" I Served" bumper sticker for war vets

[clifp]

Interesting perspectives on the "thank you for your service" comments. Between poker, and volunteering at the Pacific Aviation Museum, I meet a lot veterans. I general don't say thank you for your service, unless the guy has been in war zone.

Of course now days most serviceman and woman have served in combat zones multiple times. One guy I meet has had 5 deployments one bullet,one IED and one botched operation and he just turned 23.

 

[Nords]

In my time, that was always referred to as the EGO medal ("Everybody Gets One").

Another award that's considered necessary but has become semantically meaningless. I know a woman wearing three of them, but she retired this week after 36 years of service.

During a COBRA GOLD exercise a few years back, spouse was in a Bangkok elevator with a dozen distinguished senior officers from several Asian & Middle Eastern countries. One of them was an Israeli officer a few years older than her. She was wearing the typical Navy cluster of ribbons on her dress khakis, and she's been around the block a few times so it was a fairly tall & shiny stack. The Israeli officer, with some confusion, asked her what combat deployments she'd been on. He knew that U.S. Navy women of her certain age had spent most of their careers being forbidden from combat duty.

As she explained, it became clear that he had thought all her ribbons were combat awards. He himself was wearing only combat-related ribbons. Luckily for him he was only wearing three of them.

The rest of the officers in the elevator just listened.

 

[davemartin88]

I think you are referring to the National Defense Service Medal.

Thanks, that must be the one I was thinking of.

 

[ziggy29]

In my time, that was always referred to as the EGO medal ("Everybody Gets One").

Ah. The service equivalent of the "participant trophy" in Little League?