Ask Amy: Veteran responds to ‘thank you for your service’
Dear Amy: I am a 75-year-old veteran. I want to pass on some feelings I have when people say, “Thank you for your (military) service” to me.
I was in the U.S. military from 1966 to 1969 and served at a base in a large metropolitan area. I was never called to serve in the combat zone but know many that have who have expressed similar feelings.
During that era, if you were “off-base,” you had to be in a dress uniform.
On many airplane flights or trips into the city, we were verbally attacked by college-age groups.
They would spit on us, call us “baby killers, murderers, military pawns,” and anything else insulting they could think of.
The people who serve today and in the recent past deserve all of the praise they receive.
I have picked up the tab for many a traveling soldier as a thank you. But I want the parents and grandparents of these brave soldiers to think about their own actions toward servicemembers of the Vietnam era.
There are many wounds that have never healed.
I find the words “thank you for your service” hollow and depressing.
– Old Veteran
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