Do you feel that your are appreciated by your service?

I am very proud that I have served. I have momentary lapses when an young asshat comes along and runs their mouth about having been in combat and I wasn't a real Marine. But I quickly get over that. Point of fact my dad a 20 yr Marine GySgt tanker with a purple heart stated the same thing. "You weren't fleet, you aren't shit" Well, we did not get along at the best of times so I temper his responses with the knowledge that he was an asshat. I like the response from COL Randall C. that just because I wasn't tapped to go to combat doesn't mean I wasn't ready to go. Luck of the draw some would say. Both of my duty stations were stateside, one on either coast.

To refer to the old saying of MOAA, just because the government didn't cash the check you wrote, doesn't mean that you didn't write it up to and including your life.

That's sort of like saying that a veteran police officer on the force for 20 years didn't serve enough because he was never shot at or had to shoot anyone in the line of service.

After my first 8 contract, I ETS'd without a deployment. Somehow, I held that service cheaply. No one, besides the VFW, seemed to agree with me. I have come to realize there is a certain degree of luck, good or bad, to serve in combat. Somehow, there are those who want to cheapen an "easy deployment" or play up a tougher stretch.

In truth, I am and have always been honored to serve. Stateside, and deployed. I served at the pleasure of the President and now the Governor of New Hampshire. The pay isn't great, but the honor is priceless. I can't say I always feel appreciated, but I always have a purpose. For me, for now, that is enough.