Displays of respect offered Service Members & Veterans?

If I see SMs in uniform, especially if I'm with my children, I thank them for their service and have my kids do the same. On one occasion, I picked up a tab for 4 service members on drill, none of whom I knew, at Dunkin Donuts where I happened to be that Saturday morning. Sometimes just buying a fellow vet/sm a coffee can make their day. Pay it forward!

Each year, I commemorate the deaths of the soldiers who died in my Task Force in Iraq. 12 soldiers died in our 15 month deployment who were either attached to or serving in our Task Force. I place 12 medium flags in my flower bed in front of my house all of memorial day week for each soldier - I say each of their names as I push them into the ground and I remember the memories I have of them if I knew them personally. I also hold a deep reverence and give thoughts to honor the rest of our fallen comrades in wars recent and past - but these soldiers died by my side, in the very streets I fought. Their sacrifice will not be forgotten by me.

Every year, I attempt to attend the flag planting event at Ft. Logan National Cemetery in Denver, CO. Some years I cannot attend due to personal issues, but it is imperative to pay respects.

Each year serves as a memory marker - a time to reflect on the wars of our past, to reflect on the lives that were taken to ensure our personal liberties and those wars in which we strove to establish similar liberties for people abroad. I joined the military because I wanted to help Iraq establish their country so that liberty could ring elsewhere in the world. Each year I am given the opportunity to reflect on that work and the sacrifice that the soldiers gave to the Iraqi people. While current events unfolding are disconcerting - I am hopeful that Iraq will rise above the cowards who ran from the fight and will retake the lands that belong to them.

One way I like to serve back is by supporting Stop Soldier Suicide, a not for profit organization that is working double time to end the stigma of mental health treatment and end soldier suicide. The statistics coming out that approximately 22 veterans a day commit suicide are staggering. I support SSS financially currently and have considering volunteering on their crisis hotline.

We are sent to war, programmed to kill - but we are not given due diligence in psychotherapy and other proven methods of handling lingering combat stress and PTSD. Programs should be established upon return to duty station that allow soldiers to debrief and bring peace to their actions overseas.

Awesome question!

When 9/11 happened, our THREATCON ramped up quick and, until we could establish some contingency schedules, it seemed everyone was on duty all the time. By the time I had a chance to get off base to get some uniforms out of the cleaners, I had been in the same set of BDUs for a while

As I was standing in line at the cleaners, this lady from our greatest generation turned to me, held out her hand, and said "Thank you for defending my country."

That was, quite possibly, the best day to be in uniform.

I have had my meal purchased more times than I can count. I have had shots ordered for me at the bar. I have had old vets come up and say, "From one vet to another, thank you young brother in arms".

My favorite time though, was when my unit was on our way to the range in North Dakota. We stopped to do a "during PMCS" on our HMMWV's and a 5-6 year old boy was at the rest area that we stopped at. I let him sit in the drivers seat of it, talk to people on the radio, and taught him how to salute our CO.

When we drove away he stood there and saluted us, waving a little American Flag in his other hand!

He was with his Grandfather who told him, "Whenever you see a person in a uniform like that, you shake their hand and say thank you".

Another time, I had someone ask to take a picture with me in an Airport. I thought that was cool too.

My question is what is wrong with doing the right thing? In other words showing respect or not here is a sure sign of how an individual may act in public.

I got out of the Marine Corps in July of 1983, it wasnt until about 1998 that I first had a stranger thanked me for my service and shook my hand, I was so unprepared for this, that I mumbled something along the lines of "yeah, sure, no problem" and kept going. the interaction actually bothered me since it was so unexpected and had never happened before, it happened a few more times since, but in the last 3 yrs. I believe I have been approached and thanked hundreds of times, despite this becoming a common occurrence, I STILL do not know how to respond, and each time it happens it leaves me a bit uncomfortable.