HAPPY VETERANS DAY FROM WARMING GLOW
11.11.09
Hey everybody, happy Veterans Day. I hope you’ve got the day off. I’m not sure if I technically have the day off or not, but I’m taking it off, because… hell, it’s my holiday. And although I have a nice day of walking around the park and going to a matinee planned, I do have some posts set to go live later on, so there will be some new content throughout the day. Warming Glow will chug on without me, as long as you keep coming back.
For anyone who’s curious about the picture: that’s your fearless television blogger six and a half years ago (middle right), much leaner and balder than he is today. That was in Kuwait before the war started; back then, we had the luxury of celebrating victories in our little bunny ring toss game. Nowadays I’m more comfortable, but I miss carrying a nine-mil and the authority to give orders.
You know, that’s the real sacrifice veterans make: not the horrors we suffer while serving our country, but the loss of the world we know when we re-enter civilian life. I don’t want to be thanked for what I did; I just want to be normal. I want my command of a tank company at age 25 to count as much as running an 80-person department when people look at my resume. I want employers to treat veterans like people with exceptional job experience, not as otherworldly beings who insanely took a different path. I don’t deserve pity or awe, and I don’t want one day of reverence followed by 364 days of nonchalance. I don’t want yellow ribbons on cars. I want every person to challenge himself or herself, to pursue a life they deem honorable, to make the most of the few short years they have on this planet. Those who have been to war know that it can reveal the worst of humanity. Strive to make it better.
![[avatar]](http://p.uproxxcdn.com/global/images/default-avatar.jpg){kind=avatar}
![[image]](http://cdn.wg.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2012/01/computer-corgi2-150x150.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.wg.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2011/12/corgi-150x150.jpg)
Thanks for that post, I really liked the last paragraph. Thanks for your service.
Military service is no longer seen as much an asset as it was in times past. Rather, since so few have served in uniform, there’s a lot misconceptions about what people DO in the military. A lot of civilian employers don’t realize that a lot of what you do is manage people, and an enterprise (your unit), and often under the kind of pressure which the civilian workplace could never reproduce.
I, too, wish to be considered normal when applying for jobs. I don’t want people to look at me like I’m from another planet when I tell them I spent six years in the Army. I already feel a little alien as it is, still trying to adjust (only been out nine months.)
Well done Matt. Thanks again for sharing a little bit of what it was like to be at war with all the thoughts that were going through your head. If it wasn’t for brave men (and women) like you we wouldn’t be able to do what we do on a daily basis. I think we sometime take that for granted but it’s good to be reminded about where our freedoms come from.
When the book is finished I’ll be sure to get one.
Finally got around to reading the KSK post and most of today’s WG … very well done Ufford and thanks for your service, as well as any other military-affiliated readers.
I look forward to reading your memoirs when they’re completed in 2026.
middle right and middle left are so hott!
who are you stonecutter, I am shocked someone other than Matt knows who the hell I am.
what about a mention of the other exceptional people in that bunny toss victory picture?
Your commentary is right on and being in the freakin’ picture with you I completely agree with everything you said. oh, and Happy Birthday yesterday!
My cousin was borderline retarded when he applied to med school, but he got in because he was in the Gulf war. So it does help to have that on their resume for some people.
So it helped him. His patients on the other hand are fucked.
Oglesby, my bad. I met him about 15 years ago in Dallas. Small world.
enjoy your day ufford, god knows you deserve it.
As someone who spent his late teens and early twenties traveling from his bed to his couch in a drug and alcohol induced haze, I’m extremely grateful for your service to the country. If not for people like you who bravely give their time, bodies, and too often their lives, the defense of America would be left to people like me, and we’d all be dead or enslaved by cruel, totalitarian overlords.
Thanks, enjoy today (which I hope involves the valiant search for the bottom of a bottle of Booker’s with good company).
Thanks to you Matt and all of your fellow soldiers, past and present.
In return, I give you a collection of Dogs welcoming home soldiers:
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/40324
Matt,
If you were half as good a soldier as you are a writer, that’d be a hell of an accomplishment.
As a recruiter (civilian) in logistics and supply chain, I can tell you I always give heavy credit to those with military backgrounds. They just know how to fucking give and take orders when necessary – it’s that simple, sometimes.
Just read the article on KSK and wow
thank you from the bottom of my heart
Wonderfully well-written Ufford. You are a true patriot. It also shows how much of a need there is for a variety of undouchey bloggers. Until then, we’ll have to make do with one.
I’m appreciative of the work done by our service men & women. And, I hope that folks do not limit their appreciation to one or two days a year.
And, I’d be happy to personally thank the gentlemen who is second from the left in the above photo for his service…in a naked kind of way.
Not seen in picture: Uff’s world famous silver shorts
/It’s a ring toss game.
//unnecessary Simpsons reference
Hats off to you and all your fellow veterans, Ufford.
@Ocho Cinco Fan Club: I was in the Air Force in the early-mid ’90s before college. When I entered the civilian job market after graduation, I found that most potential employers regarded military experience as an asset…They (not surprisingly) tended to find veterans more disciplined, mature, and accustomed to responsibility than candidates who went straight from HS to college to the job market. My (Vietnam vet) Dad, though, once mentioned that in the ’70s and early ’80s many employers regarded vets with some degree of suspicion. That’s generally not the case today.
BTW, anyone who hasn’t read Ufford’s Veterans’ Day post over at KSK…do so. Now.
I work for an aerospace company that employs a large number of active and retired military. I can say that the veterans I’ve worked with tend to be more disciplined, less prone to b.s. and better able to work their way around problems in a novel way compared to the civvies. Plus they keep themselves in shape which makes for great eye candy.
I think I missed an important HR meeting about…something. Whatever.
Stonecutter: Ed Oglesby. A very good friend.
For those who aren’t regular KSK readers, you can check out my more long-winded Vets Day passage here:
http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/2009/11/ksk-off-topic-some-thoughts-on-veterans-day.html
“I want to be normal…I don’t want yellow ribbons…”
Don’t lie. You want crazy amounts of freaky pussy.
A sincere thanks for serving our country guys.
I thought most employers did look at military service/leadership as a plus, or has that changed?
Is that Ed Ogiltree in that picture with you?
I served from 88-93 and was in both Just Cause and Desert Storm. When people found out what I did, I would get the most ridiculous questions that would bring back to the surface all the horrible things I saw and did. It got to the point where I don’t even tell people about my service anymore. God bless you, Matt. God bless all veterans.
Now bring the funny. I still have to work today.
Aside from the obvious jokes that can be made about the “little bunny ring toss game” euphemism, I think you’re dead on.
To me atleast, commanding a tank company is equivalent to running a sizeable department of a Fortune 500 and 1000 company. Any company that doesn’t recognize that probably isn’t a place you want to work anyway.
Happy Veteran’s Day.
What, no video of this alleged ring toss game?
Sexy bunny?
Amen. You said it all.
To be fair, it usually comes out to at least two days of reverence, as we usually give you Memorial Day too.
You need to run for political office. No, seriously.
If there’s one thing government needs, it’s someone who can make sincere appeals to patriotism and good dick jokes with equal skill.
Ufford 2010.
I’m sorry, McDonald’s just isn’t hiring at this time.