my father and mother deserve thanks....my father left HS early to enlist, probably was a little underage...he never got a purple heart or a pension for PTSD, infact, hardly anyone from WW2 got that PTSD disability....seems about 20% of the modern day vets get them....
my deceased FIL was in the service for maybe one year....1946....he was awol for a month because he didn't have orders so he just left the base...I know once he got an extra check mistakenly and he kept it...
yet he wore his WW2 hat for all the free Vet day dinners like he was a war hero....
a lot of vets deserve our respect and our thx but there is a lot of pretenders out there too.......
bm
I'm a former jarhead and cop, with my share of welcomed "thanks for your service" over the years...but also the father of my late sixteen year old son, born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. After I lost him, I went on to have six books published on bereavement support...and dedicated my first book, "Sometimes I Cry in the Shower" to NURSES.
My son went through three open-hearts before the age of three. He made it sixteen years, and not only because of a miraculous surgeon, BUT MORE because of the amazing nurses I found as true heroes along the way....nurses that calmed me, taught me, chastised me, sent me home after spending weeks living in the hospital...nurses, each one along the way, who truly cared for the life and health of my child...all with so little thanks.
I thank you...from the bottom of my heart...and my son's half heart. What you do is truly a special calling as well!!!!
Sad, but true.
By the way, it is the NURSES that define the quality of your medical care. Fact.
I’m a Vietnam vet and a retired nurse. I am sorry but nurses do not wake up for 365 days in a row and wonder if today will be the day I die. But if you rant makes you feel better fine.
Sadly, there are people out there that “served” but were actually slackers and law-breakers. (Not saying your FIL is/was).
Today, these same law-breakers now proudly claim their unearned veterans status for free diners on Veterans day. These same guys snicker at the rubes dumb enough to thank them for there service. Those dishonorable blobs of lies and deceit are proud that they scammed the system during their time in service, and now they laugh up their sleeve at all those thank them for their service.
I’ve seen them. Sitting in some diner, with an obligatory “veterans” hat, and wearing a scruffy old uniform shirt with holes.
Many of those guys may be homeless and tormented by demons, and for them I pray.
It is the ones who are fakers, the liars, the fake veterans that shamelessly scarf their free meal. They may have served at one time, but as I sat near a group of those guys, I heard them brag about how they scammed the service and got away with it. I’m not talking about a little here and there bending a rule, I’m talking about guys that brag about being dope-smokers (or worse) in the rear.
I also recall seeing a guy that is clearly young and wearing a Vietnam veterans cap. All for a free meal. Dishonorable and shameless.
Thank you for your time and attention.