First and foremost, let me say that the medal depicted in the above meme is NOT an official decoration/award issued by or approved for wear and use by the Department of War. It's a "feel good" award - or rather, a participation trophy - created by a civilian company that I won't name to accomplish two things: make former military members who didn't serve in a war zone feel good about themselves, and to make money off of those feelings. But mostly to make money.
But I digress.
As I said in my Facebook post (for those of you who may have seen it), I realize my opinion on this topic is gonna hurt some feelings, but I can't help that. I call 'em as I see 'em, and how I see 'em in this instance is clear as a bell - to me, anyway.
Bragging about being a Cold War Veteran is like bragging about going to a whorehouse and not getting fucked. It's nothing to brag about, so why do it?
I did a bit of research as I always do, and what I discovered about the military conflicts that the United States military has been involved in from 1947-1991 (the Cold War years) kinda surprised me. The US has been involved in a lot of conflicts during that time period, everything from police actions to wars to interventions. Some of them lasted for only months, some a year, some for 20 years or longer. But here's the part that surprised me.
The longest time that the US went without being involved in a military conflict of some type was ten years, specifically from the end of combat operations in the Vietnam War in 1973 to the Grenada Invasion of 1983. I would have thought it would have been a longer time period than that, but apparently not.
So what this means is that if you served in the US military from 1974 through 1982, you didn't have the opportunity to serve in a combat area, and that's not your fault. If you served from 1984 to 1989, you also didn't have the chance to serve in a combat area. Other than that, if you served in the US military in a time period outside of these two, you had the opportunity to serve in a combat area.
If your unit didn't deploy, then that's not on you. If you wanted to go but couldn't, that's not on you either. But if you had the chance to go and chose not to, then that IS on you. And I speak as someone who had the chance NOT to go, but volunteered to go anyway. That was why I joined the military to begin with, and when the opportunity came along I took it.
So let me ask all of you who fit in the category of which I'm writing a question: isn't the fact that you served in the first place enough to brag about? Why not be proud of that and brag about that instead of bragging about being a "Cold War veteran?" After all, only around 10% of the US citizens will serve in the military, and out of that amount only 3% will serve for 20 years or more. So just by putting on the uniform you join the elite of American society. Why not be proud of and brag about that?
I have the utmost respect for anyone who has served or who is serving in the US military (with the exception of the National Guard) and will support those folks for the rest of my life. You and I are brothers and sisters in service, and I admire all of you. Thank you for your service.
Bragging about being a "Cold War veteran" only denigrates your service and makes you look like a chump, so don't do it.
