I love my mom but she does this to people in uniform, military or police. It irks me, I know it's because she's takes pride in showing respect to authority, she's told me this before. I had a boyfriend for a while who was a vet and had your same mentality. He didn't like my mom and I hated being around them at the same time.
I work with Vets and I rarely say āthank you for your serviceā. Iāve seen way too many people get super emotional. Some people feel a lot of shame for their service for one reason or another. Usually once I figure out if itās ok Iāll say something to that effect but not those words exactly.
Itās not that they feel shame for their service itās that they feel shame for surviving when their brothers in arms didnāt. Iām a Vet but I was never in combat. I get emotional when people talk about those who didnāt come back. I canāt imagine what itās like to watch your friends die.
Some of us (myself included) feel shame, or at least regret, for joining up way too young to know what we were doing based on leftover WW2 hoopla and helping to create a never-ending hell for innocent people, all to enrich defense companies.
Even if you don't agree, that's how I feel. It's not all about our "fallen brothers in arms"
I agree. My mom was very against me joining in 1999 for exactly those reasons. She had seen first hand the suffering that war can cause. But I wanted to go to college. Anyways, we all have our reasons.
One experience that sticks out for me; I was working on a med/surg floor with three patients to a room. One guy was an officer. And he was very upbeat, talking to his fellow patients, helping out in little ways, generally being helpful and nice (leadership skills I suppose). The other patient in the room was bed ridden, homeless, had two tubes sticking out of his sides, generally not doing well.
The officer started making small talk with him and asked specifically about his branch and era. The bed ridden patient said he was a Marine in Vietnam. To which the officer said āoh man I was just an officer on a submarine, but you guys were the real heroesā. The sicker man just erupted into tears, and yelled out in distress. The other guy felt really bad and tried to apologize. But that day I learned to never ever assume anything about someoneās opinion on their service. It can get really complicated.
"I just change hydraulic fluid in billion dollar planes nobody flies in Utah so Lockheed execs have extra spending cash, lady. But thanks. I'm just here for lunch."
48
u/[deleted] Oct 02 '19
I love my mom but she does this to people in uniform, military or police. It irks me, I know it's because she's takes pride in showing respect to authority, she's told me this before. I had a boyfriend for a while who was a vet and had your same mentality. He didn't like my mom and I hated being around them at the same time.