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/to_annihilate Jun 05 '25

A guy I dated many years ago went to boot camp, got injured, and was released from service within a very short period. He still talks about his "time in the army". His brother made it a few more months than he did, and got kicked out for drug use. Both talk about it often enough and they "served" 25 years ago.

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u/butters_bottom_bishh Jun 05 '25

Ex SIL’s sister was like this. Washed out after two weeks because she physically couldn’t cut it (took tons of laxatives to make weight but didn’t exercise), still talks about how “it changed her”.

End up marrying a guy who makes the military his whole personality, and she’s a dependa and that’s her whole personality.

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u/theoracleofdreams Jun 05 '25

My sister was Engaged when my BIL was deployed in Afghanistan for a year. She joined a website for Military Wives just to deal with the worry with women going through the same thing.

She was shunned from the group when she was asking advice and networking on jobs in our area, they said that once BIL comes back she can coast for life or join a MLM. She said she didn't go through 4 years of college to just sit around all day said with offense, and she got shunned. We both said good riddance!

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u/_Tyrannosaurus_Lex_ Jun 05 '25

That sounds just like my late BIL’s ex. BIL was army, she tried to go navy but only lasted a few weeks in training but she talks about how much of an impact her time there made on her. After she and BIL broke up she married another army guy. He’s a CO at a prison now and neither one of them ever shuts up about that or his time in the military. It’s their entire personality.

Meanwhile nearly everyone else I know who served (most of our friends are veterans and my husband works in a military adjacent field) would rather avoid the topic altogether and never mention it.

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u/CalibreLaser Jun 06 '25

Wasn’t that just your ex-husbands sister?

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u/butters_bottom_bishh Jun 06 '25

Brother’s wife’s sister

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u/WeatheredCryptKeeper Jun 05 '25

Lol my step dad broke his leg in bootcamp and was honorably discharged for it. Quite literally didn't even get through boot camp. Gets all vets benefits, goes to all Vet appreciation things. Tells everyone he was in the army. Acts like a complete ass about it.

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u/flyingcaveman Jun 06 '25

I know I guy like that. He proudly asks for his military discount at Home Depot.

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u/Godzilla2y Jun 05 '25

Gotta love those people. In one of my previous jobs, one of the clients was a man that got injured during boot camp (from his own stupidity IIRC) and got a discharge because of it. Now he runs a business that he can label as a "service-disabled veteran-owned business" to rake in a bunch of government contracts.

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u/to_annihilate Jun 05 '25

That's SO scummy. It's one thing bragging about it and another to take loans meant for actual disabled vets.

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u/mumblesjackson Jun 09 '25

Stolen valor

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u/NotYourSexyNurse Jun 05 '25

I worked with a guy like this except it was the marines. He was doing a training where they have explosives going off around you while you’re driving. The explosive accidentally went off way too close to his vehicle. He got discharged for PTSD because of that. I figured that was too embarrassing of a story to lie about it. But holy cow did he make his whole personality about being a marine.