> People in the US invariably thank soliders/sailors/airmen/marines for their
> service when they meet them.
What’s with this “invariably” business? In my experience this never happens. That certainly not because anyone I know has anything against the military. I have a number of relatives who are or were in the military. I work as a civilian for the Department of Defense, and everyday pass military people in the corridors (and sometimes work with military people). In my experience, thanking people for doing their job in casual meetings would be considered a little bit obnoxious (if not downright weird), almost as much as boasting about your job.
Look, I’m not saying my experience is any more typical than yours. Clearly there is some sector (some region or some social class or something) in the U.S. where it is common to thank military people. That doesn’t make your experience more typical than mine. I’m sorry, but I’m tired of posts where someone posts some habit that is common in their own experience in the U.S. and claims that it happens invariably all over the U.S. Could you at least in your OP when you make statements like this start with “In my experience the following happens most of the time . . .”?
Brit here,the British public as a rule(excepting extreme left wingers and Islamists ) ARE very proud of our servicemen and have a great deal of respect for them whatever their opinions of the conflict that they are involved in,not just now but in the past.
There is a small town close to an R.A.F. airfield where soldiers K.I.A. pass through all too frequently in their flag draped coffins on their last journey home; where virtually the whole population stop whatever they’re doing whether work or not and line the street to silently pay their respects.
This though nice wouldn’t be too noteworthy if it was an unusual event, but for the towns inhabitants it is a very regular occurance.
People DONT go around spontaneously thanking servicemen for what they’ve done because it isn’t a British “thing”,when it comes to serious emotional displays we tend to be very reserved,this is not a myth.
Opinion is ,rightly or wrongly,if you see a recently made widow wailing and sobbing and generally making a spectacle of herself(usually on tv news showing someone abroad)then the pity she is feeling is for herself and not for her dead husband.
If someone went up to a squaddie and started thanking him it would probably make him feel uncomfortable rather then pleased,also he might wonder if he was with the local loony.
Maybe yes. Or maybe we want to be sure that our service men are treated with respect. We realise that they are in a position to give everything up serving in ours armed service.
No I would not say it is really guilt trip as much as being sure another Vietman. And anyway it is a matter of respect.
Do you thank the door man who opens the door for you? Do you thank the bus driver when you get off the bus?
It is a bummer to be doing a job for someone and have them not care.
I volunteer everyear at a music festable. I know the cops there are being paid OT to work the event. But I also know they could say no and if they all did there would be no event. I always make a point of thanking any officer I come into contact with.
I was also at a show where at the end they had the members and former of the various services stand one service at a time. I was suprised when the also had members or former members of the merchant marine stand. I stood because I felt I would be dishonering others who lost their lives or were injured is I did not. I was greatful for the fact that others were being repersented.
I know both an air force officer and a soldier who’d both be rather surprised to find out that they’ve volunteered to die for all Americans. One of them joined because the air force would not just pay for her to learn how to build rockets but paid her on top of that for learning how to build rockets - it was purely a financial decision. As was the soldier’s, who joined because the army would pay a big chunk of his college tuition in exchange for playing the trumpet once a month.
To quote another soldier I know, whose reasons for joining I don’t know, but he’s on his way to Iraq in a couple months, “I don’t know what the hell people say that for, because they’re already paying me and it’s not like they’re getting anything from it.”
Veteran here! Served from 1989 to 1996. Back then, the only “thank yous” I ever got were from senior citizens that I assumed were vets themselves. This was before the current military actions that we have going on, and the huge public awareness and the fad to thank soldiers.
Given that I think it’s a fad of sorts, I still thank soldiers whenever I see them (usually at The Palace and at DFW). Most of them aren’t doing some patriotic duty. They’re working. They’re trying to make a living. The military was a choice that they made. Now, they’re not America haters, but for the most part, the chief motivation wasn’t an overwhelming desire to serve the country while leaving the possibility to make a good salary behind. This almost appears as an argument to say that they don’t deserve thanks, but consider that they’re volunteers, and they do it knowing that they can die at any minute (even cooks). They deserve our thanks, whether you thank them publicly, or thank them in your prayers or agnostic equivalent.
Of course, when I was a soldier passing through airports, random people thanking me really would be uncomfortable. After all, what should I say? You’re welcome doesn’t ring right. The only reasonable response is, “Just doing my job.” In then end, it’s not a “you’re welcome” that we’re looking for when we say thanks – it’s just about letting the soldier know that you understand that he’s valuable, that you appreciate his sacrifice, that you’re aware that he’s putting his life on the line for the country.
We say thank you, because we have nothing better to say.
Wow, even dopers dont know that the “Vietnam vets spit on by protesters” was a Nixon serving myth? Heck there’s an entire book about this myth:
Painting activists as anti-military elitists was a invention of the pro-war right! The anti-war movent is an ally of the military, often headed by families of military members themselves, especially when the military used the draft. There’s hardly any “making up for past transgressions” going on here. Thanking service members is simply an odd, if not politically correct thing to do. If anyone should be atoning its the people in congress who cut VA funding and benefits and those who use soldiers for political gain.
It really is incredible. Here we are 30 years later still repeating the same Nixon-esque bullshit.
No, it wasn’t a myth, despite your book. Did people spit on veterans? Maybe not. But, I do know how they were treated. And no, I was not a veteran, but, I lived in that time. Nonetheless, this is the wrong forum to bring this up and I will say no more.
In September 2001, I was working on Wall Street, and my very earliest recollection of this “need to thank the guys in uniform” was from a week after the attacks, when my building finally reopened, and all those (National Guard?) troops were patrolling the streets and commuter stations. I clearly remember feeling this overwhelming need to thank them.
In fact, I even recall a thread right here on how to do a proper salute. My first attempt to find it on the search engine failed, so here I sit, waiting another 300 seconds… Oh well, can’t find it.
American Airlines got smacked down pretty hard in the press last year when they started charging for bags. Fort Bliss is in New Mexico and Texas (associated more with El Paso, TX than with anywhere in New Mexico despite more of the land being in New Mexico) and it’s common on any given day to see a group of soldiers on travel orders flying through El Paso International Airport (much like you’d often see personnel going through BWI.) Well, the story was that they started charging soldiers flying on orders for extra luggage. The story broke in the El Paso Times and was quickly picked up nationwide (I believe I first read it in the Las Cruces Sun-Times, though it’s possible I saw it on Fark first.) Here’s a Consumerist article (links to the newspaper no longer valid) and one from the Seattle Times some time later saying it was really more of a misunderstanding of policy by the press. Either way, it wasn’t good PR for AA.
After not flying for about three years, I started flying again in 2008 and taking several trips out of ELP, the majority of which were on American. Every single time, the soldiers flying on orders in uniform got bumped up to first class if there was room (and there always was, there’s not a lot of demand to fly first-class from El Paso to Dallas-Fort Worth.) Even if the cynic says it’s just a PR move, it’s still a pretty effective one.
Some of us who strongly oppose the war feel the need to indicate that we are not opposed to the soldiers themselves. They are doing the dirty job that our country decided (wrongly!) needed to be done. For me it is probably an attempt to not make the awful mistake that went on during Vietnam of blaming the soldier for the war itself.
I personally can’t just walk up to someone and say “thanks”. I don’t know them, they could be a crappy soldier or an evil person, or not, and I couldn’t keep from qualifying my thanks with something about being opposed to the war. Who wants to hear that. So I send care packages to “any US soldier”.