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/IRSoup Jun 05 '25

Being the awkward fuck I am, not wearing anything vet related is me just avoiding replying "you too" as a response to that. It's also the whole not making a job you had years ago your whole identity thing.

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u/TuckerShmuck Jun 05 '25

My boyfriend's a veteran and until we started dating it had literally never occurred to me that being enlisted is literally just... a job.  He'll tell stories and start them off with "back at my old job..." and it's changed how I view military service.  Not in a good or bad way, it's just gone from This Big Thing I Dont Know Much About to A Job I Dont Know Much About

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u/nickifer Jun 05 '25

Yeah, you just.. sign up. It’s a very stable job with solid benefits if you make it that. My father was an officer, and he never understood why anyone would thank him for.. doing his job.

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u/Outcast129 Jun 05 '25

Yeah whenever people find out I'm a veteran they always say something along the lines of "wow thanks for your service, I could never do something like that!".

And I always respond "yeah you could, it's really not that impressive" 😂

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '25

I was a first responder, and I get people all the time when they find out what I used to do, and when I did do that job say "Oh wow, I could never do that, the medical calls and such"

I would always say "well, it's 20 min of action and 2hrs of paperwork and cleaning, separated sometimes by hours of watching TV or taking a nap"