“Thank you for your service” is recruitment propaganda (not sure if propaganda is the exact right word here). Somehow that phrase was popularized to get Americans to say it and make those who enlisted feel special. It’s not special. Its just a job.
It’s actually an extreme counter-response to the Vietnam War. Americans didn’t believe we should be involved in that awful war, and they blamed military members for it. They assumed military members could just quit and walk away if they didn’t agree with the war, so anyone who was still serving was assumed to be pro-war. And thus, they were treated like shit by the public.
The truth is, a lot of people were drafted against their will for that war. Most didn’t want to be there, but were threatened with prison if they refused to go. Then the war itself was a terrible and traumatizing experience for most of them, if they even survived it. THEN they come home to ungrateful Americans who blame them for the war and treat them like garbage for serving. It led to a ton of PTSD, homelessness, and suicides amongst veterans.
When the Iraq War kicked off in 2003, even though Americans didn’t want us going to Iraq and had no idea why we were going there in the first place, they had learned from history that the service members themselves had nothing to do with it. They were stuck in their enlistment, forced to go wherever the government told them to go. And there’s no quitting; you either finish your 4-6 year enlistment, or you break a law and go to jail. That’s pretty much the only way out.
So Americans started treating military members (and veterans) with extreme respect, to counter the terrible behavior towards them during the last ugly conflict we didn’t want to be involved in. And it kind of took on a life of its own. And yes, the government did encourage the behavior too.
I appreciate not being spit on, cursed at, or attacked by the citizens I served. But at the same time, I don’t need to be on a pedestal. Most military members don’t see conflict in their careers and are pretty much indistinguishable from office workers. We show up to work, do whatever the job entails, then go home. If someone earns the Medal of Honor or a Purple Heart, then by all means, raise that pedestal! They earned some accolades! But the rest of us? We’re pretty much just normal people doing normal jobs. You’d be better off praising Janice for her TPS reports.
As someone too young to know what it was like in the time of the Vietnam War, that’s very interesting. I was alive in '03, but probably too young to comprehend any of that. Thanks for the insight.
“Thank you for your service” is recruitment propaganda (not sure if propaganda is the exact right word here). Somehow that phrase was popularized to get Americans to say it and make those who enlisted feel special. It’s not special. Its just a job.
It’s actually an extreme counter-response to the Vietnam War. Americans didn’t believe we should be involved in that awful war, and they blamed military members for it. They assumed military members could just quit and walk away if they didn’t agree with the war, so anyone who was still serving was assumed to be pro-war. And thus, they were treated like shit by the public.
The truth is, a lot of people were drafted against their will for that war. Most didn’t want to be there, but were threatened with prison if they refused to go. Then the war itself was a terrible and traumatizing experience for most of them, if they even survived it. THEN they come home to ungrateful Americans who blame them for the war and treat them like garbage for serving. It led to a ton of PTSD, homelessness, and suicides amongst veterans.
When the Iraq War kicked off in 2003, even though Americans didn’t want us going to Iraq and had no idea why we were going there in the first place, they had learned from history that the service members themselves had nothing to do with it. They were stuck in their enlistment, forced to go wherever the government told them to go. And there’s no quitting; you either finish your 4-6 year enlistment, or you break a law and go to jail. That’s pretty much the only way out.
So Americans started treating military members (and veterans) with extreme respect, to counter the terrible behavior towards them during the last ugly conflict we didn’t want to be involved in. And it kind of took on a life of its own. And yes, the government did encourage the behavior too.
I appreciate not being spit on, cursed at, or attacked by the citizens I served. But at the same time, I don’t need to be on a pedestal. Most military members don’t see conflict in their careers and are pretty much indistinguishable from office workers. We show up to work, do whatever the job entails, then go home. If someone earns the Medal of Honor or a Purple Heart, then by all means, raise that pedestal! They earned some accolades! But the rest of us? We’re pretty much just normal people doing normal jobs. You’d be better off praising Janice for her TPS reports.
As someone too young to know what it was like in the time of the Vietnam War, that’s very interesting. I was alive in '03, but probably too young to comprehend any of that. Thanks for the insight.