Happy Veterans Day – Thank You for Your Service to Our Country

In honor of Veterans Day here in the United States, I wanted to take a commercial break from directly discussing dating to wish you all a Happy Veterans Day.  Additionally, I am making a point of phoning all the Veterans I know and thanking them.  Who do you know who served our country via the military, whether in combat or non-combat role or times.

I know I have a number of readers who are from other countries.  Welcome to you as well.  This is an international holiday.  In a number of other countries November 11th is known and celebrated at Armistice Day or Remembrance Day, the date commemorating the official end to World War I (prior to World War II, was known as The Great War) with the signing of the Armistice.

What many often miss (myself included) is that Veterans Day, distinguished from Memorial Day, is to honor all our military personnel who served.  It is not only to honor those who served during wartime or in a direct combat role.  So, you may have the opportunity today to thank some additional people, more than you realized.  I just thought of 2 more I need to thank.  How about you?

To tie Veterans Day into the theme of my Dating and Relationships blog, indeed there are online dating sites in the niche of targeting military and other service groups like Police Officers.

Additionally, 2 things.

1. Couples who are parted across the world from each other with one or both husband and wife serving in the military puts a huge strain on their marriage relationship.  This is part of what they need support in as well.  The communication.  The love.  The daily life connection.  All of that is lost or strained into a different than “average” experience.  Those couples have the added stress of striving to figure out ways to connect and communicate in a connected manner without the benefit of body language and touch to connect them.

2. Once military service personnel return home to their families, the transition is seriously likely a challenge.  The way personnel return home now, there is less decompression time.  Yes, it is wonderful to be returned to your families faster, literally within  a matter of days.  However, your brain has been trained to be in combat and to be on the key vive (not spelling that right, can’t find it right now).  Non-combat life back home with your family is not like that.  Everyone will have to adjust.  And remember it takes time to rebuild the intimate connection of love in person.   There is nothing wrong with you.  You are behaving in a perfectly normal manner.  And give yourself the time to take the action steps to re-adjust mentally, psychologically, and emotionally.

Depending on when you served and our great country’s sophistication with Mental Health at the time you returned, you might still years later be dealing with emotional and psychological scars. Pretty much, the VA Health Service are good to great about providing Mental Health services for you and your loved ones. Vet and their spouses are highly likely to abuse alcohol and other substances. I do not say this with any judgment. I am a surviving spouse, and even years later for him and for me as his wife after his return, there was a cost. I do not mention this lightly either. Please do avail yourself of all the mental health services. Pretty much if you did serve in combat, the scars are mental and emotional as well as the more obviously presenting physical ones.

When I see ’em, the vets of different generations wearing those baseball caps citing their branch or a particular military vessel with which they served, I endeavor still to this day [Now 2019] to tell them and you out loud, “Thank you for your service.”

Again, on behalf of my country, my family, and most especially me, I thank you and your family for your service.

It is much appreciated. I grew up in a Revolutionary War Historical Area complete with battlefields and re-inactments before it became chic. I understand the cost and what it meant when the Signers of the Declaration of Independence “pledged our sacred honors.” God bless them. They had Sacred Honors to pledge. And the cost to many of their wives and families having done so. Our freedom and God blessed liberty is bought and paid for. Thank you for paying part of that bill. I truly appreciate it.

So now I can say genuinely,

Happy Dating and Relationships,

April Braswell