Very true statement by Sid. “The hero thing, it gets old fast” so now the 99% who have no interest in serving in the military think that telling a vet “thank you for your service” makes it all better. Well, from a 68-80 Vet(enlisted, not drafted, served 18 months in Vietnam) to me at least, it doesn’t. While after GWI ended and the troops came home everyone cheered and thanked the troops, It was welcome. However, a good 17 years after GWII started, that phrase is, to me, trite and meaningless. With fewer than 1% of Americans enlisting or being close family members of servicepersons, its as tho no one really wants to be reminded of anything like a war that no longer rates anything on TV or in the newspapers. Meanwhile, todays troops are older and a great many are married and still, for what they do, the pay is horrible. Hello, do you know how many active duty troops families get SNAP aka Food Stamps? Lots of them. IMVPO the worst thing this country ever did was to get rid of the draft. Which could easily have been fixed. Simple, draft everyone(male and female) when the reach 18, no exceptions. Why? Because back in the day the scions of the FILCH=FILthy riCH served right next to the poor, they saw the other half and made life long friends.(until of course the draft system became corrupted and the FILCH learned how to avoid it) As did White and Black and Brown. I grew up very poor in a small town in Northern MI. I had never spoken to a black man before I enlisted. The only spanish speaking people I associated with were migrant pickers-because I worked picking crops right next to them-until I entered the Military at age 17 a week after I graduated HS. IMPO we started splitting apart as a country when the draft ended. I will get off my soap box now.
Very true statement by Sid. “The hero thing, it gets old fast” so now the 99% who have no interest in serving in the military think that telling a vet “thank you for your service” makes it all better. Well, from a 68-80 Vet(enlisted, not drafted, served 18 months in Vietnam) to me at least, it doesn’t. While after GWI ended and the troops came home everyone cheered and thanked the troops, It was welcome. However, a good 17 years after GWII started, that phrase is, to me, trite and meaningless. With fewer than 1% of Americans enlisting or being close family members of servicepersons, its as tho no one really wants to be reminded of anything like a war that no longer rates anything on TV or in the newspapers. Meanwhile, todays troops are older and a great many are married and still, for what they do, the pay is horrible. Hello, do you know how many active duty troops families get SNAP aka Food Stamps? Lots of them. IMVPO the worst thing this country ever did was to get rid of the draft. Which could easily have been fixed. Simple, draft everyone(male and female) when the reach 18, no exceptions. Why? Because back in the day the scions of the FILCH=FILthy riCH served right next to the poor, they saw the other half and made life long friends.(until of course the draft system became corrupted and the FILCH learned how to avoid it) As did White and Black and Brown. I grew up very poor in a small town in Northern MI. I had never spoken to a black man before I enlisted. The only spanish speaking people I associated with were migrant pickers-because I worked picking crops right next to them-until I entered the Military at age 17 a week after I graduated HS. IMPO we started splitting apart as a country when the draft ended. I will get off my soap box now.