I have spent enough time OCONUS that, nowadays, I associate November 11th with Remembrance Day, rather than with Veterans Day. Now that I’m back in the United States, the practical effect is that Memorial Day comes twice per year for me.
Which is not to say I intend to diminish Veterans Day. Anyone reading this for reasons other than purely accidental ones already knows I am a veteran myself. And, like many people who were in the Army during the same time I was, I also served in OIF and OEF. But I also got off really easy—certainly so when compared to the individuals we recognize during Memorial Day and Remembrance Day.
It’s been more than 11 years since I left Iraq, and nearly eight years since I left Afghanistan. (I returned again later, but that was after I was already out of the military.) I’ve often read that it’s common for veterans to "miss" the war. Typically, this is related in the context of those with PTSD, but I can still appreciate the mindset to some degree. At a minimum, I think the sentiment has much broader applicability, anyway. I mean, I do have memories of those years that probably qualify as "fond," despite it all.
[I originally started writing this in hopes of working in a joke about the Cola War, but I got sidetracked. I guess I’m going to have to put it on the Twitter.]
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