Non- Combat Veterans.

I enlisted at 17 in January of 81. The Iranian hostage crisis had been going on for over a year at the time and I was certain Reagan would be dealing with the Iranians much more forcefully than Carter had and I was eager to be involved. It seems the Iranians had the same thoughts about Reagan, so on the day he was inaugurated they preemptively released all the hostages. I learned of this during basic training at Ft Knox Kentucky. Consequently, after basic and AIT I spent the remaining years of my enlistment playing Army at Ft Hood Texas. So though Ft Hood would lose a few every year to training accidents, I was never truly in harms way in the way that our combat veterans were. Because of this I always feel a little weird when someone thanks me for my service. Between the first and second gulf war campaigns, Afghanistan and the effort to eradicate ISIS, there are now thousands of guys much younger than I am that served in combat, so when I pull into the Home Depot parking lot and see the parking spaces up front that say “reserved for veterans” I pass them by. Perhaps I shouldn’t. After all, I was willing to go. I just can’t help feeling a little weird about it.