First of all, I would like to extend my best wishes to all my fellow vets!
In case you are unaware, there are several benefits/freebies available to vets around this time:
Amazon offers a $40 one-time discount for subscriptions to There is a comprehensive list on the VA website for many other discounts/freebies.
Thank you for you service, no matter the branch.

 

Thanks Gene, I am a vet and have a veterans card where I get a lot of discounts. I will check into these as well. Lowes has given over 4 billion in discounts to vets since they initiated their program. And of course, thank you for your service. Our club is honoring vets this Monday evening. They have put up a tree with the names of all vets on a cardboard dog tag for each vet and have hung them on their Freedom tree. Best part is that all vets get 2 free drinks. I will toast all vets who served with mine.

 

ChickFilA is giving away free sandwiches to Veterans.

 

None locally. Send me one. Boy, those are good.

 

Thank you, men of Vintage, for your service to our country. I respect you for it. I'm sorry many of you (Matt) were treated poorly on return. He mentioned being spit at, I think it was, after Vietnam.

My dad, Frank Thomas, was in the Air Force in the Korean War. He didn't have any PTSD as far as I know and he seemed to truly love that time in his life as he talked about it often the older he became. I wish I could have followed his stories but it was a "Thomas Story", meaning we were supposed to fill in the blanks as he went along. If I'd ask questions he'd get annoyed with me.

If any of you are so inclined, I'm interested in what you have to say about being a vet, from your initial experiences, being drafted, I imagine, and on. I was in the generation after Vietnam and only knew one neighbor who was drafted. He supposedly disowned his family when he (Brent Barton) came back and that was all I ever heard about him.

 

I will not be there this year but for the last two years I've been back home in Lynn, MA for Veteran's Day. They have a Veteran's Breakfast, a parade and numerous other ceremonies and some specific to Vietnam. It was not like that when I came home from Vietnam but I'm really happy to see how it is today.

There is another benefit for vets that you may employ that's really good. It's the Veterans Tickets Foundation. I've got tickets for as low as $12 to see the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and they also allow you to filter events for ADA requirements. Try it.

https://www.vettix.org/

 

Oh, don't forget (I know that you did.) that the Marine Corps Birthday is November 10, the day before Veteran's Day.

 

Thanks, Gene. And right back atchya.

 

Thank you Patricia. I have no stories to say except to say Thank You to the Air Force, it may have been the single best thing I could have imaged at that age.

 

Patricia: Thank you for your comments. It is nice to be thanked for our service now, when we were NOT back then. However, I have to set the record straight: Yes, I was spat on for being in uniform in August of 1970 at the Port of Authority Terminal in NYC on my way home on a weekend leave from Basic Training. However, I never served "in Country" during the Vietnam Conflict. I for one would never steal valor from those that did serve in country, like Gene, Glenn, and many others. They are the ones that deserve all the thanks for their service.

Although I served in the early 70's (during the Vietnam Conflict), I served most of my time at the Pentagon (as a "Chairborne Ranger"), based on my test scores after being inducted. Although, I received an Army Commendation Medal for my service (and I am proud of it), I still have a "guilt complex" because I was one of the lucky one's that did not have to serve "in country". I remember like it was last week, that on the day that I was inducted into the U.S. Army at Fort Hamilton, NY on 11 Jun 70 in a hall after the physical a Drill Sergeant had us "sound off" starting to his right in the first row. Then, he announced that if you were "every fifth man, that is five, ten, fifteen, twenty, etc. take one step forward and raise you right hand. The person to my immediate right was one of the multiples of five and was drafted into the U.S. Marine Corps. To this day, I wonder what ever happened to him.

As fate would have it, during my first year of service I was Cadre with a company at Fort Dix, NJ that trained radio operators (MOS 05Bravo). Every eight weeks we had about 225 trainees come through the system. Out of the 225 about 175 would get orders for Vietnam. Being a radio operator was akin to having a target painted on one's back. As the Viet Cong knew that the radio operators were the one's that called in the artillery or air strikes to support the ground troops. Those are the guys that deserve our respect as well as all the others that were in harms way.

Yes. I am still here to bitch about Congress stripping away all of the benefits that I was promised when I served, by most of them that never did. The only benefit that I have (as I have no service related disability) is a VA home loan. So, I do appreciate that Lowe's honors us Veterans with a special parking spot (close to the store entrance, as well as a 10% discount on all purchases, including off of their sale price).

In the end: I am very thankful that attitudes towards those that have served have changed over the decades. As it should be, as freedom is not free. As Ronald Reagan once said: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”