Thompson: We are the veterans
Valley Voices
Courtesy photo
Of today’s 340 million Americans, 18.6 million of us are veterans. We are the men and women, who in the prime of our young lives, became part of something much bigger than ourselves. We put on a uniform and served in the armed forces of the United States — the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and the Coast Guard.
I’m a veteran.
I joined the military when I was a 19-year-old school kid. I remember getting on a Greyhound bus with 50 other young men and traveling 400 miles through the night to Fort Ord, California. Mostly, I sat in the back of the bus eating candy bars and smoking cigarettes. The next morning, I was awakened by a big guy in a uniform, wearing a Smokey-the-Bear hat. He loudly ordered me to get off the bus and “line up.” That’s when it began.
That’s when the military began changing me.
Within three days, my blue jeans, my candy bars, and my hair were all gone. They gave me three ugly fatigue uniforms, two sheets, a smelly blanket, and a pair of boots. It was hectic and confusing, but I could feel a focus on their part. They were trying to push us young fools up to some “higher ground,” to some higher purpose.
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First, we went to Basic Training, where we learned to operate and react as a team, and as a member of a platoon. We learned close-order drill, left-face, right-face, forward march. We learned first aid, navigation, physical fitness, rifle safety, and core values. We learned how to organize a barracks building, a mess hall, a kitchen and a shooting range. It was 10 weeks.
When we graduated, we earned a title: soldier, sailor, Marine or airman.
Next, we went to Advanced Training. Some of us trained as mechanics, some as cooks, police, medics, firefighters, heavy equipment operators, dog handlers, and much more. The military has 190 different occupations, with 800 different job titles. I got to train in three. And we got paid for all of this.
That’s right, we got paid to learn functional skills. Rather than paying to go to college, I was being paid by the military to become a professional active-duty soldier, with a guaranteed job. Within that first year, I’d been trained, qualified, and paid as a first responder, a firefighter, a heavy equipment operator, and a surveyor.
Within a year, I was a corporal. I had been from Fort Ord for Basic, to Fort Lewis for Advanced Training, to Fort Sill for Professional Training. I had learned a new language: “line-up, double-time, mess hall, grunt.” I had learned the acronyms: NCO, XO, SOP, FDC. I had fired a bazooka, smelled tear gas, spit-shined boots, and peeled potatoes. I’d learned the chain of command and, by the way, I’d learned to stand up straight.
And the journey was just beginning. I served six years in the U. S. Army, including one year as a “live-fire” artillery NCO, one year as an adviser to the Republic of South Vietnam, two years as a platoon and company commander, and six months at Aberdeen Proving Ground testing new and exotic weapons. I’d travelled the world, I’d faced conflict, I’d experienced critical decision-making.
I wasn’t a kid eating candy bars in the back of a bus anymore. Thank you. The Army had promoted me to real-life experiences, with training, exercises, responsibilities, and teamwork. I passed the tests and became a member of one of the greatest teams in the world. “Be All You Can Be” was no longer a slogan. It was a way of life.
I’m now 79 years old, and I’m still a member of that team. But now it’s “the Veteran team,” not “the active-duty team.” We’re the old guard. We came back and went to college on the GI Bill and started businesses. Of today’s 18 million veterans, 2.5 million of us became business owners. Two hundred and nineteen became astronauts. Twenty-six became presidents. And we still make our bed every morning, and we still stand straight.
How straight? According to the Census Bureau, during our post-military careers, we veterans earn 16% more income than the average civilian. Seventy-five percent of us voted in the last election, while only 66% of nonveterans voted. And, despite occupational hazards, veterans live longer than their civilian counterparts.
Wait a minute. We earn more. We vote more. We live longer. And we got paid, paid to go on the most educational, life-changing ride of our lives, all over the world, while serving a mission greater than ourselves. Why doesn’t everyone serve? It must be one of the best-kept secrets in the world.
“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers … we veterans.”
