What is the worst part about being a service member or veteran?

The worst part for me was that I had to many years in and had to retire. The Army was my hobby. I loved every minute of it the good and not so good times. I was all in.

I was in for 2 years as a draftee in 1972. Of that 2 years, I was home about 30 days having been deployed overseas for 19 months. I had a wife and 2 young boys, one was 2 years old and one 3 months old at the beginning. Separation from my family at that time was the worst part and convinced me that that was not the life for me. Had I been single, well, that may have been different

Dealing with stupidity unrelated to the mission at hand

1: Loss of fellowship after service
2: Disconnect between injuries during service and disability compensation after. Only 50% or higher rate concurrent receipt.

My worst part about having served was getting out. I should have found a way around that, somehow.

Yes, the worst part of being a service member was becoming a veteran. Not just a veteran but one that’s considered 100% disabled. Now the worst part of being what I am today is no longer being what became my way of life for 20 years, a service member.
None has to do with power or position, (I was just an E-6) but the brotherhood, and other bonds we made with members (all ranks) that I served with. Knowing you have their back as well as they have yours. We’ll get this done and everyone will do their part, it will be done as a team. May bitch about it later over a beer, with the NCO’s, Lol or to hear what the subordinates ideas were to make things better if we have to do it again when I asked them (they all got their turn) some came up with some great ideas once in a while as well as learned why it wouldn’t work.

As so ably stated by Chief Parrish earlier, the hardest part of transitioning from a part of the military organization back to the civilian world, can be explained by the difference in the two word groups - "military organization" and "civilian world". Though both have internal problems and some warts, the former is made up in part by people who are mission oriented (almost regardless of cost), team oriented (concern for the people to your immediate left and right), nearly complete transparency (personal and unit) and accountability for results. My experience with big business (defense contractors) exhibited almost the exact opposite "values": pay, power, profit. After spending nearly all of my productive years in uniform with a clear code of conduct and expectations, I felt like an orphan in a very strange orphanage.

In most cases, I found negatives are usually personal, I don’t believe there are “mass negatives”. The simple fact is that most should know going into the military that there are going to be long days and bad days...that’s called life and is not exclusive to the military. Instead, the military will likely teach you to deal with them effectively.

Realizing the people i worked for are all tyrants, trying to take over the world and not save it at all!

Probably it's serving with all those terrible people, and eating all that terrible food, and serving in those terrible military branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, and getting all that terrible housing and dental and medical coverage free of charge, and receiving that terrible G.I. Bill money for a terrible education, and traveling to all those terrible places, and visiting all those terrible ports of call, and meeting all those terrible people in all those foreign lands...and worst of all...retiring with all those terrible memoires.