{"id":58382,"date":"2015-02-22T14:53:43","date_gmt":"2015-02-22T19:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=58382"},"modified":"2015-02-22T16:15:45","modified_gmt":"2015-02-22T21:15:45","slug":"please-dont-thank-me-for-my-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=58382","title":{"rendered":"“Please Don\u2019t Thank Me for My Service”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I guess it is that time of year again for these pieces. This one from the New York Times<\/a> and the message comes from a Marine, Hunter Garth;<\/p>\n

Mike Freedman, a Green Beret, calls it the \u201cthank you for your service phenomenon.\u201d To some recent vets \u2014 by no stretch all of them \u2014 the thanks comes across as shallow, disconnected, a reflexive offering from people who, while meaning well, have no clue what soldiers did over there or what motivated them to go, and who would never have gone themselves nor sent their own sons and daughters.<\/p>\n

To these vets, thanking soldiers for their service symbolizes the ease of sending a volunteer army to wage war at great distance \u2014 physically, spiritually, economically. It raises questions of the meaning of patriotism, shared purpose and, pointedly, what you\u2019re supposed to say to those who put their lives on the line and are uncomfortable about being thanked for it.<\/p>\n

Mr. Garth, 26, said that when he gets thanked it can feel self-serving for the thankers, suggesting that he did it for them, and that they somehow understand the sacrifice, night terrors, feelings of loss and bewilderment. Or don\u2019t think about it at all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Freedman goes on to say that he prefers the way people treated veterans after Vietnam; \u201cAt least with Vietnam, people spit on you and you knew they had an opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spoken like someone who wasn’t there after Vietnam. I didn’t go to Vietnam, but I experienced the public backlash. Many people who I encountered were appreciative of veterans service and they expressed that appreciation subtly, which I am more accustomed to than the outward expression today. You know, like the stewardess that guides you to the unbooked First Class seat even though you know that you bought the cheaper seat. There was no social media to tell the world about it, though.<\/p>\n

I’ll admit that the “Thank you for your service” is a little bit embarrassing, and it has only happened in recent years, you know, even though my service was decades ago. But it is much better than the days when a civilian saw vets as a “mark” to cheat. When vets couldn’t get treatment from the VA, and no one really cared whether you could or not. If scores of veterans died in Arizona without treatment in this day and age, can you imagine how many were lost post-Vietnam, when no one gave a rat’s ass?<\/p>\n

So, the pendulum has swung back to the other side from the Vietnam years. Its my opinion that tolerating a few knee-jerk “Thank you for your service” is a damn sight better than the alternative. I’ve given out lots of “thank you for your service” but it wasn’t to make me feel better about myself, it was to reassure a young veteran, who couldn’t be sure if I was a veteran or not, that his or her service has value beyond their own heart. The same way, I reflexively “welcome home” every Vietnam veteran I meet.<\/p>\n

We also have to tolerate the valor thieves because suddenly our service has value in the eyes of the public. It is one of the prices that we have to pay for a culture that has no real heroes. It is a little embarrassing sometimes, but it is a small price to pay and like I said, it beats the alternative. So quitcher bitchin’.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I guess it is that time of year again for these pieces. This one from the … “Please Don\u2019t Thank Me for My Service”<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-support-the-troops"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58382","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=58382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}