A majority of younger veterans said they feel uncomfortable when they are told “thank you for your service,” a new poll found.
Ahead of Veterans Day on Saturday, a survey found disparities between young military members and their older counterparts in how they prefer to be recognized for their service.
Among younger military members and veterans — age 18 to 29 — 70 percent said they feel uncomfortable or awkward when they are thanked for their service. Only 24 percent of older members, 65 years and up, say the same, the Endeavor Analytics and YouGov poll found.
“This data shows that military service members and our veterans want Americans to go beyond small talk to connect with them on a deeper level, including learning more about their service, honoring each veteran’s service in ways in which they feel comfortable talking about it,” Robert F. Whittle Jr., retired Army major general and United Services Automobile Association (USAA) chief of staff, said in a statement.
I never served on active duty, but I did a few years of ROTC in college, before I had to drop out for medical reasons, and we would wear the uniforms. The rank insignias are completely different but most people can’t tell the difference. I would get thanked for my “service” every now and then and have no idea how to respond. But beyond that, even if I was an active service member, I think it would be awkward. Many of those guys, especially enlisted folks, are doing it for personal gain. Recruiters push the fact that you can get training to develop lifelong skills that you can use outside the military. You get a big signing bonus, and pretty good pay. It’s a great option for anyone who slacked off in high school and have no idea what to do with their lives. Then people randomly thank you as if you’re doing something noble. Of course that would make you feel awkward, even guilty sometimes, like you’re taking advantage of something you shouldn’t be, like you’re a fraud because you know the kind of person this people think you should be and you know you’re not that person.
Most people serve for their initial contract of 4 years and then leave. You get your GI bill at that point and can attend college for free. With the cost of secondary education these days, it is a very good path to take to overcome the bullshit price hikes of the last few decades that have disadvantaged our younger generations. Some people who take that path are quietly angry at the world for forcing them down it, for forcing them to compromise their moral integrity (in some cases) and serve in the military, and delay the real start to their adult life for 4 years, just to catch up to the level of their more privileged peers whose parents can pay for their college expenses for them.
It’s also awkward when people thank you on Memorial Day, which is specifically a day to honor the dead. Thanking an active or retired serviceman kinda feels like stolen valor. Veterans Day is for honoring the living. This is forgivable though because most people are simply unaware of the distinction.
Vet here. I give you my blessing. 😉 I’m okay when it comes from people genuinely, but when it comes from the employee at Lowe’s, it means absolutely nothing, regardless - so I usually just say “no thank you”. And I think people only do it because marketing in the early 2000s really pushed that shit. When I got back in 2005, people in the airport started an applause and some old greasy guy grabbed my arm and took my hand to shake it. I hated every second of it. I wished the building would have collapsed on them. I kept thinking, I wonder if they would be so quick to applaud us if they saw half the pictures I had taken. I deleted every picture I had and exorcized those SD cards within days. And the only thing outside of my own head that reminds me of the horrible shit we did is those fucking bobbleheads and their incessant gratuity.
That said, I did get the third degree from a Vietnam vet once because, he “never got thanked” for his service, “they just called us babykillers”. Which I thought was funny, because when I was shipping out, a young adolescent saw us in uniform and yelled, “babykillers!”, to which I responded, “wrong war buddy”, and my platoon mates laughed. So I suppose getting empty, ignorant valor is better than misdirected vitriol.
Either way, fuck nationalists.
Thank you for stealing oil and perpetuating out global hegemony - ftfy
Older veterans do too. We all think it’s weird.
It’s always been weird, it’s a job, do you tell the Starbucks employee that serves our country and helps keep the American economy going “thank you for your service”? It would make sense if we didn’t have a volunteer military but we do so it’s the same as thanking anyone for the job they do if they see you in your work uniform
I only say it to bus drivers because they are the thin khaki line that stands between peace and total societal collapse
Even when it’s more than a job think about what you’re actually encapsulating in such a mundane phrase. People lost friends, limbs, even their sanity, and so much of society thinks hearing “Thank You” is all vets need.
Then the VA is falling apart, claims are a mental health problem themselves, and getting care in some of the hospitals is a battle itself. But it’s all okay because someone said thank you.
At a certain age group it also comes off a bit insulting in that they didn’t sign up during wartime. But they were sent to a war because of a massive amount of lies.
Young? Literally every person I served with said it was weird over a decade ago.
Well yes young, as the article states that for veterans over 65, it was only 24% that felt uncomfortable.
I think something to consider is what veterans that old went through. They likely were drafted to serve in Vietnam against their will. That’s a much different situation than any soldier has been in since then. I think they very well should be thanked for what they were forced to do, especially since many of them received the exact opposite treatment back then right after the war. Many people treated those soldiers as war criminals just because they idealogically opposed the war. At the very least, they deserve respect and compassion. That war completely changed so many people’s lives for the worse, with a great many suicides as well.
Yeah for sure. The treatment of US soldiers returning from Vietnam is an embarrassing stain on our history.
Especially when the counter-culture lead the charge, spitting on them and calling them baby killers.
Most of those guys were still pretty much kids and didn’t want to be there in the first place.
