I'm not comfortable with it, I drove submarines for a decade...I had a reasonably comfortable place to sleep, 4 hot meals served daily, movies, a/c...I didn't see it as hard. Hell, I got paid to drive a 7000 ton death machine under the water at highway speeds...it was fun to me. I simply tell people that I had it easy on the boats and they should find a marine or soldier who had to sleep on the dirt, eating canned food and had bullets flying over their heads. I have a lot of pride in my service. Subs weren't easy, and I've done things people wouldn't understand outside of my fellow submariners, but I never once felt my life was truly in danger.
My father was a green beret and spent 63-65 in country in Vietnam. He was also sent to Korea prior just as the war was ending. I grew up in the Canal Zone as pop trained other green berets for combat. He earned two bronze stars for his service. My mother told me this, as dad never talked about what he did there, neither did my airborne army brother, nor my regular army niece, who's third run in Iraq left one of her friends vaporized all over the front of her. My father and I only talked about our service after I had been discharged, and there has been only once me and my niece discussed Iraq. Her experience was painful and it showed...dad had the "look" when he talked about how he got the stars. It is easier for a vet to communicate with another vet, even those of a different service. We all talk about what we did at the VA....mainly sea stories sprinkled with some details about the combat they went through.
I can't offer a combat get any real perspective on what they went through, but I can listen to them and help them take the weight off of their shoulders.
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