Chainmail,
Thanks for your service. Draftee or volunteer matters not.
I was a kid when you were serving. I spent most of my adult life a volunteer, combat arms, 11 and 21 enlisted and commissioned. I too leaked and left small parts elsewhere. I certainly understand your experience from history, and make it policy to thanks other vets when the opportunity to do presents.
I’d just rather be the one offering thanks than being thanked.
As to whether or not folk who advertise their service bring wrong, not at all. The OP seemingly has a complex, first somehow he IDs publicly as a vet then complains about trite recognition etc. That guy , real or conceptual, had a problem, and my comments were to that mentality.
Btw, usually we went and returned w/o fanfare from and to an AAF, or, if a charter to a comm Apt, to buses on the flight line. Only once as an individual passenger, I flew general commercial once stateside and in civvies as required. Did I thank you for your service? Not everybody was contrary to you guys during the Vietnam eta. My family supported uncle’s and cousins. Funny though, I am the only one in my generation that served.
I also believe that the original letter writer was a whiner: if somebody thanks you for serving (while you are advertising said service), be gracious, not stupid.
Combat service has become somewhat rare since WWII: back then we had many more troops, used somewhat wastefully, and since most everyone was serving, we had many more combat veterans vis a vis the population. When Korea rolled around, they made do with far fewer and since it ended in stalemate, the vets of that one were ignored for the most part.
Then Vietnam came about. We had the Cold War going, the Civil Rights crisis exploding, an aggressive and expensive Space Race - and a media pushing for us to do something as an ally was being subjected to terrorism and invasion while being supported by the combined logistic might of the Warsaw Pact and China.
But. Overnight the Left ramped up their network of propaganda and activists and once we were fully committed to fight the NVA and VC, worked from the rear to sabotage us. Those of us who fought, volunteer and draftee, did damn well and I hope that you'll overlook us "old guys going into Walmart" wearing our hats - because we did our best over there, of the very few who took the chance to be involved. The only shameful part of that whole period was how once we were committed, we allowed an active 5th Column to undercut us and push the narrative that we were somehow different than all of the great American fighting men of before.
So, we wear our hats. We greet each other when we see each other and quietly enjoy the grim looks or averted eyes of the guys our age who chose not to join us.