A Veteran is a soldier who is no longer active duty/reserve status. Not all Veterans went to war. Our military life was not in our own hands but subject to the whim of orders according to whatever Washington thought we needed to be doing. Please remember that everyone who served honorably is a Veteran:
“They also serve who only stand and wait.”
In remembrance of my Commander Army LTC Daniel E. Holland, who got the orders to deploy while I remained with the unit.
Former USAF officer.
This article is overdone. Veterans don’t go through life miserable because they did their duty and moved on into the rest of their lives.
The article suggests everyone who ever wore a uniform goes through the rest of their years in some fashion alone and horrified about their past. That’s just not how it works.
Vets spent some number of years at an early age doing thing civilians never do. For one thing, for enlisted guys, they tore themselves away from home perhaps age 18 and travelled 1000s of miles to get screamed at and told to do things for training no civilian ever does. This is not a delightful experience. But they sign up and do it.
Most are around jet engines or gunfire (even just for training) at this early age and their ears are permanently damaged, even if they do not realize it. Tinnitus (a constant ringing in the ears) exists in about 10-15% of the general population. It is 53% among veterans, and this is for life.
Suicide in the general population killed 48K people in a recent year. That is a given rate per adult population (I believe it starts age 10). The veteran rate is 50% higher than this, and for women vets it is 2.5X higher than females in the general population (men suicide far more often than women).
These are real numbers. This is not some imagined misery in lives of guys (and ladies) who raised their right hands and took an oath. When they did that, they signed up for a life of tinnitus and risk of suicide, whether they knew it or not.
This week another stat emerged. Were the US to enter a major war, over 50% of the US population said they would not enter the military, and this extended to a major war on US territory. Over 1/2 of the US population would not fight.
I hope they remember that when they see guys and ladies who were not among them and did join. It’s the only reason they can kick back and say no.