This is the view of how Americans (not all but a vast majority) treat veterans, the things that we here and how those things are taken. The purpose of this post is simply to get people thinking. It is a difficult thing to do, sadly enough, as most people are very content simply taking what they hear on the radio or on the news as absolute, 100% undeniable fact instead of taking a moment to think about a situation or circumstance critically and then do some basic research before adopting the desired viewpoint being pitched and preached. That said, I am going to give it a try. This is written from my own perspective with the input and influence of literally hundreds of veterans that I know and have in-depth discussions with on the topic of how we are treated and how we feel we are viewed and whether we are valued or not.
Signing Up and Shipping Out
Here we go. First I want to try and give a broader understanding of what it means to be a member of the military. As a person enlisting in the military there are certain things that we expect to experience, both good and bad, but very few people realize the reality of the how truly different life is about to become the moment you sign on that dotted line. We have all heard the term “sign your life away.” But it has never been more accurate than the day you sign your contract and take your oath. As a member of the military you literally volunteer to relinquish your rights as a U.S. citizen and you become property. The day you arrive at boot camp you are a cog in a massive machine, so much so that you are issued a serial number and learn VERY quickly that your life is no longer your own.
You are told when to sleep, when to get up, when and what to eat, when to go to the restroom and how long you have to do each one of those things. You are trained to only walk on sidewalks and to avoid setting foot on grass no matter what. You are broken down and rebuilt into a full-fledged member of the military with solid foundation of knowledge that will allow you to excel in the service should you choose to. Should you choose not to aim to excel you will quickly find yourself being treated terribly by the rest of the men and women around you until you either square yourself away or leave. This is a very important and much needed part of the military, there are naturally people who like to coast through life and the military is no place for those people, they are a liability that put lives at risk just as much as they are an ineffective member of a company that ultimately costs the company money and opens them up to law suits.
Welcome to School!
So, you have endured boot camp or basic training, depending on your selected branch and now you are off to your tech school or “A” school where you will learn the job you will perform for the duration of your first contract term, 4-8 years is typical. If you find that you loath that job during that time I have some bad news for you. You are stuck. You will do that job and any other jobs that are assigned to you and you will be expected to do them exceedingly well or you will be punished, either actively or passively. Actively can be through the assignment of extra duty that nobody wants (trust me, these are not pleasant) and passively is through poor performance reviews, denial of promotion and the eventual end of your career with a less than good reputation.
There are other forms of punishment available to the officers appointed over you and to the senior enlisted charged with making certain you perform but they are generally more legal in manner and end with restriction to base or quarters (adult grounding), reduction in rank (demotion that has terrible long-term consequences) all the way through early discharge from the service that is more often than not a dishonorable one. That discharge will affect your ability to get a good civilian job, your ability to purchase a fire arm and much more then I could ever describe here. As I stated in the beginning, you are property. You are ruled by the Uniform Code of Military Justice and a system that is powered by the fear of punishment and hope for reward. If you operate poorly you will be punished, guaranteed, if you perform exceedingly well you might be rewarded on rare occasion. The reason for this is simple, your country demands that you perform exceedingly well and therefore it is the standard, the expectation and few are rewarded for just meeting expectations.
Entering the Actual Military After School
So, you have endured the constant physical and mental challenges thrown at you, designed to cause physical and mental discomfort, and you are still standing. If you are selected to serve overseas and you see combat you will have an entirely new set of rules, regulations and challenges that you will have to learn quickly while trying your best to stay alive and keep those around you alive. You will learn that you enlisted so you might afford college or simply to serve your country but you are fighting for the guy next to you and for the people behind you. You will do anything to keep the guy next to you alive up to and including giving your life for theirs, even if you happen to despise that guy and you fight that much harder so that the force you are engaging can’t get passed you and back home to the people behind you. That is the reality of combat in a very basic and “G” rated description.
Going Home Is a Privilege
Now, you have served honorably, you have suffered countless sleepless nights, days on end of hunger from a lack of resources and you pushed yourself to operate at peak level regardless of the situation, environment, personal issues and even your own health and you have earned the privilege of coming home. For those of you who have never served and reading this, yes, coming home is a privilege and one that we cherish. We live for the letters we receive, for a kind and caring word from those we love and we all know it, however, we all will torment one another over getting visibly emotional about it. It’s just how things go. We will talk trash to other military branches and have been known to throw punches on occasion, but should an outside person or group attack any member of any branch we will all be on them like a pack of crazed jackals. You can picture this like a family of sorts, you can talk trash about your brothers and sisters, even your parents, but if an outsider does you will lay them out. The military is no different in that respect and while we may all wear different uniforms and perform different jobs we will not tolerate an outsider thrashing one of our own.
Becoming a Civilian Again, YIKES!
So this has been your life for at least four years and upwards of 8+ for many and now it is time to rejoin the civilian world. You spend three months being trained how to become a member of the military, you are torn down and rebuilt into that man or woman but now your service is up and there is little training to make that transition. During your time in the military you have been an active member of a subset of society. You are surrounded by American society and yet you are no longer a part of it and you are reminded of this fact numerous times a day. You tend to be more mature then your civilian counter parts in the same age bracket, you do different things and experience a lot more than they do and these things alone are enough to show you how different you are now. It becomes hard to believe that at one point, just a few years ago, that you were exactly like those people. This does not mean that they are bad people or that there is anything wrong with civilians in the eyes of military personnel, not at all, simply different because we have been changed through training and emersion in a different world. A world that exists in parallel with the civilian world.
So, you are headed back for that world and you are so excited. You will have more choices and can do a lot of things that you couldn’t while in uniform, but then the day is upon you and you sign your DD-214 and walk off your base for possibly the last time, certainly the last time as an active member of the military. There is an entire world in front of you, one that you used to fit into and quickly learn that you no longer do. Most of your old friends will no longer be that to you because while you were living your life in the military they were doing the same thing in the world you left behind. You find that there are a ton of companies out there that claim to be military friendly employers and yet you will find most of them acting as though your service and the job you did while in the service as though it is a negative mark in your history. Other companies will tell you things like, *“we consider military service to be a period of extended unemployment.” They will then follow that up with these often spoken and VERY RARELY meant words, “Thanks for your service.” After a while that begins to sound a lot like, “Kiss my ass and go away.” This is sad, but true.
A View On the VA
America is known as a patriotic country with people that hold rallies to show support for our troops, but once you are a former troop, a veteran, you find that they care less about you than the government does. The VA is a bad joke that tries to disqualify you instead of focusing on helping you. If you are qualified then you will wait for months to get an appointment that is assigned and not reschedulable. To clarify, that means that if you have to work you may be faced with the choice of either missing that appointment and risking your future care and benefits or losing your job if you are denied the day off. It is not like a normal doctor where you can take an hour or two to go to your scheduled appointment at a specified time and get back. An appointment at the VA can and usually will have you there for several hours and they are never on time. I have waited for 5 hours beyond my scheduled appointment time on more than one occasion.
The media loves to report that there are huge improvements being made and so does the government as a whole, but I challenge anyone to go to a local VA hospital and start speaking to random vets. They will be more than happy to talk with you and then ask them about their experiences at the VA. You will find that all of them have had to wait for months and some for years to receive care. Once you have that DD-214 you are useless to this country and you will be treated as such. Yes, you can go to school on the Post 9/11 MGIB but that is also something that civilians misunderstand. You will get your schooling paid for, but not until you pay for all of your books and your first semester’s classes and labs. That can run anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars. Once you pay that the school will forward your enrollment status to the VA’s education department for payment and after about six weeks you will be reimbursed. The sad fact is that many veterans trying to get into school do not have enough money to pay all of that upfront and therefore have a very hard time getting into school to use the benefits that they have earned.
You Are In a Different World Now
You will find that a lot of people look down on you for your service, especially if you were ever in combat. You should be able to be proud of your service, but I have learned to not share the fact that I served, going so far as to remove it from my resume completely. This happened after a woman I worked with started a huge mess trying to get me fired from a company for the simple fact that I was a veteran and that meant that I was capable of killing another human being. Now, I am a former police officer and a veteran with no criminal record of any kind. I have never wanted to or tried to kill anyone as a civilian and am not homicidal in any way, shape or form, but that is irrelevant. I was guilty of being a veteran and this woman made my life hell for months and the company did nothing about it. Most of the people there found it funny and made fun of me for her actions until I finally transferred to another location.
This is a very tiny glimpse into the life of a post-service veteran. I am in no way trying to speak for all veterans but you will find that the majority of us have had frighteningly similar experiences all across the country. We have been cursed, insulted, disregarded, denied employment, denied earned benefits and treated as though we are criminal outcasts. Hell, we were classified by the FBI at one point as a “high risk group” for domestic terrorism. Not because anyone had done anything but because we had been trained to fight. We were willing to die to protect the U.S. and now suddenly we are a threat. What do you say to that? I can tell you what they said…”Thanks for your service.” Remember the translation to that statement?
I hope that this article gives you a new perspective on being a veteran if you are not one and that it lets the other men and women experiencing these kinds of treatment and worse that they are not alone. You feel as though you have lost that brotherhood, but you haven’t, it is just harder to find. We are still here for you. Find another veteran however you can and reach out to them. We have never left a man behind and we will not do so now, if you need to talk there are thousands of us willing and ready to listen. We are brothers, we are sisters but most importantly, we are veterans of the United States Armed Forces and that makes us family, now and forever.