do vet's thank vet's ?

September 23, 2017, 10:28 PM

parallel

In the proper setting I have and do as have other vets done so for me. I don't get to worked about it either way. I don't wear my service on my sleeve like some do (not in real life anyway). I refrain from anything advertising military service like Veteran plates , window stickers, etc. I guess it's just falling back upon the advise given on my first day as a part of NAVSPECWAR Group 2. They always told us not to do anything that would make us a target and those very items were among the specific examples given. So... in my daily life about the only folks who know I'm a vet are other vets so every once in while someone will ask and give thanks, when they do I reciprocate.

I do however make it a point to thank active duty for their service and any Vet from the Greatest Generation.

September 23, 2017, 10:43 PM

Nickelsig229

I'm lucky to be around vets often.

I notice that vets in the same age group don't tend to thank each other. Instead they sort of share a camaraderie about their service and typically show a genuine respect for each other.

When I see a larger age gap I do see some form of thanks, always mutual.

September 23, 2017, 10:45 PM

charlie12

quote:
Originally posted by tacfoley:
I only served thirty-three years all but ten days, full-time, no reserve time, so I can hardly be considered to have served this country...as a result, I've never once been thanked for my service, either by a veteran or a civilian.

I guess that here in yUK nobody gives a shit whether you served or not.

One of the older members of our village Thursday Club, now in his 90's, not only served his country, but went ashore in Normandy in 1944 with the Royal Norfolk Regiment, and got away from the ensuing battles intact.

I make a point of chatting with him whenever we meet up, and listening hard to what he has to say.

The short DVD of the action that took place inland from the beaches, in order to secure them from long-range artillery harrassing fire, are petrifying, to say the least. Taking German heavy gun emplacements, real concrete fortresses with many remote MG posts, cost many lives that day, most of them the Royal Norfolks.

tac

Thank you from me tac I always enjoy reading anything you post and really about your military times since I don't hear from Veteran over there.
And yep I thank Vets and active duty folks too.

September 24, 2017, 11:28 AM

mrmn50

I welcome home every Nam Vet I meet. Have walked across a room to do so and have had that done to me.

There is a definite closeness.

September 24, 2017, 11:45 AM

LimaCharlie

I do.

September 24, 2017, 12:13 PM

Gustofer

I guess I'll be the odd man out here.

I think that the "Thank you for your service" has been so overdone in recent years that it has become essentially meaningless, not unlike "Hero" and "Thoughts and prayers".

People say these things nowadays because they think they need to or because everyone else does, rather than as a genuinely heart-felt expression (of course, there are exceptions). To me, it/they has/have become tired, meaningless, disingenuous, and somewhat aggravating.

I was in from 86-90, during which time I did nothing of note other than what I was told and collecting a (paltry) paycheck. I happily got out when I could. Someone not too long ago learned of my Army service and thanked me for it.

Save it. I signed up for a (lousy) paying job and money for college, not for any greater good or to kill terrorists or save the world from the commies. It was simply a means to an end and nothing else for me at the time.

Thank someone who actually deserves it and has earned it...and when you mean it.

September 24, 2017, 12:30 PM

10X-Shooter

Only war I was a part of was the Cold War. I always feel strange when thanked for my service. Compared to the men who've seen day to day action, my contribution always seems minuscule in comparison. When I meet a vet I usually exchange unit and date information and go from there with conversation most anyone else wouldn't understand.

September 24, 2017, 12:50 PM

bigguy

quote:
Originally posted by 911Boss:
Sure.

I served 1981-1990, only conflict during that time was shooting down a couple Libyan planes who tried to start some shit, Grenada, and Panama (Noriega). I wasn’t involved even remotely in any of that and got out just before the Desert Shield build up. Usually when folks thank me I feel that compared to the warriors of the past 20 years, I really dont deserve it.

The recognition from other veterans really hit me one day last year. I have a Marine Corps sticker and US Flag/pledge decal on the back of my truck. I get a lot of compliments on it. People ask me about it and will frequently take pictures of it.

Here is a pic before I added the EGA with “USMC” underneath to the driver side similar size to my wife’s prayer decal on the passenger side...
IMG_3988 by Wayne Wilson, on Flickr

I was getting out of the truck one day at the grocery store as a young man with his wife and child were approaching from the passenger side, walking down the parking lot aisle. He was I guess to be in his 20s with longer, shaggier hair than I would wear or wish to see my sons wear and some facial scruff that was neither stubble nor beard/mustache. See it all the time on the younger generation and I have become used to it. The timing was such that I was getting out and still on the drivers side as he approached.

He commented on the decal, noticed the EGA and asked if I served, I replied I did 9 years and he thanked me for my service. It was an honest, heartfelt thanks, not the kind of casual, almost forced ones I sometimes see. Given his appearance, it actually kind of shocked me. He mentioned that he just got out of the Corps a year earlier, but was “only” in for 2 years.

While I didn’t entirely believe him at the time (again, his appearance) I thanked him for his thanks and thanked him for his service as well just as I came around the end of the truck and got my first full view of the man. This Marine was wearing shorts and had a high-tech prosthetic leg with an above the knee amputation. I immediately felt like absolute shit for mentally questioning him based on appearance.

Trying to maintain composure (acute allergy flare up I believe) I told him he gave far, far more in his 2 years than I did in my 9 and then I thanked him again as well as his wife and child for their sacrifice.

Shit, even typing this up the damn allergies are starting to flare...

Dadgum allergies flared up here too. Must be all the damn cats in the house.

September 24, 2017, 03:04 PM

USMCE4retired

It took me a long time sitting here to decide whether I should respond to this or keep my thoughts to myself. But the asshole in me just had to say something...

I don't particularly like people thanking me for something that I think EVERYONE should do in the first place.
On top of that, how do I know if they are sincere or just following the current trend of appearing to be thankful for something they really don't give two shits about.
I signed up in 71 with a draft number of 306.
I could not respect myself for the rest of my life if I didn't do my part. How could I thank someone for going over when I stayed in the rear with the girls.

Sorry for the rant. Just don't thank me.
If I know that you are a VET just know that I have your back.

September 24, 2017, 03:41 PM

mrmn50

quote:
Originally posted by USMCE4retired:
It took me a long time sitting here to decide whether I should respond to this or keep my thoughts to myself. But the asshole in me just had to say something...

I don't particularly like people thanking me for something that I think EVERYONE should do in the first place.
On top of that, how do I know if they are sincere or just following the current trend of appearing to be thankful for something they really don't give two shits about.
I signed up in 71 with a draft number of 306.
I could not respect myself for the rest of my life if I didn't do my part. How could I thank someone for going over when I stayed in the rear with the girls.

Sorry for the rant. Just don't thank me.
If I know that you are a VET just know that I have your back.

Your answer was perfect but not to the question asked

. "Do Vets Thank Vets"

If I were to thank you, it would be sincere and not because others are trending that way. it would be from one vet to another, me boy.

September 25, 2017, 12:04 PM

bendable

this helps, thanks.

even if you didn't throw a grenade that ended a battle, shoulder an M60, or cart others to the front in an APC,
you may have been away from Mom and dad, you may have been missing your gal or wife or just longing for that peaceful farm pond on a spring day, that was a thousand miles away.

If I say it or pay it it's by all means sincere.

thanks to those making what ever sacrifice