Cartoonish view of the military? Guilty.
I even believe, as many on FR do, that my oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same” meant something, that it wasn’t just a formality, and that my oath had no expiration date. It doesn’t get more cartoonish than that.
Salute to you, Sir, and thank you for your service both then, now and in the future.
The claim that military supporters who have not served themselves have a “cartoonish view” has a certain basis in fact, though. Most supporters, who are amazing people that have our backs and who are way under appreciated by everyone, support because it is the right thing to do or because a family member is in the military.
We come back from active duty, and we talk with our families and friends. Normal. But you stick to the good stuff. The funny little things that happen, the day you accidentally got dinner twice and it were edible both times, the speed the bomb officer took off when a hang up dropped from a bomb bay (Dad told me that one - the guy was on a bicycle and passed a taxiing Canberra, according to legend).
We never tell them the bad stuff or the boring stuff. The only place they can get any idea of that is during our ore restless nights or from movies, which are not exactly renowned for their accuracy.
Still - compared to the laughably cartoonish view of the military the left holds - our supporters view is a Rembrandt, theirs is Ren and Stimpy.