I wept today....

[yewberry]

10. I did, too.

And I never served.

I'm in my 40s and female, but I did spend two years doing national service. My service was easy compared to service members-- I taught for two years in my city's Title I schools. Not easy, given the minimum 50-hour-a-week requirement and the $900 monthly stipend, but nothing compared to combat.

The reason I got so angry is that my Grampa was in WWII. (FIL in Viet Nam, GM was a WAC, brother in Iraq... many family members in the service but all lived and mostly survived pretty much intact.) My Grampa was a navigator on a bomber and was shot down over Germany. He ended up at Stalag Luft One (after the great escape.) My Grampa was liberated by Russian forces and lived but was so traumatized that he was almost lost for the rest of his life after he came home. Back then we called it 'survivor's guilt.' He could never even speak of his experiences.

I saw that Trump garbage tonight and thought of my Grampa. That ignorant, useless man has never served a minute of his life and he had the GALL to to characterize my WWI navigator POW Grampa as "not strong" because he suffered terribly in a German POW camp? Is that really what the right wing is saying about our service members? They're WEAK?

Thank you for your post, and thanks for the opportunity to express some feelings I wasn't sure what to do with.