Thank you to our ILF Veterans.

[AxAxSxS]

the education benefits are great. They are also earned with a lot of sweat, pain, miserable conditions for years on end and the risk of death or traumatic injury. Don't tell a vet they are "lucky" to be going to school on the GI bill. They worked their ass for to have that benefit. It's on the contract you sign when you enlist and you don't get it unless you fulfill your side of the contract.. The other benefits aren't so hot bro. I'm injured and need continuing medical treatment and monitoring and the VA is not remotely a pleasure to deal with.

But you are absolutely right about the " disingenuous nature" The people of the U.S. seem to think that saying thank you and calling someone a hero or whatever is "Supporting the troops" I have not seen anyone grow a new leg, or spontaneously get over their PTSD by being thanked once a year. They say thank you to a soldier in an airport (by the way, most of the uniforms in airports are fresh from basic and have not done shit yet) and walk off with a boost to their personal self esteem.

Best way to thank a vet is get involved in bettering your community and educate yourself about the issues this country faces, and then try to fix it. That'll get you some respect.
Or buy us beer. Quietly. or preferably anonymously.

[AxAxSxS]

And don't get me started on the fucking 4th of july. Fuck fireworks.

Edit: A bit of an apology. I know everyone here are good people and mean well. In a shitty mood today and cant even kill time flipping channels cause it's now the all day marathon of war movies on every fucking station. At least the neighbors aren't blowing shit up.

[dase]

Meanwhile in australia we're spending millions 'commemorating' (ie building nationalist myths around) the 100 year anniversary of the first world war. But the veterans we have that are still alive? Well there's my dad and his mates that went to vietnam and never got any support for the psychological damage of it, and are sitting there hearing all this myth making shit about australian soldiers, about how great australia is, and yet seeing what our government is doing to people trying to escape shitty parts of the world and thinking 'you pricks made me go fight and see my friends killed for this'.

And the suicide rate amongst veterans of iraq and afghanistan is APPARENTLY 30% higher than the already really high suicide statistics for young men. I say 'apparently' because there's no hard data on it, it's just straight up being ignored. But hey everyone at my work got to have a minute's silence yesterday then listen to 'imagine' by john lennon and wear a poppy on their clothes because their great great grandfather is buried somewhere in fromelles before getting on with their day, and the planes doing a flypast over the shrine looked cool from the corner office.

[rfurtkamp]

I do more than thank them. When our local boys got called up, I provided them equipment at a loss; I stayed open to make sure they got what they needed. I taught a lot of them to shoot when they were younger. I do know that we have veterans here as well and failure to acknowledge them would be a personal failure.

Not interested in a politics shitfest here, which was why I was loathe to bring this up in the first place (and I am not sorry I did because it should not go without recognition).

That's about all I have to say on it though,

[aens_wife]

On the other hand, it's hard to talk about personal accountability in this situation because it's an all volunteer affair.

It wasn't voluntary for my dad, who still has serious mental and physical health issues from his time in Vietnam.

Disclaimer: I am completely against the military industrial complex our government has turned into since WWII, and would love to see those hurt by it (military families especially) get a ton more support even if they do volunteer. We shouldn't have a high percentage of vets homeless, committing suicide, unemployed, etc.

[Caesar]

It's hard not to be cynical about veterans' day because modern American culture has pushed that all the people in the military are "heroes". Most of the military people I know don't think of themselves as heroes and are embarrassed by the recognition. The ones that do (under 60) are total douchebags. Even those old guys who wear all their honors on some tacky trucker hat fit into that "look at me I'm a veteran" bullshit.