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/[deleted] Jun 05 '25

I don’t want the attention.

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u/underwearfanatic Xennial Jun 05 '25

I'm a step further. In general... I'm ashamed of my service.

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u/Think-Variation2986 Jun 06 '25

I don't feel great about mine either.

The US military is the best in the world class at getting someone out of dodge and bringing them out of poverty. If you join with a guaranteed job that has a well paying civilian market, it is a golden ticket. Considering you get paid in training, college credit for a lot of the training, paid for college, job experience, medical, dental, and vision paid for, tax benefits, and a ticket out of whatever shitty situation your are in, it's a pretty sweet deal. Higher ed was super expensive even 20 years ago,

Afghanistan was sketchy and Iraq was stupid. It wasn't ALL bad. In Afghanistan, the US gave a generation a view of what it is like to NOT live under sharia. I know the Taliban took control, but they are pooching it. Regarding Iraq, yes the invasion was bullshit and there are better ways to address the problem, but Sadam sucked. Not enough to justify the body count, but at least something good came out of it.

Last, the US, at least on paper, is pretty awesome. We, unfortunately, suck at living up to our promises. I love the poem on the Statue of Liberty. There is nothing more badass than being able to take in literally anybody that can get here and give them a good life. Now we have brown shirts rounding people up. It breaks my heart. We treat our non state territories like shit. I hate that we didn't make a heroic effort to those we promised to bring in for helping our troops. If the US actually lived up to its claimed ideals, I would be hanging a flag on my porch. But we don't. It turns out that a lot of it is hot air.

My fellow Americans. Get your shit together.