can't agree enough!

[Recursion]

3. Well said

Nobody hates war like a veteran...

[tabasco]

10. My observation: Air force & Navy vets seem to love wars

They get to wear a "campaign ribbon" but never go anywhere near flying bullets.

[TBF]

18. Sometimes you don't need to be near bullets to be injured -

my dad handled chemicals that resulted in disfigurement. He is considered over 100% disabled from his war service (boiler rooms on Naval ships are not the most pleasant places to serve).

[former9thward]

26. Not too many army people rotted away in POW cages in Vietnam.

[tabasco]

35. Tens of thousands more grunts got blown away in rice paddies.

But I am not disparaging pilots.

[Scuba]

27. Air Force vet here. Generalizations are often wrong.

[tabasco]

32. I did not generalize.

I stated my observation.

[UTUSN]

36. Funny, I didn't see you "observing" in the rivers of Vietnam. & I'll bet WWII & Korean War Navy vets

would have a few choice flying bullets to discuss with you.

You know, this is exactly the main reason I stay away from the VFW, of which I'm a Life Member by having paid them $200: Because there is this crap spouted there, the branch-against-branch crap.

[SGMRTDARMY]

37. I'm with you

My brother saw just as much action in Vietnam as I did. He was a Navy Seabee and I was with the 75th Ranger Infantry Regiment.

[UTUSN]

40. Thanks & salutes to you both. n/t

[11 Bravo]

29. Quite possibly the dumbest fucking post in DU history.

on edit: US Army vet here

[tabasco]

31. Stating my observation?

Really?

Army infantry combat vet here.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

39. Army combat vet? Then how could you make such an observation?

Seriously, when did you ever observe that "Air force & Navy vets seem to love wars"?

Where were these Air Force and Navy vets that you observed? When was this?

[cliffordu]

45. REALLY. My questions exactly.

[11 Bravo]

48. A Shau Valley ... 70-71 ... Lam Son 719 and Texas Star

I have also heard a few shots fired in anger, and my opinion of your post remains.
(My Dad was a Naval Aviator. He flew in aerial combay in the South Pacific and in Korea, receiving a DFC for his efforts. Just another candy-ass chickenhawk swabbie, eh?)

[SGMRTDARMY]

34. Then you really don't know shit

Last edited Sun May 27, 2012, 01:02 AM - Edit history (1)

My brother is a retired Navy Seabee who fought alongside the Marines in Vietnam and Air Force ParaRescue constantly go in harms way rescuing downed airmen behind enemy lines, before you disparage, learn wtf your talking about. Myself and my brother are both combat vets and we both hate war.

[rexcat]

41. Such a nice blanket statement...

I served in the USAF and I don't like wars. When I was in I don't know of too many first term airmen who really liked war. That was why were in the USAF. It might be different now but there are many airmen who are in harms way as we speak. I am sure there are more than a few Navy personnel in harms way including all of the medics the Marines use.

Of course when my draft number came up I won the damn thing. I had no desire to go to Viet Nam and at the time there were more than a few draftees going over to Viet Nam so I joined the USAF, picked a specialty that had a long training program and after training found out that first term airmen in my MOS did not go into combat zones. Lucky me. I spent my time at Patrcik AFB (Cocoa Beach, FL) as part of medical operations for manned space. I got to take a small part in the Apollo 17, SkyLabs and Apollo/Soyuz missions.

If I could have gone to Canada I would by my father was a career fighter pilot in the USAF and my options were limited. He was all about god, country and the rest of the bullshit.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

46. If his statement was true, that they "never go anywhere near flying bullets," no one would ever see

a Navy Corpsman in the photo at the flag raising on Iwo Jima.

Corpsman John Bradley is the second from the right. He was one of the six who symbolized collective grit and tenacity regardless of personal risk. Many Corpsmen have been shot or otherwise killed. Bradley was later wounded.



In combat, Corpsmen are the ones rushing to give first aid. It is well known that they do so regardless of personal risk. There should be no doubt, Marines have the highest regard for Corpsmen and their courage.

[flvegan]

42. Your observation is shit.

Dear jurors, that's a fact.

[yewberry]

43. Really? My Grampy was in the Air Force.

He was a navigator and his B25 was shot down over Germany. He barely survived Stalag Luft One, but suffered crushing survivor's guilt for the rest of his life. He was never the same.

He hated war. He hated everything about it.

So seriously, shove it.

[cliffordu]

44. WTF...Really???

Go do a tour and then get back to us.

[coalition_unwilling]

51. I wish you would self-delete this post. I don't think it

is fair, either to Navy vets like John Kerry or to air force vets like George McGovern. I don't think either loved\loves war particularly. Each was up close and personal with flying bullets.

[lynne]

56. My dead uncle says different -

- U.S. Navy, Battle of Leyte Gulf. Buried at sea.

I think you need to observe a little more before making such statements as you've obviously not seen much.

[boilerbabe]

60. umm. The Battleship Missouri had a missle heading

straight for it during DESERT STORM and it got knocked out of the sky just in time by the British Navy. I think my brother earned his medal, thank you very MUCH.

on edit: i was excited when i posted. obviously not a tomahawk missle. it is on the Uss Missouri wiki page. I am outta here.

[MineralMan]

61. You observe badly.

USAF and USN personnel have died in every war. You are incorrect.

[Warpy]

21. That's why having real ones in government is good

and I don't mean peacetime or stateside veterans, I mean the guys who went through hell and came back to tell about it. They're the most likely to want to use war as an absolute last resort.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

12. The only way to stop sending the next generation into unnecessary and illegal wars

is to not vote for the politiicans who have a track record of supporting unnecessary and illegal wars.

Some of those politiicans are outright chicken-hawks. Others pretend to be opposed to unnecessary and illegal wars but fund them anyway.

[coalition_unwilling]

52. I also favor a return to universal military conscription as a way to promote

the health and well-being of our democratic republic (notice lower-case 'd' and 'r').

No college (Cheney) or religious (Romney) exemptions this time around, though.

I know this position is viewed as heterodox here.

[cindyperry2010]

13. All this one wants as well.

I don't want to be thanked I volunteered and those that were drafted are the ones that deserve thanks imho and stop starting wars so there does not have to be anymore veterans.

[jerseyjack]

20. This mornings NY Times had an article about an artist who does drawings of vets in VA hospital.

Vets that were disfigured or were made amputees.


It made me angry, thinking of pieces of shit ---- Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell and their ginning up the useless wars.

"The smoking gun will be a mushroom cloud."

I ain't that much more happy about Obama continuing Afghanistan either.

[SGMRTDARMY]

33. This retired veteran

wholeheartedly agrees with you.

[geckosfeet]

4. Thanks for giving me something to think about.

If I ever pass through the DC area I will most certainly look you up for a beer,...

[coalition_unwilling]

53. Ditto! Maybe even something a bit stronger. - n/t

[hlthe2b]

6. Seems like those who do so are being awkward....

much like those who don't know what to say when someone has died. On the latter score, I learned to grin and bear the well-meaning if annoyingly inappropriate comments presented after the deaths of multiple family members over the course of a mere few months. Unfortunately, it just comes with the whole process.

I have no problem with honoring your request. But I can understand why some have no idea what to say, given how divorced most of our country is from military service. As Scuba mentions below, perhaps a better way to honor veterans is to ensure the end to unprovoked and unnecessary wars.

[msongs]

8. or given how much of the military is not actually providing a real service to the nation nt

[dadchef]

58. I'm new to posting, so I'll try to contain my response to just a few words..

We provided you a country were you can be as Fucking Thankless, Thoughtless, and Free to be as Worthless as you appear to be.. It really is worth responding to me, and it isn't that I don't think much of you, after this statement, I won't think of you at all..

[raouldukelives]

7. It's an odd thing.

Thanking people, at least for events I was totally opposed too. I've had no qualms thanking veterans of WW2 and truly respect the service of volunteers. Some of our latest conquests just seem less noble than WW2.
But then I might have felt weird thanking Gen.Custer. Hard to say. Iraq and Afghanistan remind me of the old west. Hordes of military men carrying the latest in mans advancements in the art of killing streaming across a country only interested in what the poor indigenous people are living on top of.
In any case, may we way never forget the true cost of war and may all your memories of your lost loved ones be beautiful.

[zeemike]

9. Well I am one of those vets that are irritated by the thanking ritual we have.

But then I was a vet when the military was conscripted...and those that served did so because they thought it was their duty to serve...and you should never thank people for doing what their duty is....and the doors of that duty don't want to be thanked for it....at least I don't.

After and during WW2 no one went around thanking service men for their service ...and because of that we had a more humane military because it was drawn from the general population and most people are humane...and so we did not use torture as a tool....and did not piss on the dead....and did not record and share the horrors of war with our friends as if it were some game they were playing.
In fact I had a father in WW1....and two brothers in WW2....and they never told war stories and never acted like they did some great things and that you should know about it....in fact I only learned that my father fought and was wounded in the Battle of Belleau Woods in Franc....in fact they did not see themselves as heroes but just as men doing their duty...A concept we have lost altogether and in it's place is put a cult of heroes.

Bring back the draft...and restore the honer to the service of country.

[coalition_unwilling]

55. +1,000,000,000 x 1,000,000,000 - n/t

[RGBII]

11. stop "thanking me for my service on Memorial Day"

From a fellow veteran, I agree completely.

[link:

|

[Rozlee]

14. I'm bitter enough to say "I don't want your damn thanks."

Sorry, but it's true and I'm not the only one who thinks so. In Bush's wars, many soldiers have come home in coffins and many are disabled in body and spirit. I've had to go to therapy for head injuries at the VA and Brooke Army Medical Center and there are vets and active duty suffering from PTSD. I've seen a couple of guys go off when people have said, "Thank you for your service." I don't care who I offend on this board; I didn't fight in a just war. The only thing I can say in my defense is that I was a nurse and tried to do no harm. But, I still served as a puppet for evil men and did nothing to change that. I'm not proud.

[TomClash]

15. +1

[cindyperry2010]

17. Thank you for

your honesty and forthrightness. I admire and respect a person of integrity and honesty

[AnotherMcIntosh]

16. The "thank you for your service" is an irritant. It's an echo of that publicity seeking,

arms-trading-to-our-enemies Ollie North and others on the Faux News channel.

Before Ollie North and Faux News channel was created, did anyone go around and thank WW I vets, WW II vets, Korean War Vets, or Viet Nam vets for their service?

Ollie North, in contrast to that professional sneering propagandist Bill O'Reilly, actually served. And he is a combat vet. But so what? In contrast to his sworn oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic," he knowingly participated in trading arms to Iran.

No vet should want a "thanks for your service" from such a person, from a chicken-hawk O"Reilly, or anyone who is echoing the thank-your-for-your-service phrase that they publicized with their Faux News station.

[Aristus]

19. I agree. Whenever my veteran status comes up in mixed company,

the ones most likely to rush in a "thankyouforyourservice!" seem to be the right-wingers. I've posted about this before, but this thanks seems to have been reduced by a sense of obligation to a polite nothing, like 'have a nice day.'

I didn't do what I did in order to receive the thanks of those who see war as a glorious, nation up-lifting adventure. Or as a way of asserting national, ideological, or cultural dominance. I served for the adventure, the money, and a reserved understated patriotism that the hystrionic flag-flailers of the right-wing could never understand.

And because crewing an M1A1 Abrams tank was the coolest thing in the world...

[cindyperry2010]

24. I usually do not tell people

because I do not want them to know about it. Frankly I was in the early nineties for 10 years and i am way past that as a person something I did not who I am

[cindyperry2010]

25. And when I lived in barracks somebody

got stabbed to death right in my door way I am past all of that as a person.

[Mariana]

57. Everybody knows damn well the only reason they say it

is because they were told to say it by the likes of Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh. It would be slightly less annoying if it was their own idea.

[UTUSN]

22. R#18 & K for, I *am* one of those who gets irritated and I like your points, too!1 n/t

[Bigmack]

23. I have told people when they said that...

.... lots of ugly things.

I point out that I was proud of being a Marine.... it's nearly impossible to be a Marine and not be proud... that training insures you WILL be proud. And I'm ashamed of what my country did with my service. I was used for crass political purposes... not for defending America. I point out that, while I served 4 years, not one minute of that time was spent defending American Freedom or whatever. I killed and brutalized people who were no threat to this country.

Don't thank me for my service. Thank me by not making more veterans.

[RGBII]

28. Wow!

An obviously honest and nonetheless, distressing response.

Bigmack, I sincerely hope that the cynicism/shame associated
with your service will evolve into an event that structured your future
and your philosophy(ies).

[rainbow4321]

30. Sad thing is when it comes down to really taking care of them

the system drops the ball.
Found out from a co worker how horribly short staffed the local VA hospital is this weekend...yeah, that is any EVERYday occurance--but to be in the middle of the weekend where "thank a vet for their service" is all over the media, when it comes down to it, the management system that has a chance to really show their appreciation by taking care of the vets in their time of illness and need, is shrugging off calls by frontline workers that things are imploding on the wards and they need help trying to provide basic healthcare to the vets. As I said, this is an everyday situation so it's not like everything goes well the other 360-some days of the year...all we hear about is budget cuts, etc...
The powers that be could easily tell middle management to get their asses into work and provide the needed relief. But they are too busy sending out rah-rah-rah emails to overwhelmed bedside staff about how our environment/people love our vets and appreciate them.
Tell that to the vet and his/her family when they have to wait forever to have their call light answered or to get someone in their room for assistance. It's to a point where a family member will not use the call light, instead they come find us and stand there and stare at us in hopes of escorting us back to their room.

Unfortunately, coming and finding me/us doesn't mean we can or will drop the care that is being given to the patient/vet who we are doing a task for at that very moment. It just means you get to stand in the hallway outside that vet's room or stare at me as I am getting medications ready for the person down the hall, or as I am on the non ending phone calls with the doctor's trying to get orders for another vet's care.

Meanwhile the powers that be who could solve this chronic problem will enjoy their three day week and stroll back into their collective offices on Tuesday and send off more rah-rah emails or send one of their minions around to the wards to lecture us on how to use minimal supplies when providing care because some bean counter up in the management penthou$e is trying to pinch pennnies where they shouldn't be.

[alterfurz]

49. "A country that cannot take care of its existing veterans...

...has no business creating new ones."

[tawadi]

38. I understand perfectly what you mean

Most people do not understand the traditions of Memorial Day. It is to honor those lost. Doesn't seem like a difficult concept to me. But, hey, what do I know...

[GeorgeGist]

47. Sons and daughters die fighting for the 1%.

I'm not proud of that.

[coalition_unwilling]

50. Memorial Day is a day to read and perhaps recite out loud Lincoln's

peroration in the "Gettysburg Address":

"that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Call me a schmuck, but those words make me tear up every time I read them.

[Baitball Blogger]

54. Well, I thank you for your service.

I respect any military man who can transition into civilian life bringing into the community the honor and principles for which he fought for. I also think we should provide the best medical care for those who have been scarred by their experiences.

[slackmaster]

59. I will defend to the death your right to be an ass