Alatain

If you think the average person can understand what it is like to give up ultimate control of your life in 6-year chunks, I have some bad news for you.

People in the military are bound by law to do whatever is necessary for the mission regardless of the cost to them. For over 20 years, I lived moment to moment assuming that with no notice, I could be sent to the other side of the globe without my immediate family. During my time in, I was deployed to a remote country, in a war zone, with no notice, while my wife dealt with the consequences. During that time, I had very limited contact with my spouse, and what time I did have was regularly interrupted with literal attacks that could have killed me.

Beyond my experience there, my spouse had to deal with the fact that I would occasionally just leave in the middle of a call, because rocket attack.

So, pardon me if I am skeptical of your claim that most people can understand that I now drive past litter on the side of the road cautiously because it might be a bomb. And that is just the start of the weird differences I have experienced transitioning from military life into being a civilian.

As a deployment manager that made dog tags for a few years, we didn’t care. Jedi, Pastafarian, Dudist, whatever. You are doing your country a service that most people can’t really comprehend. I’ll put whatever you want in that section as long as the other stuff that actually matters is correct.