A majority of younger veterans said they feel uncomfortable when they are told “thank you for your service,” a new poll found.
Ahead of Veterans Day on Saturday, a survey found disparities between young military members and their older counterparts in how they prefer to be recognized for their service.
Among younger military members and veterans — age 18 to 29 — 70 percent said they feel uncomfortable or awkward when they are thanked for their service. Only 24 percent of older members, 65 years and up, say the same, the Endeavor Analytics and YouGov poll found.
“This data shows that military service members and our veterans want Americans to go beyond small talk to connect with them on a deeper level, including learning more about their service, honoring each veteran’s service in ways in which they feel comfortable talking about it,” Robert F. Whittle Jr., retired Army major general and United Services Automobile Association (USAA) chief of staff, said in a statement.
Or maybe, just maybe, the data shows that most people just want to be left the fuck alone and don’t want to have to interact with strangers at all.
I suppose I’d be interested in finding out what they did in the military but if they just want to buy some beer then I’m not gonna bother them.
Of course if they didn’t wander around wearing military fatigues it wouldn’t come up.
As a veteran, I can’t help but imagine that a lot of the people I see wearing military paraphernalia were never in the military. I’ll only believe that you were/are in the military if you’re in full uniform with everything in the right place/position as only someone that is/was in the military would know how to do.
Seriously, talk about jumping to conclusions. Maybe younger vets know that the more recent wars have been a farce and aren’t excessively proud of doing it, not like they get a choice in the matter.