Funny story: when I first got back from Vietnam in early '67, I went to a department store in Van Nuys California to visit a girlfriend who worked there. Just as I opened the tall glass doors to go in, a car backfired right behind me. I hit the ground hard and the glass doors closed on me, right around my midsection. I lay there struggling with those stupid doors and an older lady with a shopping bag walked up to me and asked if I was OK. I finally got free from the door and said "no thanks Ma'am - epilepsy" and slunk off.
Exactly! The ones that get me are the ones that echo and whistle off building walls just like incoming 122mm and 152mm artillery. But after the first one it just makes me thankful to be where I am and that it's only fireworks.
Life is about moving forward, not wallowing in the past. In my experience it is those who faced the least who claim to be the most damaged, and those who faced the worst of war realize that they are blessed to have gotten through it and that they will now face much lesser challenges for the rest of their lives. A man is encouraged by earned respect, but diminished by pity and lowered expectations. It is time to stop today's debilitating pity party mentality while extending genuine assistance to these grown men as they get on with their lives.
More generally, what has happened to the American male? Boys have been conditioned by government schools and single mothers to think and behave just like the girls, and a huge growth industry of "mental health professionals" has sprung up to expand the parameters of mental illness into realms that past generations did not give a second thought. Where past American veterans modestly put themselves and their pasts in perspective and got busy with the rest of their lives, too many of today's veterans shout "Look at me!" as if everything is owed to them for the rest of their lives.
It doesn't help that a fawning public, raised on feelings, now exalts victimhood and cannot distinguish it from true heroism. I knew only a handful of genuine heroes in my two decades in the Marine Corps, and their extraordinary exploits and bravery are diminished when every veteran is called a "hero" just for serving. But every kid gets a trophy now.
Veterans should be respected for their service, but it is dangerous to place any group on a pedestal above all other citizens for very long. "Military" and "law enforcement" along with miscellaneous government officials are already worshiped too much and therefore scrutinized too little, and the last thing we need is another favored group peeled off from the rest of the citizenry that they ostensibly serve(d). Mark this: if you treat anyone as if he is above the rest for very long, he will come to believe it and to act like it to the detriment of all. Citizen soldiers and veterans deserve a polite and respectful "Thank you" but in the end, they are Citizens like everybody else.
Thus concludes this veteran's rant! Semper Fidelis...