to destroy democracy and then go around acting patriotic thanking folks for their service..
It's fake.

that long-after-the-fact of returning vets being spat on were bogus.

upon returning would have gotten a beatdown they'd never forget.

but I think it is not true, that the person heard others were saying it WAY after the fact so he said it too.

Too bad because I believe there are MILLIONS who to this day will NOT vote for a Democrat because of it.

Nobody I spoke to in my campus vet's group said it happened to them. Perhaps the closest I can relate was when a fellow student said, "No Veterans, no wars." I told her that she had the cause and effect relationship backwards.

i never heard of or imagined it happening until after that dumb azz stallone movie came out and it suddenly "happened" to every student deferred hero who wasn't worth a good spit.

http://www.vvaw.org/veteran/article/?id=350

Stories of spat-upon Vietnam veterans are bogus. Born out of accusations made by the Nixon administration, they were enlivened in popular culture (recall Rambo saying he was spat on by those maggots at the airport) and enhanced in the imaginations of Vietnam-generation men — some veterans, some not. The stories besmirch the reputation of the anti-war movement and help construct an alibi for why we lost the war: had it not been for the betrayal by liberals in Washington and radicals in the street, we could have defeated the Vietnamese. The stories also erase from public memory the image, discomforting to some Americans, of Vietnam veterans who helped end the carnage they had been part of.

My feelings come from being a person who doesn't think anyone should be asked or made to go to war in order to protect a way of life that only benefits a vast minority of people. I just feel deeply for anyone who was ever drafted or who joined voluntarily. I assume they had no idea what they are getting into and the scars last forever. I've been watching some programming on PBS this week and I feel so sad about it all.

What would you like to see from those of us trying to understand?

Not questions like, "Did you kill anyone?", or "Were you scared?"
Instead, ask us about the food. Ask if we had any close friends in the service and if we had seen any of them since. Ask about our commanders and if they were any good at it. Ask if we would do it again.
Don't ask for details about any battles or firefights we were in. Combat vets only talk about that with other combat vets.
That's not an exhaustive list, but I hope you get the idea.

My dad was in the Korean War at age 18. He passed away a month ago and was buried in his uniform. Originally he didn’t want a Military funeral but changed his mind at the end. As he said, he lived 91 wonderful years and was ready to go.

Wishing you the best,

Only 1 percent of the country has done military service. Glad the majority appreciates the veteran minority group.

I try to acknowledge them as politely as I can muster. However, the thanks are shallow.

If you really thank service members, insist they are paid decently, fed, equipped, and appropriately treated when they get home.

That's the part that bothers me the most.

The thanks are shallow because the don't understand for what they are thanking us. I can't condemn people for shallow thanks arising from sincere ignorance.

I can only imagine that they are sincere. Even though there's really nothing to thank me for: I didn't join the Army, they drafted me. I didn't go to Vietnam, the Army thought I should go to Europe: Recon Oktoberfest.
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I still have some bits of uniform, though they have shrunk severely since '68.

Enjoy the day, enjoy the free meals at participating restaurants.

Thanks for your service, or, maybe, it don't mean nothing.

Every Vet that I met or heard about during those years was uniformly anti-war and most were anti-military.

I don't remember any saying they'd been treated with disrespect (spitting etc.) However I do remember several of those Vets being unhappy about their job prospects. At the time not many Vietnam Vets were getting hired, but that's because the country was in recession and NOBODY was getting hired. We had oil embargoes, plant closings, mass layoffs, a lot of unhappiness over Watergate etc.

My friends among the Vietnam Vets felt discouraged about jobs, but they failed to realize that it wasn't directed at them. It was affecting our entire baby-boomer generation.

made all the difference too. More free thinkers were drafted than join today.

"Thank you for your service" is as shallow for most people as "Have a nice day".

"Well, my CAPTAIN wasn't too grateful!"
I'm not a combat vet, by the way.

Go Air Force!

In 2003 I called into a radio show that was promoting the Iraq invasion. Stated that I was a Nam vet. They immediately said “Thank you for your service” and I replied don’t thank me, we didn’t do anything to be thanked for. The hosts we immediately taken back I started to get on my soap box and they wasted no time to get me off the air.
Til we his day I still hate that phrase.