Peacetime vet beats herself up in the NYT
It’s sad that a veteran who never saw war during her enlistment has to begin her piece in the New York Times by telling us that this isn’t a case of Stolen Valor, but that’s how Kristina Shevory begins her opinion piece, “Thoughts of a Peacetime Veteran“;
Still, there’s a growing sense that I’m not a full veteran. I didn’t suffer hundreds of mortar attacks. I didn’t roll over an I.E.D. on patrol in a Humvee. I didn’t watch a buddy step on a land mine and turn into “pink mist.”
Well, that’s just bullshit, dear. The VA says you’re a “full veteran” after 180 days of active duty service. We’ve been fortunate that there have been long periods of relative peace, but in the world since World War Two, the military’s most important function was to be ready, and if you stood in the breach, you’re a “full veteran”.
What’s more important is what you did for other veterans or the currently serving members of the military after you finished your term. Kristina laments that she can’t join the VFW, but I’ll bet she qualifies for the American Legion. She didn’t have to watch a friend get blown up in a fine pink mist, but did she bother to help out a wounded soldier who returned from the battle?
We share a common uniform and a common bond. No one understands duty and commitment better than a veteran, whether they were shot at or not. If you rolled out of bed at one in the morning to answer the call of an alert, no matter what your personal state of readiness, you understand – and you’re needed on the frontlines of warrior care.
Rather than lament the fact that history didn’t provide you with the opportunity to render your last full measure of devotion in service to your country, step up and offer your devotion to your brothers and sisters who stepped up when you couldn’t.
Category: Veterans Issues
Nowdays you have to have a minimum of two years active duty to get VA benefits. While I an a Viet Nam vet I do not look down on anyone’s honorable service. Every MOS is important. To me a vet is a vet.
a bit off topic, but the Vietnam HD series on the History channel showed a bit of an agenda in part two.
Well said Jonn.
Well now, Jonn, there are some that come on here that will say that you aren’t a true Vet unless you attacked a house full of bad guys with nothing but a bayonet and boot laces.
However, I, personally, agree with the gist of your message.
Well said, her service is appreciated by the citizens of a grateful country. I hope she finds your response.
I never officially went to Iraq or Afghanistan. However, what I did back home was just as important. While my unit was deployed, I kept their pay smooth, helped their families when they needed it, and escorted my fallen brothers and sisters to their final resting place. Does that make me a veteran? Yes. I earned my stripes just like any member of any branch. Just because I didn’t deploy with my unit does not mean I didn’t do my job that I raised my hand for so many years ago.
Gosh, I don’t know what to think. I did my first 2 years of active duty in West Berlin…and enjoyed it most of the time…had lots of alerts…never in danger (except when enjoying the local bier)…then I joined the “Guard” years later…and silly me- right after Iraq invaded Kuwait, I re-enlisted for 6 more, not too long after 9-11, I re-enlisted again…so it was all my “fault” I did 2 deployments…and yes I did get shot at and other things… but I have no complaints as it was really kind of cool.
Happy Vets’ Day.
I agree with the message, but I understand why she feels that way.
Having gone there, done that (and hoping to do it again) does make you different. It answers a lot of questions, clears up the “what ifs” that haunt your own mind.
You can have all the training in the world, but until you put it to use, you just don’t know. And you can’t help but wonder, could you hack it?
And in my more honest moments, in that pre-dawn darkness when I’m sweating over kettlebells and shuttle sprints, I can admit to myself that wanting to know, wanting to do, colored my desire to re-enlist as much as the desire to serve my country or pick up a burden I wasn’t willing to ask a younger generation to carry alone.
Now I know, and I have no regrets about it.
Where’s king? I bet he can run faster than this girl.
well said, jonn. We are needed now, and I hope a feeling of inadequacy does not keep any of us/them from helping those they might consider more fully vets.
She ought to read the story of Frank Woodruff Buckles. He was, until some months ago, the oldest confirmed American still standing from World War I. He drove an ambulance and never fired a shot in combat; yet, he had the distinct honor of representing every American serviceman of his era. He also was a civilian POW of the Japs in WW II. Many of the military POWS never fired a shot either. Does that make them less of something? Today, there are many servicemen and women who have not served in a combat zone. And many who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan (as is true in all theatres), are not on the line, not taking wounded, not killing enemy. Are they less than something too? You do what you are told to do. You go where you are told to go. You wear the uniform proudly and, when your service is ended, you take pride in a job well done and you support your fellow veterans and the active duty personnel that, like you, are ready to answer the call.
Exceptionally stated.
Well said, Jonn.
@Anonymous
VA benefits are still based on what they have always been based on. It’s codified in the Code of Federal Regulations and the United States Code. There are specific legal definitions of a veteran for the purposes of benefits. Yes, it varies on some benefits, but for the most part one day of qualifying service during a period of war (and we’ve been “at war” for legal purposes since Gulf War I started two decades ago) is generally enough to qualify for VA benefits. Not sure where the “two years” is coming from, but it sounds suspiciously like barracks rumors and half truths put together sitting around the bar of the local Legion Post or VFW Hall.
My recommendation for those who wish to have benefits is to contact one of the service officers for various veterans’ groups who provide their services free of charge to veterans and have them sort things out for you. There is a tremendous amount of misinformation out there and it’s best to get the facts straight from professionals (don’t mistake service free of charge for “you get what you pay for” the organizations foot the bill for these service officers as a free service to veterans)
@Jonn – yeah, service is service. The tip of the spear doesn’t do much damage without the full weight of the shaft behind it. Yes, at the tip, you sometimes feel the full weight of the shaft coming your way…but you can’t fight a war at the front without a hell of a lot of work by people going all the way back to stateside to support your efforts. It takes a lot of people, in combat and out, to defend this nation. All deserve credit and you don’t get to pick your fight.
Hell, I didn’t run over an IED or grit it out through mortar attacks. Then again, I was Navy and we have very few instances of IED’s for ships.
I went where I was sent and did what I was told, just like everyone else in a uniform.
Years ago, in the mid to late ’80’s….I felt much as she did. I was an Infantryman, but felt I had never been truly tested. Being mentored by Vietnam Vets as a young Private, I felt a little excluded from the club so to speak.
During DS/DS, I shifted a bit the other way….mistakenly thinking I had experienced combat.
Being in Baghdad for the surge quickly disabused me of that notion. And although good has come from that time in the form of post-career employment, it was a bad time and I lost friends.
Being a Veteran is being a breed apart, but for some there is a subset that maintains those who were on the two way firing range. She should be proud of her honorable service, but I remember feeling like she does once upon a time.
Once, just once, I’d like to see the mainstream media have a story about a veteran who’s not some sort of victim or filled to the brim with self loathing.
I can understand her point to some degree. There are a lot of Vets from this current war who look down upon any one who hasnt served in combat , whether they are still on active status or not. I also run into a few older Vets down at the VA who seem to have the same attitude. Hell, some of those guys dont seem to think that the E,I,E,I,O (as they jokingly call our wars) Vets see “real” combat, whatever the hell that means. Service in time of war doesnt define a Veteran. Anyone who has sworn the oath and put on a uniform wrote a blank check, payable in the amount of anything up to and including their life, to the United States of America.
“I didn’t suffer hundreds of mortar attacks. I didn’t roll over an I.E.D. on patrol in a Humvee. I didn’t watch a buddy step on a land mine and turn into “pink mist.””– She should consider herself fortunate. If it’s something she trained for and didn’t experience it’s not her fault, she did everything she could. I know plenty of vets who served in peacetime that regret nothing.
Just because Achmed didn’t unload a magazine out of his AK at my ass, doesn’t make me think I’m any less of a veteran, and God knows there were times out in the middle of fucking nowhere at 800 feet under water, I was just as scared shitless as anyone with bullets whizzing round their heads.
Sorry for the length. This was originally an email and it was suggested I post it here. I served 8 years in the National Guard as a 19D (Cav Scout). I loved it but after some leadership changes in 1999 I was getting burned out. I couldn’t see any future conflict that would require large scale mobilization of the Nat Guard (boy did I screw up that prediction) so, in 2001, I transferred to a Port Security Unit (PSU) in the Coast Guard Reserve. My intent was to take part in actual security missions instead of just training for a conflict that was unlikely to come (please stop laughing). PSU’s are roughly company sized self contained FP/AT units. Being prior Army I was in the landside security platoon with the other former Army and Marines. After 9/11, we had a couple of deployments and were finally sent to Kuwait. Iraq’s port was jacked up so our transports bringing supplies for Iraq had to come to Kuwait. We spent a largely boring 10+ months in Kuwait doing security for supply and ammo offloads at the port. We had hoped to be tasked for occasional convoy duty but it never happened. We actually were tasked with a mission to secure part of the oil pipelines in Iraq but it was dropped. There was one shot fired at a Marine convoy leaving our post and a couple of minor security incidents where I did draw a weapon. At one point, I was taking the slack out of my trigger to engage a vehicle that did not stop at a checkpoint. Right as he reached the point, I’d mentally determined as the line of death, he stopped. It turned out to be a Navy guy who didn’t see the first sentry. Psychologically, I felt different since I’d already made the decision to shoot and now I knew I’d do it again without hesitation if it came to that. This was as close as I came to anything approaching combat. I’ve bored you with all that to say this: Ever since I came back, I’ve… Read more »
You said what I’ve wanted to say for so long…but haven’t found the words.
I’m the anon from above. I hadn’t realized people were still finding this thread from so long ago. I’m sorry to hear that you feel like I did but hope it helps to know you’re not the only one. I still haven’t quite dealt with it. I’ve focused on my career (words I never thought I’d say) and am poised for some major success. I’m raising a son and I took up some team sports. I play ice hockey and soccer several times a week. All of that really made a difference and gave me something to focus on. Finally though I became a reserve law enforcement officer which seems to have finally brought me some peace. I don’t know what will do it for you. Best advice I can give is find something else you like to do and focus on it. Leave this behind. It’s over and can’t be changed. Be proud of what you did to help accomplish the mission. The military doesn’t work without paperwork, supplies and thousands of other jobs getting done.
@Anonymous: I can understand the shame and guilt. I served two tours in Iraq but my third tour was not to be because I was found to be medically unfit for deployment and relegated to the Rear Detachment while my Brigade Combat Team went down range. There were nights that I felt guilty because here I was sleeping in my comfortable bed, knocking back a beer or two, or hanging out with my husband while my fellow soldiers were down range. It took me a long time to get to a point where I didnt feel guilty all the time. I still have moments where I wish I had been able to deploy but I know now that what I was doing was just as important to the overall mission.
I think the greater point is that those who made the choice to serve, always are thinking they didn’t do enough. Deployed, non-deployed, war-time, peace-time, it doesn’t matter. There’s always the sense that you could still do more, that you can still do more, that you need too.
I deployed to Iraq once, and that answered the what if questions about the training, my metal, and put to rest those doubts about being “good enough”. Now I want to deploy again, because I want to do more. I know I can do the work, and I look at those who have had multple deployments thinking I need to lighten their burden.
Its the nature of a volunteer military. Those who volunteer (mostly) want to do the job and they want to keep doing it. Its the very thing that made us volunteer in the first place.
Anonymous. You are right as rain about a number of things, including whining. You have your head in your ass and you’re hanging upside down. You are ashamed of your mission? Who picked your mission, you? Or did you do what you were told? You are filling in a great many blanks and playing the what-if game without knowing what the circumstances would have been had you stayed Army. I know a fellow who has been Army, Marines, and Navy. Damn fool is elated and all torn up every Army-Navy game because his team always wins and his team always loses. Now, there’s a guy with a problem. As they say, pal, you done good. In retrospect there’s not a man alive who wouldn’t change something or other. Welcome to the club and stand tall tomorrow. Regards.
I understand the sentiment in the text quoted in the post; I have issues myself claiming that I’m a “veteran”, no matter what the VA says.
Usually, on boards like this, I identify myself as a “peacetime REMF” or somesuch if mentioning service, and no grunt is going to tell me differently! 😉
Funny, I never served in combat but always considered myself a Vet. I joined with the full expectation that I might be sent to a war-zone and had no problem with that. Thats why its called Military. I try to do some stuff now for our Vets primarily with PGR.
Kinda glad you cleared that up, Jonn! Until this, I hadn’t heard a lot of love for us REMF’s, even when we got hazardous duty pay for it. But that is just the nature of us human beans – some of us always are looking to seem better than others, and some of us never feeling as if we measured up.
Oh, well. As long as one’s service is honorable, it is an important piece of the whole. It takes everyone doing the job, pushing those bullets forward to the front, getting pay to everyone all over the world, arranging for food, and taking care of all those other details essential to the mission.
Thanks to every veteran and military member in service today! To everyone forward from my duty position and everyone behind mine who got what I needed for my job when I needed (most of the time) – SALUTE!
[…] Real Vets? Can History Be Rewritten? November 10th, 2011 Prompted by some of the comments here. […]
some I’m going on 27 years of active/guard service across 2 branches. I’ve had the pleasure of deploying to some really shitty places at really shitty times, got all of the been there/done that shirts and stuff. And I still feel like a punk when I go to the VA and see Vietnam, Korea and WWII vets. But I’m definitely not ashamed of what I’ve done in my time. And to make myself feel better, I tell myself some of those WWII/Korea/Vietnam vets at the VA were probably pogues/REMFs……..
Hey anon, when were you at Camp Cancer (Spearhead)? I was there for most of ’04 with an Army Reserve Transpo Terminal Bn.
Yes, it was a REMF job. You couldn’t be stationed any further from the action and still get combat pay. But it was also very important. ’04 was a rough time to be in Iraq. That was the year where units started welding steel plates to their soft top humvees. During that year, our unit helped move almost 1000, right off the assembly line, M1114 uparmored humvees into country. My job, and by extension yours, helped save lives. Don’t forget that.
Well I think the problem is that some of those who have seen combat or are in combat MOS’ (especially infantry) tend to denigrate those who hold support MOS.
We’ve heard all the derogatory terms for those with ‘soft’ skill sets, even from Jonn in terms of hating POG’s (no offense Jonn). The Iraq War even created a new term to go along side the traditional pog and REMF: fobbits. As in, those who stay behind the wire and do jobs on base compared to those who go outside the wire.
So while those on the ‘outside’ and even many in the military may sympathize with this lady and her sense of guilt, the fact remains that there is still this sense of ‘elitism’ when it comes to the military itself in terms of what jobs you have, etc.
Now this is a different ‘guilt’ than those who were in combat MOS but for some reason or another never had the chance to see the “action” glorified by youtube videos. Some above gave good examples. This might be because a persons military obligation was up before he deployed, or due to medical reasons and whatnot.
@31 – “The Iraq War even created a new term to go along side the traditional pog and REMF: fobbits. As in, those who stay behind the wire and do jobs on base compared to those who go outside the wire.”
I actually think that the current fight has blurred the traditional lines between ‘REMFs’ and knuckledraggers. Many of the previous ‘soft skill’ MOSs are now subjected to the same threats as Combat Arms….and in the case of convoys and their attendant security…possibly more.
I didn’t usually use the term Fobbit, but admittedly looked derisively at the fluffy bastards waddling up to the KBR ice cream bar, before they head over to Haji town for bootleg DVD, and settle in to play Halo for the rest of the evening.
That’s the distinction I see lately…hardcore, rockin your job, no matter what it is….and the 8-5 clock punchers.
“Many of the previous ‘soft skill’ MOSs are now subjected to the same threats as Combat Arms….and in the case of convoys and their attendant security…possibly more.”
Good point.
She served honorably during a period when a lot of folks outside the main gate didn’t give a damn about anything except day-trading, the meaning of “is,” and who was going to win Survivor.
She has my respect, and should not flagellate herself.
I remember feeling guilty when DS/DS happened. I felt bad as I watched friends of mine deploy, however, I remembered that I had done my duty and, like Jonn says, tried to do my best for those deployed and returning home. You do what you can do. The people who did their duty have nothing to be ashamed of even if no one shot at them. Only those who didn’t experience combat, and then lie about it need to feel shame.
IMHO, YMMV.
Yes I understand the concept that the lines of combat have been blurred, and many MOS’ besides infantry have been doing infantry type duties outside the wire.
And I also respect all veterans for their service regardless of their rank and rating/MOS.
But I also think it is natural for those who haven’t seen “action” to feel somewhat ‘left out.’
It doesn’t help that the media glorifies military members that have seen combat, especially the Spec Ops type. These people are idolized everywhere in the media. That’s also why you have so many of these poser turds.
Bohica22.
Yes I was at Spearhead, Patriot and briefly Udari (I think they changed the name to Buehring or something like that). At Spearhead, we had the checkpoints on the pier and the main road leading to the pier. If you were there in 04, I probably checked your ID a couple of hundred times. We had some type of OSHA chemical detector on post and the damn thing would go off continuously throughout a shift. I assume there was a constant blend of chemicals in the air right at the detection threshold and it depended on which way the wind was blowing. I was actually transported by ambulance to the aid station there. We had a cloud of “unknown gas” come through. Based on the smell I know it had ammonia. I was messed up for about 24 hrs.
I appreciate the comments everyone. It just really bugs me that after 14 years of reserve service, most as a Cav Scout, all I did was a crappy REMF deployment to Kuwait.
Anon…
It is what it is. I was a 92B back when they still called it that(68K now, I think) and although I was in an RDF, we never deployed, but my job was important…It takes all the gears and oil to make the machine run, doesn’t it? That’s how you look at it…
@37: Anon, this is a speech I gave last year on Veterans Day. I didn’t write it, but rather combined several pieces of others. I should clear it up some. I apologize that it’s a little long: WHAT IS A VETERAN Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg – or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul’s alloy forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can’t tell a vet just by looking. What is a vet? She is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn’t run out of fuel. He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel. She or he—is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang. He is the POW who went away one person and came back another—or didn’t come back AT ALL. He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat—but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other’s backs. He is the parade—riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand. He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by. He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean’s sunless deep. He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket—palsied now… Read more »
Yes, I too am a peacetime vet, without us there would be no damn peace, Dah!!!
Who volunteered 4 years of their late teen and early 20 age years for meager pay and no discharge benefits to serve our country?
Who committed to serve our country under any circumstances?
It may have been peacetime when they enlisted and perhaps stayed that way during their enlistment, but they committed to serve our country regardless of the circumstances-including if a war started while they were still in.
Who was trained to fight and who maintained equipment-ships, aircraft, tanks….to ensure our
military was always “Operationally Ready” in case of sudden war?
Do they think our military waits until a war starts to train people and gather working equipment?
Did people ever really worry about our country being attacked (prior to 9/11)?
Why? Because they had confidence our military would protect them!
Who do they think were these people protecting them?
Was a peacetime military a waste?
Should peacetime veterans feel their time in service deserves no respect?
What that woman vet wrote in her NYT piece is how I felt for quite a long time. I served in the USMC from 1979 to 1982, active and then reserve until 1986. I did not go into a combat zone in any of that time. Not only was it peacetime, the mission of a woman Marine at that time was ‘free a man to fight’ so we were in most support positions. Mind, I did volunteer in some mock embassy rescue drills and as a reservist I even had a chance to even do a joint exercises with the British Royal Marines (very unusual for WMs back in the mid 80s), there are some of the younger generation of ‘combat’ Marines who scoff and claim we older women Marines are not ‘real veterans’ because we didn’t have the kind of recruit training women go through to day. Well, it’s not like we got to have say about it, was it? Even many civilians didn’t seem all that interested in hearing about my military experiences (although they’d listen with rapt attention for hours to my husband talking…and he didn’t see combat either btw) If I tried to talk about my Marine Corps experiences, I just heard over and over “real vets don’t brag” so I kept my silence. I kept my silence for 30 years! Now I am talking. Know why? Because I finally realize that I am TOO a ‘real vet’, and I did my part, same as anyone else. All vets should be proud of their service whether or not they were grunts or so called “pogs.”
I’m not really sure how much weight this’ll have with you guys, but most Americans view anyone that signed on that dotted line as a Hero. I know I do as that’s how we were raised. You did something that only a small fraction of the population had the balls to do. Your reasoning for why you did it whether college or so on, doesn’t matter. You made an oath to defend this nation and that if called for you’d defend it with your life. To me that’s a Hero!
(Yes, I did hear the Star Spangled Banner playing in the background when I wrote this.)