Dear Editor,
This is in response to the letter of Mike Adams in the Wed. letters to the editor. He seems to think that veterans are just like everyone else, nothing special.
I spent 22 years in the Marines and Navy, including 13 months in Vietnam dodging bullets, and flying helicopters. Mr. Adams made a point that veterans are not special and do not deserve discounts at stores. I guess everyone wants a discount, but veterans are special in many ways. We didn't go to war for discounts at Home Depot.
Many of us went through dangerous training before and after wartime.
Family separation is difficult for all involved. Now the military goes back to war many successive tours because of the reduction in forces.
Most are not officers, and their pay doesn't reflect the full time they spend on the job and away from home.
It seems that the people who didn't stay in the military or didn't serve at all have a strange idea of how wonderful the pay and benefits are. If it is so wonderful, why didn't you all serve like we did? The extra pay for our wartime disabilities certainly doesn't make up for our problems.
After flying with the Marines, I became a Navy periodontist. Then as a civilian periodontist for 26 years, I listened to many patients who had the same opinion of the veterans as Mike Adams. He's not alone.
Thank God we have wonderful people who enter the military now, irregardless of the thanks they get.
Lewis Larson
Spring Hill
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Military discount