Not being a vet myself, that is kinda my attitude. Even moreso for someone who put in a couple of year hitch, instead of a career. Or who was drafted against his wishes. Not sure what I I might have done for a relatively short time several decades ago that I would want to advertise today. Maybe if I was an Olympic medal winner, or an astronaut. Something there are far fewer of than ex-military.
And I’m willing to admit that this is a minuscule percentage of vets, but I do occasionally run into the category of vets who seem to believe they are continually owed something, with their hands continually out metaphorically and in reality. I have to remind myself to not let my opinion of this small minority taint my attitude towards the majority. The attitude of such folk undoubtedly makes me disinclined towards the idea of across the board discounts for vets.
Of course, in reality, it sorta seems that if you are persistent enough, you can come up with SOME reason for folk to give you discounts in many situations. Heck, I’m getting to the age where I should be more cognizant of senior discounts. I guess I’m not all that concerned, as my wants are relatively modest, my income exceeds outgo, and I have more than enough to cover anything I want to purchase. I remember my dad, tho (also a Seabee). Was quite successful/wealthy, but aggressive as all hell at asking for discounts as soon as he got that first AARP card. Never recall him wearing any vet stuff or seeking a vet discount.
This seems oddly insulting in a thread about wearing baseball caps and t-shirts that advertise your veteran status. You don’t need to love veteran’s discounts or veteran’s gear to participate in this thread, but drive-by insults are never appropriate in MPSIMP
I apologize. It was just a joke, not an insult. And Having participated in most veteran-related threads since 2000, I must have mistakenly assumed it wouldn’t be seen as outsider snark. I guess my good taste was a casualty of literally swimming through shit in the aft bilge of the USS Cleveland.
Actually, @Miller tells me it’s a standard veteran joke that I didn’t get, and that vets will know it wasn’t meant as an insult. I withdraw the mod note.
No guys, its my fault. It was a long time ago, but I was sexually assaulted while serving in the US Navy, and was naive enough to report it. Like a lot of men and women in that situation I was branded a troublemaker and given an involuntary administrative discharge. I should really stay out of veterans threads. Righty or wrongly I was set apart.
Hey, you wore the uniform. And though you had that extremely unfortunate experience and the follow-on, undeserved harassment, I am totally okay if you participate in veteran threads if you so wish.
And your being set apart, it sounds to me that it was very wrongly done. I am so very sorry you had that experience.
I only did 8 years. No retiree ID card, but my vet status is shown on my driver’s license for the occasioanl discount or freebie that I also don’t really agree with businesses handing out “for your service”.
Your explanation fits my attitude perfectly.
As an aside, I did my time as an officer. IME/IMO that crowd is a lot less likely to embrace vet garb unless they retired after a full 20. For whatever cultural reasons that seems to be true.
I retired from the Navy while I was stationed in Monterey, California. That town is not known for being so cheap, so I donated all my uniforms to the local thrift shop where I knew junior sailors shopped. The only military related things I kept was the shadow box I got upon retirement. Sadly, thanks to an incompetent storage site manager, that is no longer in my possession either.
I did join the American Legion, but that was mostly because my father, an inveterate joiner, was not only a member but also a leader of his local post. It lost its luster for me when the prejudices of people my dad’s age came to the fore, and I have not bothered to renew.
I’ll wear my DS/DS hat (it was gift from my Dad, a WWII Vet and Navy SeaBee) on Veteran’s Day, and a small yellow ribbon on Memorial Day. That’s about it.
FWIW, my father, who served in the RCAF during WWII, had and wore several baseball hats from Canadian and US navy ships he visited in the 1970s and 1980s. They signified no more than a hat from the Grand Canyon would. So beware of imitations!
Good point! I toured the USS Wisconsin (BB-64) in Norfolk VA last year:
They sold baseball hats that looked like the ones the crew would have worn at the time. I’m not a souvenir guy, so I didn’t get one. I’m certainly of the age that could have served on her towards the end of her working life.
If I had bought a hat and wore it elsewhere, I may well have fooled somebody into thinking I was a former Wisconsin sailor. Not so. I’d expect the folks in/around Norfolk would be used to seeing those hats on lots of people and know they 99% represent museum-goers, not former ship’s company.
Great ship tour and shoreside museum BTW. Can recommend highly.
I was RED HORSE for awhile, and have worked with SeaBees–good peeps.
I too cringe when I hear it. . . it’s become cliched trope. There are a few people at work I’d met, and on the first introduction they said it, but they meant it.
I retired from the Air Force in 2015, but I don’t wear Air Force/Retired Air Force stuff. I’ll wear EOD pins, hats, patches, or shirts on occasion, but not generic Air Force stuff. My EOD badge is subtle enough that people who know it, or are still in “the community” will introduce themselves, and make good conversation. Regular “Air Force” or “Retired Air Force” clothing acts like runway lighting for every chowderhead to come up and ask me “Hey, you were Air Force? My Uncle was stationed up in Loring AFB, ME in the late 90s! He did something with the motor pool. . . Do you know him?” There’s a lot to unpack in that sentence . . .
Because I am still connected to the EOD community, and act as a liaison between fellow nerds Engineers at my office and the active EOD community, I’ll wear a badge I earned. I’ll wear some old t-shirts at the gym too, but that’s about it.
Tripler
Clowns to the left of me, chowderheads to the right, here I am. . . stuck in the middle with you.
Other than an anchor tattoo on my left arm, I don’t dress and wear anything related to my 4 years in the Navy except for one exception. I wear a Navy ball cap when I walk in my town’s Veteran’s Day parade. My BIL spent 3 years in the Marines back in the late 70’s. Still wears his USMC hat and grunts at other ex Marines.
My late husband was in the Marines for 4 years, after Viet Nam. It was the biggest thing that ever happened to him, and he wore a plain olive drab or beige cotton cap with a Marines insignia printed on it in black. Working out in the yard, mostly. (There was a huge disturbance in the force when he wanted to replace it with the EXACT SAME KIND and they were then making them out of poly/cotton, unacceptable!) He was also very fond of Army-Navy store type clothing: beige or olive drab heavy cotton shirts, wool pants, jackets. But he seldom left the house, much less hung out at bars wearing a signifying cap.
