Friday, November 11, 2016

If you denounce your time in the Military, then don't acknowledge being a Veteran

So, as we get through another Veterans Day, I began to think about a former friend of mine whom I went to Basic Training with seven years ago.  He is no longer in the Army, which he got out two and a half years ago and I believe was two years earlier than his ETS(End of Time of Service) date.  His time in the Army was not a very good time for him, which I can totally relate to that at times during my service as well, but as he got out he began to regret going into the Army in the first place.  I remember his first anniversary being out of the Army, he commented that looking back on it, he should've listened to the lyrics more carefully, talking about a song from Metallica called Disposable Heroes.  However, despite all of this, he still trots around calling himself a Veteran and takes advantage of all the benefits that come with it.    I understand, his time in the Army wasn't very great, as my time wasn't perfect at all by any means, but to literally denounce his time by nearly saying it was a mistake to join in the first place and then take the benefits that come with it is literally a double standard.  I experienced hearing from Soldiers as I was in when they were getting out, telling me joining the Military was a mistake and they should've never have joined, to begin with.  You know, that's fine, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but don't be going around saying that and then turn around, parade to people that you're a Veteran and try to fetch all the benefits that come with it.  This kind of crap reminds me of when I was back home before I joined the Army, I was talking to a lady who's life was solely depended on government assistance, begin to tell me how bad our nation is and we would be better off with a different government, not to mention when I told her I signed up to go into the Army she thought it was worst idea ever and so forth.  I cannot understand with some people, how you can hate a government that is literally taking care of you because you can't do it for yourself for whatever reason(sadly her reason was she was milking the system so she doesn't have to get a job).  My former friend is literally sounding like this lady; "Oh, fuck the Army, I should've never joined but gimme benefits from it."  Before we cut ties with one another, I used to try to cheer him up about his time in the service, because despite the garbage you have to deal with on a daily basis, just remember you are in the one percent of the US population to have the guts to sign up and serve your country.  The rest of the ninety-nine percent will never understand that sacrifice, whether it was they didn't have to, medical conditions prevented them to, or they just flat out said "Screw That!", whatever the situation they are currently in.  I joined at a late age because the option was always kept in my back pocket when the situation I was in got extremely bad, I had that to fall back to.  And my the situation at the time was in dire straits; I was laid off from working as an accounts payable/receivable clerk for nearly a year, the town where I was living in had no means of employment at all, and I was living with a friend of mine which we both were living with hid dad who liked to hang out with drug addicts so he can get his dick sucked, despite the fact these pieces of shit would steal from him, call him names and even sometimes beat the crap out of him.  Me and my friend, along with some other people including his older sister tried to change his father while I lived there but nothing seemed to work.  As a result, when it came known his father wouldn't change and I did not want to go back living with my father, which we got into a huge confrontation a couple years before which led me to live with my friend, I decided to join the Army.  Now, after seven years in, and will be separating shortly in the next few months on a medical discharge, which is looking like a medical retirement, I have to say I am proud of my time in the Army.  Don't get me wrong, there were tons upon tons of crap I had to put up with, but overall, I don't regret my decision joining.  As for my former friend on the other hand, who had the gall to talk about on his crappy page on Facebook about looking for IED's on roadsides while on a convoy because "we" service members are trained to look for anything suspicious even though he never went on a combat deployment, and South Korea is NOT one of those, if you continue to say you regret joining the Army then do me and every other Veteran a favor: STOP acknowledging you're a Veteran, don't go to the VA, and don't try to pick up benefits because you served and hated it.  You think you were the only one that had a bad time in the Army?  Everyone has who was in, from the four-star general to the lowly private.  But for some of us we look at the good times we had while in the shithole, and realize almost ninety-nine percent of the population don't have the balls to do what do or did.  Remember that, I have fucking spoken!



The Angry Private


OEF 2010-2011  101st AB DIV

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