I learned this stuff — this ‘attitude’ first from my grandpop, who ran away from home at 14 and served under General Pershing at the Mexican border and later in Belgium, France and Germany. He got a bunch of medals but NEVER showed them to anyone and refused to join the VFW and American Legion, even when they wanted to name a post after him.
Later I came to study American history, and learned how real men took their ‘duty’. Most real heroes of the Revolution were shamed to take a pension — putting it off until they were decrepit, and often a destitute widow of a good veteran would have to prove that that her husband had served with honor and beg for a pittance of a pension to keep her in a house and free of hunger.
There’s a middle ground in there between that very harsh attitude towards charity — and that’s what pensions are — and our modern attitude of super entitlement. But it falls much closer to their attitude than our time’s.
I’m sorry, but I don’t begrudge a guy who gets his leg blown off in Afghanistan his pension. I think it’s great that your grandfather and our forefathers served without expecting retirement benefits, but it’s a different world. Now we require a standing force, and that means a professional military. You can’t maintain today’s military with a force composed entirely of raw recruits. You have to train and retain experienced personnel. Why you’d begrudge these folks a pension after they’ve served for decades, I just don’t get. Couldn’t you find another target more deserving of your rancor than the active duty military?