Did you expect or demand to be "worshipped" for your service? [View all]
I certainly didn't. In my time you were better off not letting anyone know you served in Vietnam. Because of our VN experience, returning troops today enjoy widespread expressions of public support.
Yet the notion of vets expecting or demanding worship has percolated up in some threads in GD. I won't call out any particular posters, but if you've been following there, you've seen it. In the discussions about troops and vets and their service it has to be about the most horsepuckiest thing I've seen.
The returning vets I see today are embarrassed to be thanked for their service. And when they're thanked by a VN vet they protest, "But we didn't go through what you guys did." And we have to tell them that we only had to do one involuntary tour, and we weren't stop-lossed past our DEROS or ETS.
It's certainly valid to call out blind support for the military, or at least the policies it is assigned to execute and the MIC and the contracts for more military hardware and the neocon machinations for more war. But when that criticism is commingled with attacks on the service of military personnel and vets, many of us have a righteous objection.
Many of the returning vets I see are struggling to survive, and to not do something desperate before that next VA appointment that is months away. They graciously accept our thanks, while knowing that our espressions of support do nothing to help them get the real support they need.
Demanding worship? Hell, some of the vets I see are living under bridges or--dangerously--in culverts where there's a risk of flash floods here.
Of all the criticism of troops and vets, the assertion that they demand to be "worshipped" is one that really chaps my ass. It is an ignorant claim that invariably comes from one who has never served.
What I have is the utmost respect for all of my brother and sister vets who have served--wherever they served--in war or in peace. And my commitment to help, wherever I can, those who are struggling.
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