Ah. That’s a different question: do American troops expect to be thanked? I think that by and large you’d find they don’t.
At SeaWorld here in Florida (owned for the time being by Anheuser-Busch), there was an odd tradition post-9/11: before every Shamu show, they’d ask all the American “and allied” servicemen in the crowd to stand up so the crowd could applaud for them. Anheuser-Busch is a very kind of rah-rah Go-USA kind of company.
Naturally, they all looked extremely uncomfortable. I can’t imagine how uncomfortable people from non-allied nations must have felt at being told to clap for them.
Who are one and the same. Nothing quite like being a general sans a field command or a staff position, or shall I say nothing quite as usless. I am aware of the history of the army in Pakistan. I am also aware of it in other countries.
I do accept this. Yet, at the same time, don’t they recognize that it is appropriate for us to express our gratitude?
Truth is, I give a casual “thanks” to everyone who helps me in whatever way - from the policeman to the supermarket cashier to the garbageman. I can’t imagine why a soldier should be any different.
There’s more to it than that, but the Vietnam war is an uneasy subject for many of us. People of every political stripe are uneasy about that war for one reason or another.
I have thanked several vets and active soldiers. If any of them took it as an insult, they didn’t say so. Part of every vet’s reason for joining the military is “to serve my country.” It’s my country, too, so it’s natural that I’m grateful for that service.
I never really thought about thanking vets, until I heard Al Franken doing it on his Air America Radio show. This was before he quit broadcasting to run for the US Senate. Though he opposed the Iraq war, he took time off his show a couple times a year to do USO shows in Iraq and Afghanistan. When a caller or guest identified himself as a vet, Franken made a point of thanking the vet for his service. That’s when I started thanking them myself.
Question - how do you know they are service-men/women ?
You can’t thank them if you don’t know who they are. Coming from the UK I’m always surprised when I see military personnel in uniform when not actively on duty - it just doesn’t happen where I come from.
In Italy & Poland I’ve seen young lads in uniform at train stations going to and from military service. At Paris CdG airport French military in uniform both in departures and at the baggage claim. At Shanon airport US troops refueling with a pint either going one direction or the other but … in the UK nope. Hang over from the days of a more volatile situation in Northern Ireland.
It’s interesting to note that this gratitude is not carte blanche tho’ - last summer flying from Fort Worth to Phoenix there were some military personnel going thro’ baggage control at the same time as us and they were getting NO special treatment - boots? gotta come of, laptops? out of bag, where’s your boarding pass ? Get it out etc. etc. Turns out they were on their way home from Iraq. How do I know ? Because 3 of them were on our flight and the pilot told everyone on the aircraft while we were waiting for take-off - there was spontaneous applause. Seldom have I felt more “foreign” than at that point. They got to disembark first (which was a really nice idea) walking down the plane to another round of applause - which I don’t think they really acknowledged, mind you one of them was about to me his son for the first time so his mind was probably elsewhere.
Husband & I wondered if there was any other country where that could happen, this lead us to wonder where else you would be likely to find military personnel taking an onward flight in uniform…
I think the main reason is the all-volunteer army. It doesn’t make sense to thank people who don’t have much choice in the matter (except after the fact, like WWII veterans).
Also, regarding the Pakistani army (or Argentine army or Burmese army or fill-in-the-blank army), it would seem odd to thank the members of a military that interferes in politics and even takes over from time to time. “Thank you for seizing power! Keep up the good work!”
The situation in India is, I think, comparable to what AK84 reports about Pakistan. The Indian Army is viewed as the most upright, least corruptible institution in India, and (in contrast with the Pakistan Army, anyway), takes it as a basic premise that it must not interfere with civilian government. It’s a volunteer service, and its members display a good deal of pride and integrity. And they would be similarly taken aback at being “thanked” for their service. I think they would see the thanks as patronizing and as being based on a suggestion that they would not otherwise do their duty. Kind of like the samurai, who would commit suicide if his master thanked him for being loyal. The very mentioning of loyalty carries within it a suggestion of disloyalty. “Thank you for being loyal/thank you for serving” carries with it a message of “Thank you for not being disloyal/thank you for not disserving the country.”
The situation in the United States is indeed complicated and a lot of it has to do with the fact that since 1945, there have been a small proportion of combat deaths that could be honestly described as actually being in service to the country or protecting ours or anyone’s freedom. As John Kerry and others have learned, the one thing that is politically fatal is being honest about our governments’ shameful wastage of the lives of those who volunteer to serve the country.
The army is about the most respected institution in Pakistan. And the Navy and air force. People respect soldiers, and the efforts they make, be it is Kashmir or overseas or in FATA now.
The issue here is not respect, I think thats universal (i hope), but rather the way that individual soldiers “are thanked for their service”.
Interestingly, the Turkish army seizes power every time an Islamist government is elected, then transfers it back to a (secular) civilian government more or less immediately. They take their role as defenders of the national constitution quite seriously.
That doesn’t mean they don’t appreciate being thanked. It’s just a way of responding modestly. Besides I don’t think serving in the army is a ‘duty’ any more in the sense that soldiers are obliged to do it, because they’re not obliged to join the army. They willingly choose to take up a job that they know could see them sent into service in dangerous conflict zones, on behalf of their countrymen, and even if the main reason they’re doing it is for the money or because they like guns or whatever, it’s still something that should be commended I think.
I was a USAF officer for 8-1/2 years, roughly the 1980s = the Reagan years. Never in that time did I get a thank you from anyone. I did catch some shit from people who thought what I did was reprehensible.
In the last 3-4 years I’ve gotten thanks on this board whenever I talk about something which brings up my veteran-ness.
Thanking US military people is totally a post-2001 phenomenon.
In most commonwealth countries, soldiers and officers are not supposed to wear uniform when not on duty. Indeed it can construed as “misuse of the uniform”. In my early teens my dad;s office was near a large shopping mall. There was a bookstore there which he loved and we did most of our purchases from the mall in any case. I remember several occassions when he came home changed and THEN drove back, a 45 minute drive.
I’m of two minds on this. I have a lot of friends who are or were in the military; also family members who are veterans. I certainly admire their service, because it takes balls to go out in harm’s way. On the other hand, I don’t agree with what our military is doing right now; I don’t think the wars we are participating in are right; I don’t feel that the soldiers who are fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan are doing anything whatsoever to help me or help my country in general; so I would never just randomly thank a serviceman for his service. I certainly wouldn’t condemn him for it, since the war isn’t his fault, but I wouldn’t thank him for a “service” that I don’t think should be performed in the first place.
I’ve thanked military personnel (here and elsewhere) as part of a conversation, but have never just walked up to someone, blurted it out and then walked away. That would be a little weird, I think. On the other hand, a longtime veteran once appeared before me in court, charged with a relatively serious crime, and his lawyer discussed his service at some length before asking for charges to be dismissed. I replied that I honored him for his service to our country, but it wasn’t a “Get Out of Jail Free” card.