Thanks and an apology to our military

By Jeff Orvis

Yesterday, many of us took at least a couple of minutes out of our day to thank and remember veterans and current members of our armed forces. Veterans Day has been around for many years. A lot of the time in the past, many of us probably simply viewed it as a day when the banks were closed and there was no mail delivery.

Most of us either served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines or Coast Guard or had friends or relatives that had. But with only a few notable exceptions, the era since the end of the Vietnam War has been a time of peace and it became easier to forget that a very important function of our government has been to protect us and ensure that continued peace.

I came of age when we were eligible for the draft during the Vietnam War. It's been a long time ago and I won't go into my views of our participation in that conflict. All I knew is I had no desire to join the armed forces. I'd heard horror stories of what was happening on the other side of the world and I knew I wanted no part of it. Besides, due to at least a couple of glaring health conditions, I was deemed not fit to duty.

This country was sharply divided on the issue of whether we should be fighting in Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, a lot of the negative feelings at that time was misdirected toward the returning soldiers. Many of them faced what we have now come to know as post traumatic stress syndrome, as well as exposure to poison that our military spread on the foliage over there. But that didn't seem to matter to the idiot fringe of the protest movement, who turned their venom toward the common foot soldier instead of toward our government.

Fast forward thirty or forty years and the attitude of the majority of us is gratitude toward the veterans of the conflicts in the Middle East, as well as those still on active duty. We may not all agree that our participation in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is the right thing, but we recognize that because we now have an all-volunteer military, they are serving in our stead.

So I can see why we should thank our military members. But I also think we owe them an apology as a nation. As I have commented in the past, the treatment that many of our military members receive from their government when they return is terrible. We may treat them as heroes when they step off the plane at the airport, then quickly forget where they've been and go about our lives. Meanwhile, many of them are struggling with wounds, visible and not-visible or simply struggling to return to a normal  life in a tough economy.

Even if you disagree with our government, most of us view members of our military as heroes. But they are often treated like second class citizens by a government that prides itself in enough red tape to decorate every Christmas tree in this country. By the time these men and women step into the combat zone or into their duties in a support role, they have received superior training. They are professionals. We should remember that. To put it in a sports term, we expect our military to perform like Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall, yet at times our government treats the returning troops like a bunch of sandlot players.

An NFL team owner would never dream of sending his players out on the field without the best pads and uniforms and without a team of trainers and doctors on the sidelines. In fact, the courts are finally starting to force the owners to also give retired players the care they deserve. If you don't intend to play the game with the best resources, whether it is football or the deadly game of war, then you shouldn't play.

You had to know that I couldn't write a piece like this without at least one political comment. But this might surprise you. Maybe it's time we not only make age and citizenship a requirement for the presidency, but also a condition that the candidate must be a military veteran. I realize we have had some former members of the military who have sat in the Oval Office that have disappointed us and some that have not served that have made some wise decisions. But maybe if the next president is a military veteran and the members of Congress who sit on the armed services and appropriations committees also must have served in the military, then our men and women who have served and will serve in the future will have a better chance at a quality life when they return.

So, thank you past and current members of the military. We promise to do a better job of holding our leaders accountable for the medical and financial recognition you so richly deserve.