Asking Veterans About Their Service Is Far Better Than Thanking Them For It

I'll tell you right now, do not ask me about my service. It's something sacred to me and I will not talk about it to anyone, much less a stranger. Thanking me is ok. I'll tell you thank you, but that's as far as it will go. I don't agree at all with this authors theory. It's a damn good story about these Marines in combat. If a combat trooper wants to talk to someone about their story, if they are asked, that's their business and only their business.

The most therapeutic way for veterans to let go of their moral injuries is to talk about their experiences. But it’s up to those of us who didn’t serve to ask.
In early January 2010, a squad of Marines from Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, got pinned down in a gully under fire from Taliban fighters holed up in an adobe farm compound on the outskirts of Marjah, Afghanistan. It was the beginning of Operation Moshtarak, the attempt to wrest the town from the Taliban’s grip.