{"id":27406,"date":"2011-11-10T12:56:33","date_gmt":"2011-11-10T16:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=27406"},"modified":"2011-11-10T12:56:33","modified_gmt":"2011-11-10T16:56:33","slug":"peacetime-vet-beats-herself-up-in-the-nyt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=27406","title":{"rendered":"Peacetime vet beats herself up in the NYT"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s sad that a veteran who never saw war during her enlistment has to begin her piece in the New York Times by telling us that this isn’t a case of Stolen Valor, but that’s how Kristina Shevory<\/a> begins her opinion piece, “Thoughts of a Peacetime Veteran<\/a>“;<\/p>\n

Still, there\u2019s a growing sense that I\u2019m not a full veteran. I didn\u2019t suffer hundreds of mortar attacks. I didn\u2019t roll over an I.E.D. on patrol in a Humvee. I didn\u2019t watch a buddy step on a land mine and turn into \u201cpink mist.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, that’s just bullshit, dear. The VA says you’re a “full veteran” after 180 days of active duty service. We’ve been fortunate that there have been long periods of relative peace, but in the world since World War Two, the military’s most important function was to be ready, and if you stood in the breach, you’re a “full veteran”.<\/p>\n

What’s more important is what you did for other veterans or the currently serving members of the military after you finished your term. Kristina laments that she can’t join the VFW, but I’ll bet she qualifies for the American Legion. She didn’t have to watch a friend get blown up in a fine pink mist, but did she bother to help out a wounded soldier who returned from the battle?<\/p>\n

We share a common uniform and a common bond. No one understands duty and commitment better than a veteran, whether they were shot at or not. If you rolled out of bed at one in the morning to answer the call of an alert, no matter what your personal state of readiness, you understand – and you’re needed on the frontlines of warrior care.<\/p>\n

Rather than lament the fact that history didn’t provide you with the opportunity to render your last full measure of devotion in service to your country, step up and offer your devotion to your brothers and sisters who stepped up when you couldn’t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s sad that a veteran who never saw war during her enlistment has to begin her … Peacetime vet beats herself up in the NYT<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-veterans-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}