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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dennishoddy" data-source="post: 4203829" data-attributes="member: 5412">Which option would you have taken? I had an Aunt that offered to pay my way to Canada, go to jail, or serve honorably as every generation in my family did, that my sister can find in our history, back to the Civil war.I broke ranks by going Army. They all went Navy.There was no question but to serve my country honorably. I've never regretted that decision. I was not going to be known the rest of my life as a coward by refusing service to my country that has given all of us more freedom than any country in history, nor was prison time and a felony that would deny my Constitutional freedoms and rights be taken away from me.Those were my "options". What would you have done with your options?Every ounce of that freedom was won by men and women fighting, bleeding and dying on battlefields all over the world to defend it. Most people respect that 1% of the population of the US defended the liberties of millions and millions of Americans and the non-citizens that live in this country. We took oaths to defend it that have never been rescinded.I'm not sure what got the burr under your saddle about veterans, but we fought for the rights that you have it there. I hope it doesn't continue to irritate you as much as it appears in this thread. Your life will be worse for it.Edit: Perhaps you're not aware of the stigma of serving during and after Vietnam on veterans in this country. I suggest you walk to the lobby or the HR department and read carefully about discrimination in the work place. One section calls out Vietnam Era vets and actually gave them the same rights to promotions etc. that minorities had at that time because of discrimination against them over the years. It was still on the OG&E bulletin board the day I retired from there 8 years ago. Veterans were denied good paying jobs because of the hollywood movies that depicted them as baby killers, murders and crazed madmen. Even Vietnam era vets that served their entire duty in the US or Germany got the same treatment by employers, the public, and the media. When coming home from overseas at Travis AFB we were told to forget everything, go about our lives and STFU. The first thing that happened was coming through LAX, getting the stares and curses as we had to travel in uniform to get the discounted military airfares. Vets refused to say they were in the military during job interviews. It wasn't until Grenada and the First Gulf war that the US population in general started giving the military and vets the respect they had earned. But you were too young to experience that or probably know anything about that. Do some history work. It was a terrible time to be a vet.</blockquote>

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