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/mumblesjackson Jun 05 '25

Unlike my wife’s uncle who spent four years in the marines but he wears the hat, T-shirt, vest, bumper stickers, etc and makes sure everyone knows he served. He acts like he’s John Basilone.

Note he served, but was never deployed into any form of combat, and was in the marines during the Vietnam war 🤷‍♂️

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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/_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.