Thanks for your selfless service to this great country.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I actually joined to get away from home.  It was while I was in that I learned what it was all about.  Stage 1 was getting up for my first full day of basic, walking by the DI lounge and seeing a "movie" on the TV.  We found out really quickly that it was CNN with live images of the Granada invasion.  That was somewhat motivating.  After 1.5 years of training I got to my permanent duty station and started reading intel reports on what was happening in the world.  This was enough to do it.  I see what is done by us around the world to help others and see what others are doing to hurt us.  Seeing what is going on in the world should motivate anyone to do what they can to help.  I am proud of the time I served.  Although I never had the honor of serving in combat, I know that what I did was important.  Not only to the nation, but to myself.

Because of what I have stated above, I take your thanks and turn them around.  Thank you for letting me serve.  

Well said sweep, but I tend to disagree.  What you, and the rest of the veterans have done, whether or not you saw combat, is important to the ultimate mission.  I missed out on actual combat, as you did.  However, it is through no fault of my own.  I did everything that I could to go to Gulf 1 including to transfer to a combat armor unit.  Although I did not get deployed into any of the combat zones during my terms of service, I did do an important job.  Each time I wished I was actually in the fighting and equally glad that I wasn't.  I did my job to the best of my ability in order to make their jobs easier and safer.  I did not have any bullets flying by, nor pull the trigger on any enemy soldiers.  But I did contribute.  You did the same.  You took part in an important way.  If you weren't doing your job, either it would not have gotten done or someone else would have had to do it.  

What it all comes down to, and I believe that hydguy is referring to is that you and I, as well as all the veterans, volunteered to put ourselves on the line to protect others.  For some, the outcome meant a greater personal risk than for others.  However, when we volunteered we all understood that the time may come that we face the ultimate risk.  Your not seeing actual combat does not make you any less of a soldier than one that actually saw combat.  It does however, make you fortunate in not having to face that risk that you were willing to take.  We all took the oath.  We all (excluding some Nam era draftees) volunteered.  Sweep, you are a veteran and a volunteer.  You may not have the patch on the right sleeve, but you are still, in my opinion, a hero.  As are all that have sworn the oath.  This is the one instance that I believe intent over rides action.  Is the man who is stopped from running into a burning building by a big LEO any less of a hero than one that manages to get into the building and save a child?  I don't think so.  Orders that you swore to follow kept you from seeing combat.  Not personal choice to avoid it.  I agree with Hydguy in thanking all of you, and thank Hydguy for giving me a chance to do what I could.

You're welcome, and thank you for giving a shit.

crumabn, I did 11 years in the Corps, so believe me, I give a shit!!

To ban that a lot of people just look at this as a day off or just don't give a damn.

It took on a whole new meaning for me back in '88, when I was 17. I went to the Wall on Memorial Day, saw all of the vets there, and I cried.
I don't know anyone on the Wall, and I didn't know that my mother knew anyone there either, but I cried all the same.

It was one of the most profound experiences of my life.

And I thank all vets, living or dead, past, present, and future, for their service to this country.

Not many people think about those in the service anymore.  I unfortunately didn't get to go to Iraq, but my unit about 7 months after I got out did.  I new a few of the Marines that died and were wounded.  They deserve a HELL of alot of thanks and praise.  Those Tuefelhunden are the real heros!

it's kinda funny.  former military consider someone a vet if they served in combat.  popular culture considers someone a vet if they served in the military.

not having served in combat, what do combat vets think (or those who are deployed to a combat zone for support operations)?

Sorta like the definition of 'rear echelon'

A clerk overseas in a secure area will call his stateside contemporaries 'REMFs'

OTOH, The point man on a particularly dangerous patrol may look ath the people he is walking point for and signal back, "Hey, one a you REMFs get up here!"


IMHO, is a payroll clerk a vet? Damned straight.The grunts'd be pretty PO'd if there were no payroll clerks.

You serve honorably, you're a vet. PERIOD.

I'd say that there are different types of vets...  but in the end all that matters is that you served.

Alex

Another thought on combat/non-combat vets...
what about cold war vets?
does patroling a "hot" border count?
I know alot of guys who have done the North/South Korean border and they told me that it is hairy...
I myself did the east/west German border. Of course that is not a "hot" border. But in the "big picture" just as importaint.

I think of myself as a cold war vet, not a combat vet.
thoughts?

That DD-214 means you're a Vet.

CHRIS

[wave]  Thanks guys!