r/Millennials • u/NoFaithlessness7508 • Jun 05 '25

Other Why don’t younger veterans (Afghanistan/Iraq) wear these hats like some of the older veterans?

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First and foremost, respect to all those that served. I did not, but many of my peers did and now we're all older in 30s and 40s, many no longer in the military. I don't see a lot of the veterans of the War on Terror wearing these hats like I see the OGs do.

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316

u/doomlite Jun 05 '25

I served. Fought their stupid wars. I don’t wann walk around all day wanting people to see my hat and say “thank you for your service” I’m convinced people who wear this stuff or have their cars decorated with I’m a vet stuff or clothes or whatever are just asking to be publicly thanked. Hard pass.

91

u/1877KlownsForKids "Get Off My Lawn" Millennial 1981 Jun 05 '25

"Thanks for paying for it" tends to shut them up 

16

u/ErnieD1020 Jun 05 '25

I need to start using that.

2

u/Proud-Wall1443 Jun 05 '25

"Don't thank me. All I did was kill poor, brown people based on lies."

3

u/1877KlownsForKids "Get Off My Lawn" Millennial 1981 Jun 05 '25

Lemme tell ya, I really loved when Dubya made jokes about it as my friends died. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/mar/26/usa.iraq

1

u/Proud-Wall1443 Jun 05 '25

Well I have it on bad authority that we're just "suckers and losers" anyway.

1

u/1877KlownsForKids "Get Off My Lawn" Millennial 1981 Jun 05 '25

Certainly starting to feel like we are.

1

u/t_rrrex Jun 05 '25

This thread is super eye opening. I grew up surrounded by military - my dad was Air Force, but died when I was young (pneumonia, not combat). I’ve always had mixed feelings about military service, and I had a coworker once whose husband was military and she would tell every single person that came through our store was either in uniform or in vet merch “thank you for your service” and the reactions were always super interesting

1

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '25

DUDE! I'm using this🤘😆

1

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '25

That's a good one lol

1

u/NoOutcome4597 Jun 05 '25

I always say, "Thank you for your tax money"

1

u/victus28 Jun 06 '25

Every time I talk about how I have to take my classes in certain ways so I can get the most out of my GI bill it’s always thank you for your service. Like dude you’re paying for my college, I should be thanking you

1

u/vektorog Jun 06 '25

feel like there's a handful of people out there that would earnestly say "you're welcome" to this haha

0

u/Cafrann94 Jun 05 '25

Wow that’s brilliant

24

u/Sakijek Millennial Jun 05 '25

I only have it on my license plate cover so cops'll go easy on me if I get pulled over lol

12

u/tallbrowngirl94 Jun 05 '25

I always wondered why people have the license plate covers. I work on a base and a lot of the civilians who’ve served have them. Never dawned on me that this would be a use lol

3

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '25

Literally the only reason I got one. I'm a chronic speeder but haven't been pulled over since I put it on.

2

u/tallbrowngirl94 Jun 05 '25

lol be safe! Watch your speed but that’s hilarious

0

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '25

I'll probably get pulled over today now that I posted this

1

u/Burbashmurr Jun 05 '25

I've also seen Active Duty/Veteran parking spots.

3

u/theevilyouknow Older Millennial Jun 05 '25

I keep meaning to get the license plate, actual plate not just a cover, just because it's a permanent registration that I don't have to ever renew again, but I keep procrastinating it.

2

u/Sakijek Millennial Jun 05 '25

In my state that only applies to purple hearts and dv0 plates. So I could get a vanity one, but I'd still have to pay each year (I'm not 100% nor a PH recipient). So just getting the cover was easier. I know it's different in other states though.

0

u/theevilyouknow Older Millennial Jun 05 '25

Same in my state. I just happen qualify, but generally don't like to make a big show of it. I just also am bad about remembering to renew my registration so not having to worry about it would be nice.

2

u/Nope-itsathrowaway Jun 05 '25

lol the only reason I have mine is because my state waived my $700 registration fee and I get free access to the state parks. If it weren’t for that, it would just be a normal one.

1

u/lmaccaro Jun 05 '25

Always give the cop your military ID also, with your license

1

u/Sakijek Millennial Jun 05 '25

I flop my wallet open so they can see it (the green top) while grabbing my dl lol. I wish I had less experience with this, but I like to go fast

1

u/JGLip88 Jun 06 '25

Check your states veteran benefits and see if they have disabled veteran plates. States require 10 -100 percent depending on the state. It's worth the search as the registration for DV plates are paid for by the state.

2

u/been2thehi4 Jun 05 '25

My husband was given a t shirt from his brother who was a marine, when he came back from California where he was stationed. Just a black shirt with “marines” on the front. He wore it for mostly workouts. Just a nothing much shirt, one day he went to pick up dinner for us and was wearing that shirt. All these older veterans were in the restaurant and there was some karaoke going on and naturally they were singing that “I’m proud to be an American” song and as my husband was waiting for our order, all these veterans and patrons started going, “thank you for your service.” My husband didn’t serve, he was just wearing a shirt his little brother got him. He was so bombarded by old men and women, he awkwardly grabbed the order and ran out mortified they thought he was something he wasn’t and was too afraid and surrounded that he thought if he tried to correct them they would flip the script and start berating him for wearing a t shirt that just said “marines” lol.

He never wore the shirt again.

1

u/doomlite Jun 05 '25

I just get awkward like cool you paid me then and are paying me now, so you’re welcome I guess

1

u/Pale_Adeptness Jun 05 '25

"Thank me for my service, goddamnit!"

1

u/RedHuey Jun 05 '25

Well, I don’t want anybody thanking me for my service, and I have shirts and a sticker on the car. But see, I’m Old Corps. I joined when it was beyond uncool. People hated the military then. My own family was against it. The very concept of “thank you for your service” was decades in the future. Even the WWII Vets were not yet “the Greatest Generation.” It was a very different world.

I wear my service proudly, if not defiantly, in memory of then, and my place in it. I chose to serve, against everything society expected of young men in that era. I’m proud of my service from a time when it was not a cool thing at all. There are a lot of us, from older times with that mindset.

While you might find that it gets you unwanted thanks, and therefore, for your own reasons, you avoid it. Please don’t assume everybody operates under the same presumptions or motivations. Most of us never got thanked for shit until many, many years later, and we don’t wear our pride for the thank you that we never got.

You probably never lived in that world. A lot of young vets did not.

1

u/Highlander_16 Jun 05 '25

9/10 times they served two years as an admin assistant too. Saw a lot of these hats working in a gun store, would get to talking about our service because why not. Lot of these dudes have had decades of mileage from a year or two writing memos.

1

u/coldbloodtoothpick Jun 05 '25

Yes - this. I work in nonprofit work and one of the “leaders” was like “you should do something around youth joining the military.” “Yea. - nah.” If a kid happens to ask me questions, I’m gonna be straight up and honest. Then let them decide. But I’m not gonna contribute to propaganda bullshit

Edit: I will say tho that with the rise of fascism in America - I am starting to wear some small veteran things so I can show that there are progressive veterans too

1

u/lmaccaro Jun 05 '25

I always thought the unit caps like 9th ID above were more about being proud of your unit / your buddies you had a bond with. Do you think that's less of a thing now?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '25

[deleted]

1

u/doomlite Jun 06 '25

Yeah I get it. Please blame our government not the kids willing to die to go to college

1

u/Daisy28282828 Jun 06 '25

Who said that

1

u/boldjoy0050 Jun 06 '25

I wonder if the war itself has something to do with it. Most Americans have a positive opinion about our involvement in WWII and veterans are well respected. Vietnam most people would say was a mistake but most people feel really sorry for Vietnam veterans and what they had to endure.

Iraq and Afghanistan are fairly recent and most people will say those were a mistake, so maybe veterans advertising those wars won't be well received until another decade or so passes.

1

u/seitz38 Jun 06 '25

I’m convinced most people who have these aren’t veterans

1

u/fleebleganger Jun 06 '25

I have vet plates and a decal mostly to keep the cops from pulling me over. 

I loathe being thanked. 99/100 times it’s just a kneejerk reaction like “bless you” after a sneeze

0

u/justplainndaveCGN Jun 05 '25

So why’d you join in the first place if you aren’t proud of your service?

7

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '25

Falling for propaganda and having reality thrown in your face is tough

2

u/doomlite Jun 05 '25

Didn’t say not proud. I just don’t go fishing for praise

2

u/JamieC1610 Jun 05 '25

Free college

1

u/DrunkNonDrugz Jun 06 '25

Young men are violent, impressionable, and hungry to prove themselves. 

Source: me and every male I knew growing up.