You actually don't have to worry about that, dude. Just smile, accept and return their handshake. You in no way have to justify their admiration. They give it to you freely. In honour of Rememberance Day *Solemly bowed head*
Understood @dustin :). I wish I had other suggestions on how to make it easier for you. Just believe me when I say you're not getting judged as less worthy, or less important, because you maybe weren't on the front lines.
I feel the same as you @dustin. I was in Afghanistan at Kandahar. I was a turret gunner. Our convoy had many firefights and had an IED that took out a Humvee right in front of ours, luckily everybody survived with only minor injury’s and hella headaches,. I feel weird when people say thanks for my service. I feel like I survived and should not be thanked. The ones who didn’t make it back are the ones who should be thanked. I do have major PTSD, fighting demons in my sleep and really bad hearing loss from the guns and explosions. Other than that I’m here with my beautiful wife and daughter, while other family’s are grieving for a love one that they lost. Now this is just my opinion I don’t speak for other vets. If they want praise then so be it.
You still went through the bullshit that was BCT and AIT (insert your respective branch's advanced training). That alone is more than a lot of people can do
Don't discount your contribution even if it was administrative. The military is an organization that has a lot of moving parts. Every function can contribute to more than the sum of its parts - otherwise how would someone who did get deployed get the training, supplies, medical care, etc they need to be safe and carry out whatever they're doing?
If you open up your wind up alarm and remove just one gea the machine will not be as effective or useful as it was with all of its parts in place and functioning as they should. Thank you anyway, some of us didn’t even have the opportunity to sit st that desk.
How about this: when someone thanks you for your service they are also thanking those who didn’t come back. It’s not nearly enough but it’s recognizing all that you (every vet) has sacrificed and put onnthe line
Same. I was in for 2 years and I don’t like to be thanked. When we go to celebrations like the 4th or something and they ask veterans to stand up, my husband gives me a look like “you going to stand?” Nope...
It doesn't matter where you were, what you did or in what branch.
You. Still. Served.