Thank you for your service. Welcomed or not?

[Jeff L]

I take the time to thank veterans when I can. Do you welcome this or not? Most of the time it seems appreciated. TIA

[jim-d]

It was not the thing to do when I returned in 1969, so yes, whenever I get it today, I do appreciate hearing the words.

[Ron James]

I'm a very private person, to me it is an minor embarrassment. I don't normalcy even tell people about my military service.

[SMOKEY]

Thank them for their service even buy their supper once in a while, same for our police, especially our state troopers.

[dave]

I'm a very private person, to me it is an minor embarrassment. I don't normalcy even tell people about my military service.

Then how do they know? If you wear a "hat" then you are telling the world!

[Griff Murphey]

I think it's nice to be thanked. When I got back from my military service it was 1976 and people did not care. Most people seemed to think you were a sucker for having done it at all. The first time it happened to me I had a plain M1951 hat on with a tiny 1975 RVN year pin and I was at the 1999 A&M University service (daughter was a student there) for the kids killed in the bonfire collapse. It really surprised me; this was well before it had become customary.

[Oyaji]

Personally I don't like it. In most cases I find it insincere, shallow, and insulting. Seems like the only folks doing the thanking are those that never served and the only reason they're saying so, is to feel good about themselves and it is the trendy thing to do. You never see vets thanking other vets for serving; they don't need to....a connection already exists between them. If people want to thank me for my service, then the best way they can do that is to drag their asses down to the nearest recruiter and sign an enlistment contract otherwise STFU and leave me alone.

[IditarodJoe]

On a personal level I agree with Oyaji, but looking the bigger picture it's not about ME. Notwithstanding the fact that for many of the "thankers" it's just a self-serving feel-good gesture, I believe we have a responsibility to support anything that promotes a positive social image for our current military personnel. So I try to be gracious and go along. Besides, I suspect there are some of them who actually mean it.

[dave]

Personally I don't like it. In most cases I find it insincere, shallow, and insulting. Seems like the only folks doing the thanking are those that never served and the only reason they're saying so, is to feel good about themselves and it is the trendy thing to do. You never see vets thanking other vets for serving; they don't need to....a connection already exists between them. If people want to thank me for my service, then the best way they can do that is to drag their asses down to the nearest recruiter and sign an enlistment contract otherwise STFU and leave me alone.

I have Nam vets thanking me all the time!

[Griff Murphey]

Almost all the vets on this forum are of the era such that they kinda had to go… either were drafted or volunteered to avoid the draft or thought they WOULD be drafted, wanted to choose their service, go for officer or whatever. So we were mostly without a choice in the matter. For the guys and gals today, it's completely voluntary. In WW2 it was universal, everybody went. Nobody talked about it when it was over. We in the cold war/Vietnam War era have feet in both worlds so its kind of natural that everybody has his own opinion.

[Ken The Kanuck]

Never having been in military service I have no opinion regarding Jeff's question, but the one of the ways myself and my family thank our vets is to drag our butts down to the local cenotaph on Remembrance Day. Those who I know who do this especially year after year are sincere I believe.

Seeing that Remembrance Day is not very far a way I would like to thank all you veterans for your service.

KTK

[High Plaines Doug r]

"Thank you for your service." makes me a little uncomfortable. I don't know how to respond other than to say "That was a long time ago." Seems silly to say in return:"Your welcome" and probably unnecessarily rude to say: "I was drafted".
I am much more comfortable with: "Welcome home." but that seems inappropriate to say to those who served stateside. I still say that when I meet or find out someone was deployed and have never met anyone who didn't appreciate the sentiment.

[Michaelp]

Sometimes I ask what is their excuse for failing to man up and do their own time.
It was an obligation til they ended the draft.
If called, they could keep us 6 years, though usually it was 2 with some inactive reserve time pending.

"Welcome Home" as a slogan, began in 1982 at the 5 day celebration surrounding the dedication of The Wall in DC.
That was when we got the big parade someguys claim they never got. Around 200,000 showed up.
There also were huge parades in New York, Chicago, and other places in those days.
Since we came home individually as opposed to groups, most welcomes were from family and friends.

[Andouille]

Since we came home individually as opposed to groups, most welcomes were from family and friends.

And not too many of them, in my experience. There was a cartoon in Playboy or maybe New Yorker toward the end of the unpleasantness. Fat old guy wearing a suit and his wife are at supper and the Suit says, "Wonderful news from Viet Nam! It's all over but the shooting." That said it all, from what I experienced.

I'm personally uncomfortable with the late expressions of appreciation but have learned to live with it and have even come to appreciate that somebody thought about it. But I'd just as soon be left the hell alone, to tell you the truth. Forty-odd years too late [fifty and more for some of us], is still, too late.

But I never pass a chance to thank the current crop for their service. They're all volunteers, none of them had to be there. God bless them all.

[phil441]

"But I never pass a chance to thank the current crop for their service. They're all volunteers, none of them had to be there. God bless them all."

I just hope we can all show them the respect their own government won't.