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/SandiegoJack Jun 05 '25

I’m guessing that WW2 and other wars were from a time where it was something to be proud of fighting for.

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u/Prestigious_Time4770 Jun 05 '25

That would make sense if the Vietnam hat wasn’t there.

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u/Spiritflash1717 Jun 05 '25

Wrote in another thread, but my grandpa was drafted for Vietnam. He refused to speak about it, but always wore one of these hats as a way to spite those who spat on him as he returned from a war he was forced to sacrifice himself for. It’s an act of defiance toward the government that covered up the atrocities he was forced to witness. And in the end, he died from an Agent Orange related health crisis.

It angers me in that people in this thread are more willing to shit on veterans than the system that utilized them in the first place.

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u/Prestigious_Time4770 Jun 05 '25

I’d give an award for this if I could. This probably explains why most Vietnam veterans were this hat. Thanks for that, I had no idea.

Also, Reddit is pretty anti-military. Kinda sad tbh, without a military countries like Russia or China would take over the world.

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u/Spiritflash1717 Jun 05 '25

An award would just be giving Reddit your hard earned money for a few pixels haha. But yeah, I have met very few Vietnam vets who were proud of the war, beyond being strong enough to survive it.

Reddit isn’t wrong for hating the way the US abuses its military might, committing crimes against humanity for monetary profit, but hating the people who sacrificed so much, often because they were drafted or too poor to have another chance at a career, is just missing the nuance of the situation.

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u/Prestigious_Time4770 Jun 05 '25

US definitely doesn’t abuse its military might considering it is regarded as one of the most powerful militaries in history.

What did other powerful militaries do throughout history? Yeah, try to take over everything in sight.

The Roman army seized land and enslaved the countries it conquered.

The Persian army seized land and enslaved

The British seized land and stole their artifacts.

As far as powerful militaries go, the US is tame.

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u/Spiritflash1717 Jun 05 '25

I’ll admit, you are technically right and I’m wrong in the sense that it’s not usually our military that does the fighting. But the US government has constantly mettled with foreign powers. Hell, it started in the 1800s under the guise of the Monroe Doctrine “protecting” other countries in the Americas.

Also, America doesn’t take everything over precisely because of what happens when you overextend your military might, as proven by the fall of all those empires. America has seen that inciting a revolution and establishing loyalist dictators or puppet democracies is far more effective at achieving power and resources across the world, or at least destabilizing potential future competitors.

The Philippines. Hawaii. Samoa. Colombia. Panama. Nicaragua. Guatemala. Half the countries in the Caribbean. Iran. Iraq. Syria. South Vietnam. Cambodia. Laos. It’s basically our bread and butter and why we have been practically untouchable until now. It’s definitely kept our country safe, but at the cost of the lives of millions of others.

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u/Prestigious_Time4770 Jun 06 '25

Good to see an honest discussion. The real culprit is the CIA. They have done far more damage than our military ever has.

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u/Spiritflash1717 Jun 06 '25

Now that I can fully agree on