Interesting Article About Transitions to Civilian Life....

That was a heart breaking story.

I got out of the military in 1986 (at age 22), went to college, graduated in 1990 & started on a career in banking before I transitioned to a career in federal law enforcement. When I first joined, the office was almost entirely male & veterans (and we all had mustaches back then - & smoke cigarettes at our desks!)

There was always good-natured joking among the "swabbies" and "GIs" and "Jarheads" etc in the office. Even with guys who'd never served in the military like, you know, Air Force veterans. Ha ha ha.

The office was open, think "Barney Miller" or "Mary Tyler Moore Show".

We told jokes & "war stories" & farted & had "liquid lunches" (i.e. booze) on occasion (Fridays, and sometimes Thursdays."

Nobody stared at their smart phone, thumbing their way pages mindlessly.

Nowadays, the office is about 50% female. Off-color jokes are taboo. Everyone has their own cubicle. Far fewer veterans, though the last 5 years or so has brought a lot of Iraq/Afghanistan guys on board, and they regale me with their stories about their detailed efforts to get vodka mailed to them in Baghdad or Kabul in mouthwash bottles from home.
 
Must be tough to hear treehuggers badmouth the military after returning from the service. I know some of the larger universities have clubs/student associations that are composed entirely of veterans. I'm surprised such a student club is not mentioned in the article - I would imagine such a group would exist at institutions, esp in Texas.
 
Must be tough to hear treehuggers badmouth the military after returning from the service. I know some of the larger universities have clubs/student associations that are composed entirely of veterans. I'm surprised such a student club is not mentioned in the article - I would imagine such a group would exist at institutions, esp in Texas.

When veterans returned from Vietnam to go to college in the late 1960s-early 1970s, they faced a good degree of hostility on campus. Anti-war sentiment became horribly twisted into anti-veteran opinion.

When veterans return from the War on Terror, they are now faced with bafflement from their fellow students. In a modern-day America where less than one percent serve in the armed forces at all, veterans are regarded as exotic, mysterious, like foreign students from a land far away. At least that what I hear.

So while the college veteran has it better in 2016 (especially with the post-9/11 GI Bill) than his counterpart in 1970, it's nowhere near the atmosphere his/her grandparent experienced in the 1940s-1950s.
 
When veterans returned from Vietnam to go to college in the late 1960s-early 1970s, they faced a good degree of hostility on campus. Anti-war sentiment became horribly twisted into anti-veteran opinion.

When veterans return from the War on Terror, they are now faced with bafflement from their fellow students. In a modern-day America where less than one percent serve in the armed forces at all, veterans are regarded as exotic, mysterious, like foreign students from a land far away. At least that what I hear.

So while the college veteran has it better in 2016 (especially with the post-9/11 GI Bill) than his counterpart in 1970, it's nowhere near the atmosphere his/her grandparent experienced in the 1940s-1950s.

Not my experience in grad school. Sure veterans kind of found each other but I didn't feel a division between vets and nonvets. There was a more pronounced difference between students who came to grad school straight from under grad and students who had been out in the real world for awhile.

I do have to make a plug for George Washington University though, they're very good to their veterans.
 
In the late 60's and early 70's we spotted the other guy in class wearing a field jacket. Easy to identify, free and warm. We did tend to sit at the same tables in the snack bar and had some good times. Never had any hostility on campus while I finished my undergraduate or grad school. I agree that those strait out of undergrad had a different outlook than the older grad students. My wife was work study and working in the Veterans Office so the four prior years worked out well for the next forty years and counting.
 
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