Happy Veterans day to my fellow vets. Today is a day we take a minute to thank the REAL 1% - the less than 1% of all citizens who when asked said, send me. But what about the other 364 days? What can we do then? Those who serve get today off* but not the rest of the year so how can we best thank them for those other 364 days? Let me tall you about the best way to honor a Veteran.
1 - Vote. Vote proudly. Vote often. Vote every time. Unless you have been someplace without a vote it is hard to understand how wonderful it is to vote. Veterans tend to vote at a much higher percentage than the general population and I think a big reason for that is because we have been places where the people cannot vote or their voting system is so corrupt that their vote does not matter. So vote.
2 - Speak. We are supposed to be a government of the people, for the people and by the people. We need you to speak up when that is not happening. All of us on active duty need you to be our voice because we dont have one. Excepting a tiny number of unethical members we hold true to remaining out of politics. And while we may complain bitterly internally - if a soldier aint complaining he aint happy - we keep it internal. I have served five Presidents faithfully and equally but some have been easier to serve than others. Criticizing the President or policy or a war wont hurt our feelings, destroy morale or aide the enemy. In fact it does the opposite because it proves we are doing our job.
3 - Oppose war. Any war. Every war. Even the just wars need opposition to keep them on the side of justice. No one hates war more than a soldier but it is our mission. We dont have to like it to execute it. If you dont oppose war for us, we will be sent to far more. We do not fight our wars, we fight yours. You choose when, where and and why we fight, we only choose how (and sometimes not even that).
4 - Oppose using us for other than war. We are not police. We are not firemen. We are not the Peace Corps. Oppose policies that ask us to do those things. We have laws against soldiers being used for police duties and out leaders need to be reminded of them. Expanding our mission beyond war is not helpful. It is an excuse for spending that isn't needed. It dulls readiness and increases the likelihood of initial failure in armed conflict. If we need more police, hire police. If we need to build schools in far away lands, hire schools builders. Asking us to do these things creates false expectations for everyone. When people are shocked that the military excels at death and destruction and lags in building schools and saving orphans I cant help but wonder what they are thinking. Our mission is to kill people and break their stuff. We are given tools to kill people and break their stuff. We practice killing people and breaking their stuff. Given that, dont be surprised that we do those things well and other things less well.
5 - Question those who claim to speak for us. John Kerry speaks for veterans, Dick Chaney does not. Chuck Hagel speaks for veterans, Mike Huckabee does not. This is not to say that service is required to speak about veterans, but I believe it is required to speak FOR veterans. You dont see the NAACP asking Mitt Romney to be their spokesman or Nancy Pelosi speaking for House Republicans.
6 - Ask us questions. If you want to know what we do/did or how things are for vets, ask. We are not all whacked out PTSD riddled psychos. Many of use have well controlled PTSD :) But rather than assume things about vets and the military, ask. We understand that very few serve and many of us are proud of that. The military is inherently non-productive. In a perfect world we would be unnecessary. In a slightly less perfect world we would never have to use our skills. So fewer needing to serve means we have done our job and we are proud of that and happy to tell you if you ask. Even more happy to do so over a beer :)
Last thing I would ask if for everyone to remember this is VETERANS day, not Memorial Day. While I remember my friends no longer here I remember the good times and laughter. And all veterans are honored no matter when their service was or what they did. This is not a day for remember ing war service or honorable deaths but simply service to the nation without qualification.
So happy veterans day and thank you for allowing me to serve.
*On this day remember that thousands stand watch 24/7/365 and have for as long as we have been a nation. By luck of the draw my team had every holiday last year and despite being unhappy they did their job just as well on those holidays as any other day. So a spacial salute to watch standers everywhere.