Service Isn’t An Entitlement
I’m gonna bash some of my fellow Soldiers for a minute. Not the ones who are refusing to deploy and should be tried and punished as treasonous subversives. Not the ones who speak out against this war. Not the idiots who couldn’t hack it so they got out and started badmouthing the military because they were kicked out and won’t get their education benefits. I’m talking about the ones that deployed and returned with honor and think that because of that service they are entitled to act like pricks!
Being a Soldier is not about getting rich, becoming popular, or getting special treatment. I’ve talked to way too many people who ask me for an opinion about something that a Soldier said or did that offended them. It’s as simple as just being rude over email or MySpace to being a prick during a meeting or over the phone for whatever reason.
Just because we’ve been to combat and had some crappy experiences doesn’t mean that there aren’t consequences for our actions. If you treat someone like crap, you deserve to be treated like crap right back. Pulling the “that’s not right, I was deployed” line to defend yourself is cowardly, selfish, and wrong. If you are rude to someone you deserve what you get back. People don’t have to walk on eggshells because you VOLUNTEERED to join the military and got deployed. People don’t have to treat you with kid gloves and mother you because you spent 15 months away from your family. People don’t deserve to treated like shi-ite because your girlfriend broke up with you.
Our profession is one of sacrifice and service to our country. We serve for the pleasure of knowing that we are on the frontlines protecting Americans. We get a lot of benefits from that, but we aren’t entitled to them. No one is OBLIGATED to be nice to us – especially if we aren’t nice to them.
To you troop supporters out there, you shouldn’t care that so and so had to fire his weapon at another human being. It doesn’t matter that trooper X narrowly survived an IED or had to burn feces every other night. If a veteran is treating you like crap, dump him on his/her ass and never look back until you get a heartfelt apology. Then, guard your heart so it doesn’t get crushed again. You don’t have to put up with a rude Soldier just because you feel sorry for him that his deployment happened to suck. He/she needs to Soldier up and get over themselves. There is simply no excuse for rude behavior by Soldiers. I don’t put up with it and neither should you!!
