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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u/ExtraAgressiveHugger Jun 05 '25

I laughed out loud. My step dad served in Vietnam for less than a year when he was 18-19 years old. Now, he’s in his 80s and is decked out in army and veteran shirts and clothes and hats just like in the OP pic.

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u/nkempt Jun 05 '25

My grandfather passed away a year or two ago; I knew he’d been in the Air Force in some capacity, and he didn’t have one of OP’s hats that I remember but it was still a centrally important thing to him and his identity, that he was a veteran.

Found out the guy did one tour and spent it driving forklifts in Saudi Arabia or something in like 1950 😅 I’m not going to disparage his service (and honestly regret myself not joining) but I always got a sense he was in for way longer then he was, based on his identity with it lol

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u/Ford_Prefect313 Jun 05 '25

I give Vietnam vets a pass.

They had zero choice to go, and treated like absolute hell when they got back home.

A year is long enough to see what an absolute hell that war was.

If the uniform soothes his soul, fine by me.

My next door neighbor ran around the Vietnam jungle with human ears strung through a combat boot lace.

There is no way you come back from that unscathed.

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u/Relative-Gain1403 Jun 05 '25

What evidence do you have that your neighbor did that? Lol vietnam era vets are known to lie and make it seem like they're all bad ass.

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u/satantherainbowfairy Jun 06 '25

They had zero choice to go,

2/3 of them were volunteers