RE: What You Need To Know About Telling Veterans "Thank You" on Veterans Day - A Veteran's Perspective
Thank you for a brutally honest post, straight from the horse's mouth! So many must join military service under the impression they can do something to defend their country. Australia even calls it the defence forces, but it seems to me that they are doing nothing to defend their country over in the middle east.
I'm afraid I don't really join in with the veterans day thank you because it appalls me that people would be treated this way, being unnecessarily put into the situations you experienced. I can thoroughly understand why the suicide rate must be so high in veterans and I admire you for having been able to recover from such traumas.
Thank you again for speaking out. The truth needs to be spoken. The people don't start wars, governments do.
Thank you so much for reading my post, and for leaving your thoughts on the subject! I really appreciate you taking the time to not only read my post, but comment on it. I wasn't aware that the forces in Australia are referred to as the Defence Forces...it is similar to how our military department here in the USA is the Department of Defense. And yet, like the Australians...funny way of "defending" our country from halfway around the world.
I'm glad that you don't feel obligated to say thank you to veterans on Veterans Day. I wish no one felt obligated to. I think that's partially why everyone thanks us so much, they feel like it's some moral/patriotic obligation that they have, and that in doing so they are showing support for our troops and our veterans.
The truth definitely does need to be spoken. I wrestled with writing/posting this yesterday because I was worried about the potential backlash that I could receive for being so firm on my stance when talking about such a controversial matter. In the end I decided that I had to go ahead and write/publish it because the truth matters the most.
Thank you again for your input!
I think it would be hard for people to lash out at someone who has experienced this first hand. Now if you weren't yourself a veteran, then I expect you would get some backlash.
You'd be surprised....I've been on the receiving end of it more than once.
Seriously!! I guess there's no cure for stupidity.
Can I ask, when you come back from the war, did you choose to leave the military or did they retire you? I'm just thinking about how ex-military struggle to get other work when the military is all you've been trained for, so it seems as if that's the only place to stay, but I've heard of a sniper being automatically retired after 30 confirmed kills, when he didn't want to be.
I chose to leave. When I realized the reality of what was really going on, what we were really doing in the Middle East, what wars are really fought over, I could no longer in good conscience be a part of that war machine. Yes, we struggle to find employment after the military life because a lot of times our skill sets don't translate over into the civilian workforce very well.
All power to you. I raiser it wasn't an easy choice, but the right choice. Thanks for really opening my eyes to what ex military have to go through, even after the war is behind them.