Those who thank you for your service

*DISCLAIMER* There are many wonderful people who offer their sincerest thanks for service. That is appreciated.

Have those of you in uniform ever been stopped by someone who falls all over themselves to offer thanks, and gotten the impression that they were doing it to make themselves feel good?

Recently, I attended my sister's graduation from Georgetown SFS. Afterward, we traveled (I say traveled because the Friday traffic made it a 2 hour trip) across the river to Arlington to visit our grandfather and some friends. As we walked to the visitors center, a woman who was obviously there on some trip with a group (matching t-shirts) stopped me and made a very large and uncomfortable show of thanking me.

I was quite put off, but I can be a grump so I thought it might just be me. But my sister, who is one of the sweetest people on earth, said to me "Do you ever feel like people just do that to feel better about themselves?"

So...have any of you ever felt that way about the profuse public thanks?

I'm a CAP member, and though we do a lot of important things for the Air Force and other agencies as a part of our emergency services mission (and I'm involved in SAR), I've always felt uncomfortable in general being thanked since I'm not in the military yet.

Putting that aside though, I never really thought about it from the angle you brought up. I've certainly met some very appreciative people - some a lot more than others - but I don't think I've ever encountered anyone who did it as a feel good thing.

I know having met veterans, especially of the WWII, Korea, Vietnam, etc generations, they have pride in and feel good about seeing young people who they believe are or will be serving in the military, but I consider that a separate thing. That's a "thank you for continuing our service" thing, not a selfish "I thanked a military member, I did my job as an American for today" thing.

Eagle 1 said:

I know having met veterans, especially of the WWII, Korea, Vietnam, etc generations, they have pride in and feel good about seeing young people who they believe are or will be serving in the military, but I consider that a separate thing. That's a "thank you for continuing our service" thing, not a selfish "I thanked a military member, I did my job as an American for today" thing.

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Agreed. It's an honor to carry on that legacy, but when those guys thank you it is quite a humbling experience. When I came home on leave from my first deployment, a WWII Navy vet made the ticket agent give me his first class seat. Talk about an undeserved gift, in light of the giver.

Your description of the latter phenomenon is spot-on. More than once I've felt that the person saying it to me was having that exact thought ("I thanked a military member, I did my job as an American for today"). It's sadly easy to spot, though a sincere one is thankfully quite easy to spot too.