Does it bother you to hear "Thank you for your service!"?

I embrace it.

I personally think it is a bit trendy and am anticipating the pedelum will eventually swing the other way.

I don't like it. It makes me feel uncomfortable. I was just a POG, nothing special.

I would say it does not bother me, but it does embarrass me. I say this because I never started this journey or continued serving for anything other than the feeling I have/had that was I was doing mattered. This is and never was about me. It is/was about service above self, and doing something that matters.

Nevertheless, I do appreciate it, and knowing that it has not always been this way (thanking random Vets for their service), I also return the favor and thank every Vet I see.

NO I am proud that I served US Army.

I always appreciate the 'thank you's but really find them unwarranted. Loved being a Marine and would not have had it any other way. It does make me ache for the Viet Nam era veterans and the disgraceful way this country treated them upon their return.

When I was first broken, the priority was to remove me as fast as possible from those still involved with active operations. Then, the need to process the "Broken person" as fast as possible or purge them from the roles to allow the team to reform for the mission and also to get a new person for the job. The job, especially in the special forces area must still be done, just push the body out of the way and keep going. Does not matter who's body it is or which side they are on. (That is a perception) . That was probably the hardest part for me and it made those thank you's seem so empty, especially when I was desperately trying to get the help I needed just to stay alive.

Then as I was moving into the VA system, I found great resources and people willing to help, then I felt like there was a real possibility to meaning to those words that had been so empty prior to that.

I also find it very difficult to believe that those in Congress find it much more valuable to thank a bullet than they do to thank a Vet who came home. Especially if that Veteran needs help and support. The constant cutbacks from congress and the games they play with contractors has not been care focused it has been "Dollar" focused.

Seems to me, when asked to serve, most raised their hands and willingly took on the challenges we were confronted with and learned to overcome adversity of all kinds, just to be some of the best at what we were trained to accomplish. No matter the difficulty or even open knowledge of the task at hand. The job still got done.

Then we come home and all the contractors are getting fat, just no budgets for people and maintenance.

This makes it very difficult to look at people and knowingly see those empty words roll out of their mouths.

Now, the many people are genuine in their wishes and thanks. The mass amount of people just do not understand or are willing to stop and understand the real inner workings of the military life. Thankfully and I do mean this with all my heart, the services do have a way of taking care of our own. So, when the words are just something nice for people to say, we have the DAV, AMVETS, VFW and several other service organizations who really know what those words mean and how we can help and support one another.

The military people are demonized in the civilian community as far as budgets are concerned. So the comment, "Thanks for your service", has many different meanings to many people.

For those Vets that have served in the past, along side when I served and in the future, my heart, words, deeds will always be saying thank-you for your "Voluntary Service" when so few were willing to serve or offer genuine support.

Finally, and every time possible, no Vet should deploy or come home without feeling they are welcomed and part of our family. More and more, we must take the time to say thank-you and help our communities learn the real value of honest support in words and deeds.

Just a thought.

I'm a Reservist, so fall under that vague category of "some people say you're active duty, but you aren't really....and you're still a veteran."

However, here are some things to consider. First, "thank you for your service" doesn't have a tense to it. It can mean "Thank you for what you have done," but it can just as easily mean "Thank you for being willing to serve." When I am in uniform and people thank me, it is for the sacrifices that I have made, but also for sacrifices that I'm willing to make on an ongoing journey. I don't think anybody ever fully leaves their time in service behind them. You are a part of a Family that is much more than nearly any other profession, and that bond doesn't ever die. After all, look at how many retired people are here at RallyPoint offering their experiences, consider how many Soldiers that you talk to and still try to offer your own experiences when they are struggling with a decision. Only you can take yourself out of the fight, and I can't speak for you...but I'm still breathing. I may be a bit older, a little fatter, and a bit more broken than I was even 7 years ago...but I'm 7 years wiser, still full of piss and vinegar, and always willing to do whatever I can for a fellow servicemember/veteran.

Furthermore, I'll lump in a second consideration too. It used to bother me greatly because I hear "Thank you for your service," but because I felt that I hadn't done enough. When I joined, I wanted to serve my Country and deploy to take the spots of people I knew that had multiple tours. I figured (naively) that if enough of us joined, people could stay home with their families and maybe not get chewed up by the meat grinder of war. After volunteering to deploy, they offered me a tour and I accepted before asking where. When I finally asked, they told me I would be doing a year in Wisconsin. As funny as it sounds, I was disappointed and embarrassed. 7 years later, I have 2 mobilizations and could never get a deployment.

When I get embarrassed by the lack of combat service, I remember a couple of things. First, I had a combat arms Master Sergeant that reminded me that when I joined, I said I was WILLING to deploy. That in itself is something. Additionally, I tried to remember that my job was to fight just as hard to keep the "garrison stupidity" from getting to my pre- and post- deployment Soldiers. By my "fighting" for them just as hard as if we were in a combat zone, I could help them focus on having a great transition or a great deployment as best as I could. My office was available to be open 24/7/365, as I always had my personal cell phone on me, and every one of my Soldiers had that PERSONAL number so that they could call if they had problems after they left my post. The commanders knew I was trying to help everyone I could, balancing the needs of the Army and the best interests of the Soldiers.

I think that most military folks worry about being obsolete, or wish that they'd have done more. My desire to keep someone home by taking a deployment, a combat veteran wishing he'd done another tour to maybe have helped some of his military family, a wounded veteran wishing he'd have been able to save a friend, a Medal of Honor recipient saying "I just did my job" and not considering the sacrifices. What a GREAT feeling though!! Again, not many professions can have the claim where people are constantly motivating each other to do more and better things. Be proud of what you've done, be willing to help others learn and keep the values and traditions that we hold dear alive, and be ready to fight for the ideas that you love. As long as you remember that, you're still useful.

Some thoughts on the "thank you for your service" movement.

http://joeforamerica.com/2014/04/stop-thanking-veterans-service/

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/11/help-veterans-by-taking-them-off-the-pedestal/281316/

"For many civilians, veterans are thought about in the span of football halftime shows, where we gawk at troops standing on the sidelines while the camera lingers on flags flapping in the wind. The word hero is tossed around and abused to the point of banality. The good intentions of civilians are rarely in question, but detached admiration has always been a stand-in for the impulse to do “something” for veterans."

No, I makes me feel good to know that other appreciate our sacrifices. It's when things go back to business as usual when you feel no body is paying attention.