Don’t thank me….

Ok.  I have not been shy letting people know that I am ex-military and that I have been to Iraq twice during wartime.

This has prompted people to say, “thank you for your service”.

Don’t.

And I’m going to tell you why…

Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, and Sailors, don’t enlist looking for “thanks”.  They do a job.  They do it well, at times.  They get sent to hell-hole places, live in hell-hole digs, and eat shit food.  But, that is what they knew they would get.

It’s simply embarrassing.  Do you see Accountants being told, “thank you for what you do?”  No.  And, yes, military do a lot more than an accountant.

But, that’s just it.  We didn’t do it for the thanks, parades, or medals.  We did it because we wanted to do it.  No thanks necessary.

Yes, it put great stress on my families (I’ve been divorced twice).  But, we knew it would.  Just as every military family knows.

Don’t thank me for my service.  I don’t need it.  Don’t want it.  Those times were good ones for me, even if they were hard times.

It gave me something to look back to and be proud.

The past is the past.  

It is the future that worries me.

Know anyone who needs a person who knows more about security than most?  Let me know.

I need a JOB.  And security is all I know.