Why I Was Conflicted on Veterans Day

[AUUSN 823]

Why I Was Conflicted on Veterans Day

warontherocks.com/2014/11/why-i-was-conflicted-on-veterans-day/

Skylar Gerrond

I’m always a little conflicted on Veterans Day.

I’m proud of my time in the military and it is certainly a part of who I am, but that’s all it is, a part. I think this is probably still the way the majority of vets feel, but lately, there seem to be more and more people, both within the veteran community and American society as a whole, that want to isolate and extract the “veteran” portion of the identity and treat that as if it is the only aspect that matters.

This is concerning because it simultaneously leads down two paths: The Hero and The Victim.

The Hero is what we become when the military is treated like it is somehow above the rest of society, instead of a part of it. This is what happens when healthy respect and acknowledgement goes haywire. This happens when a soldier is told that he deserves to board airplanes ahead of an expectant mother with three kids. The Hero mentality is what causes a veteran to proudly request a military discount when she goes out to dinner, “because of my sacrifice,” instead of humbly accepting it when it is offered.

The Victim, in contrast, is what veterans become when society looks at us as automatically broken by our experiences. Any time a veteran struggles with PTSD and society quietly applies that diagnosis to every other veteran, we become The Victim. When civilians make misinformed comments about how horrible the pay and benefits are in the military and we don’t correct them, we are also playing the role of The Victim. This is just as damaging of a label because it sets us apart from society as somehow flawed and “used up” by our military service.

The most concerning part about this is that we seem to actually be taking both paths. We heap shallow praise on military members and give out free appetizers on Veterans Day, but we don’t demand resolution for those issues that sincerely impact veterans most in need, while rejecting that those damaged labels apply to the majority of us. This appears to be leading to an entitlement mentality within the military while simultaneously allowing society to ignoring the most critical issues. For example, we are still combating issues such as veteran homelessness, unemployment, and suicide. The Department of Veterans Affairs is still struggling with a massive backlog, byzantine bureaucracy, and a failure to modernize. This is really where society’s focus should be.

This is also where we veterans have an obligation. Collectively, we should reject both The Hero and The Victim. Let us be clear about which issues are important and which are not. A free Blooming Onion, while certainly appreciated, is not going to impact the arc of my life in any meaningful way. However, the timely processing of a disability claim could literally change the course of an injured veteran’s life. One more open phone at a suicide hotline could, literally, be a matter of life and death for a depressed vet.

Veterans day is over, but I ask all my fellow vets to assure that we keep the focus on what matters. Don’t buy into either The Hero or The Victim mentality.

[cooltigger21 0]

Completely Understandable thing to say or believe. I for one consider all members past and present to be heroes. It is disgusting the way they have been treated by the VA. It has been going on for many years over several administrations. From what I have been able to understand so far, the new Secretary seems to be committed to changing that. Bureaucratic rules concerning firing will slow down the getting rid of people.

[autigeremt 6,714]

I don't consider myself a hero or a victim. It was a choice I made and I'd do it again if called to do so. With an all volunteer military I think it's appropriate to celebrate our service, but sometimes (like everything else in society) it can get carried away. Less than 1% of the population volunteers to serve yet we are tasked to protect over 300,000,000 people (plus countless others in Korea, the Middle East, Europe...the list grows and grows).

Nice read.