What's your take on Veteran's plates?

[Dench]

I can't believe how many douche bags there are with resentment towards veterans. There are many different kinds of people walking this earth, some made a commitment to there country and served. If you have a problem with that STFU and move on. Bashing what you arrogantly perceive to be someone else's agenda because they want to tell the world they are a veteran is petty and definitely makes a statement about you.

beta's gunna hate.

 

[Pilgrim]

Sorry, but I don't consider a plate that I spend nearly twice as much for as an ordinary plate, an 'entitlement'.

Purple Heart plate, Silver Star, etc......I certainly wouldn't even think about them being considered an 'entitlement'.

I had a vanity plate a long time ago. I got it because I wanted it and could afford to get it, just like I wanted the VET plate.

I drive a couple of antique cars that are pretty classy looking, because I like them. I've met people who have become lifelong friend because of my cars. I don't think of them as 'showing off', why should I think that having a vet plate is showing off?

Having a VET plate on your car can lead to some nice interactions with other Vets. Just like the many Vets who wear caps with their military affiliation on them. It's a way of meeting others and even getting a chance to say thanks, if you want.

I wear a Masonic ring. I have an NRA sticker in my truck window. Again not showing off, I like them and it helps me meet people that I have something in common with.

I just don't understand Mark's bitterness, especially if he's a vet.

 

[Admin]

I just don't understand Mark's bitterness, especially if he's a vet.

Trolling

 

[strangenh]

I don't care if you got shot at or not. The topic of what it means to have served is really old.

God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts, who best
Bear his milde yoak, they serve him best, his State
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o're Land and Ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and waite.

If you were lined up to risk taking one for the greater good, and it tuns out you didn't have to risk it, you still served.

 

[garandman]

O//If you served, you served. Period. Be proud of it, be proud for others that did the same.

Yup, we all mostly did what ordered, when ordered.

You buy a vet plate, money goes to the Soldier's Home. Buy a Bruins plate it goes to support youth hockey. Etc.

 

[excoastie]

Mark, first, thank you for you service. Next, although I disagree with your position, I understand your perspective. But veteran plates are not an entitlement because the person MUST do two things to be able to display those plates. First, the person MUST have served in the military and second, the individual veteran pays for the veteran plates. If the public was forced to pay for the veteran’s plate or the fee was waved, then your point would be somewhat valid. But buying and displaying veteran plates is not an entitlement. Those that want veteran plates earned that benefit and should exercise their right to display those plates if they so desire.

I perceive some loathing for the military in your words. Again, I shared that feeling for many years after I retired. The military and I were not on the best of terms when I retired as I tried to retire with 20 years in and they forced me to stay on active duty for two additional years. So there was some bitterness as I lost a hell of a good job. But I grew out of it and am now proud to have served. I hope that, sometime in the future, your heart softens as mine did. It took over a decade, but I grew out of it. Good luck on this one.

Also, there is an important difference between entitlements and benefits. You earned your retirement pay. It was in the contract you and the government signed. You spent your time serving the nation and therefore, you earned your benefit. If you did nothing and received monetary compensation for doing nothing, that would be an entitlement. That is call welfare and those that are addicted to such welfare are called welfare slaves. You are not a welfare slave as you earned your benefit.

With all that said, there is no reason to disparage lower enlisted members. They are very important to accomplishing the overall military missions. Lower enlisted men and women did the things that made military life more tolerable. If one never served as a lower-grade enlisted, one has no idea of what they do and how little they are compensated for their toils. Having served as an E-1 to E-7 then CWO3 to O-3, I have a pretty good handle on who did what in the military and, were it not for the lowly enlisted guys, officers would have had to get their hands dirty… and we couldn’t have that.

 

[OIFer]

well said excoastie,

its refreshing to hear a voice of non-confrontational reason on here.

 

[Tracer1951]

Veteran is a legal definition and is not defined by service in combat. If you want them, get them. Other than the fact that the money goes to support the state veterans home, I don't see the need for them. I suppose in the age of entitlement everyone wants to be special or different for those of you who are bragging about how you didn't get a parking ticket or a speeding ticket or whatever, don't be a cop bashing, gee I guess all animals are equal but some are more equal... it's not too much different from the other entitled classes many of you endlessly bitch about on here ...oh look at me, here's my DD214 ain't I grand? Bet you get your 10 percent discount at Home Depot too....

A vet as many have stated before in this thread is anyone who has served in the armed forces. Some vets's experience with the armed forces was not as "positive" as others. ( as those that were Drafted ??) Some vets got medical conditions while serving which the military/government/VA refused to admit was service related...agent orange, gulf war syndrome, etc. Each vet has his/her own experience and story.

Being a vet, doesn't define the totality of who I am, only defines a period of time in my life, a choice I made and some "unique" experience I went through.

As a vet, I don't expect any special consideration for my service. If some organization or business wish's to offer something to those that have served, that is their decision to do so. I don't expect anything from anyone for my service. Do I think vets are "better" than the averages citizen? No! Do I think that the veterans, because of there service, set them apart from the average citizen because of their service? Yes

Bottom line for me is each vet walked their own path and past. Each experience maybe was shared with others but is unique to the individual. I don't know why Mark056 feels that way but earned that right to speak his mind. I disagree with the position/statements he made, but that's just my Vet's opinion.

 

[OIFer]

Without getting into any verbal judo over the topic, (hopefully) I'd like to ask the general consensus of whether folks feel the term Veteran applies to everyone who served honorably in the military or just to those who served in a combat zone?
I always thought it was the latter, but as time goes by the term seems to be used to include all service members?

 

[ChevyGuy91]

Without getting into any verbal judo over the topic, (hopefully) I'd like to ask the general consensus of whether folks feel the term Veteran applies to everyone who served honorably in the military or just to those who served in a combat zone?
I always thought it was the latter, but as time goes by the term seems to be used to include all service members?

Define combat zone. Getting shot at, or deployed in tax free zone? You can verbal karate all of this.

 

[Bonesinium]

Without getting into any verbal judo over the topic, (hopefully) I'd like to ask the general consensus of whether folks feel the term Veteran applies to everyone who served honorably in the military or just to those who served in a combat zone?
I always thought it was the latter, but as time goes by the term seems to be used to include all service members?

Anyone who served honorably. With rare exception, as an individual member you have little control over where you are sent. I know many people who had never been deployed or served in a combat zone despite wanting to. That isn't something you can hold against them.

Now the people that intentionally weaseled their way out of a deployment, I have certain feelings towards them, though often their discharge comes early and lacks the term 'honorable'...

 

[Rockrivr1]

Just because you were not shot at doesn't mean you weren't in danger or doing a dangerous mission. One deployment we lost 9 sailors. Below deck fire, arresting gear accident, aircraft that didn't come back, hit by plane prop and one poor bastard I watched get blown overboard by a turning up F4 never to be found. Bullets and explosives were not the only thing that made a mission dangerous. Yes, there are levels of danger involved, but dangerous is dangerous. Comes with the job.

 

[yanici]

Just because you were not shot at doesn't mean you weren't in danger or doing a dangerous mission. One deployment we lost 9 sailors. Below deck fire, arresting gear accident, aircraft that didn't come back, hit by plane prop and one poor bastard I watched get blown overboard by a turning up F4 never to be found. Bullets and explosives were not the only thing that made a mission dangerous. Yes, there are levels of danger involved, but dangerous is dangerous. Comes with the job.

Yep fire at sea with all that ammo and fuel on board is very dangerous. We had a pretty good one in one of the boiler areas below deck. Casualties, but no deaths thankfully. Almost capsized one time, I thought we were going over but the ship hung up there on its side for a long time and then thankfully came back. Other stuff too but you guys get the drift.

 

[OIFer]

in the past, the criteria for being a veteran was having a campaign medal which was only given to those who made it to the combat zone. What job you did there was irrelevant.

Campaign medals included the Pacific, Europe, Africa, and later Korea, Vietnam , South East Asia or now South West Asia service medal.
if you served in say NJ or Florida, you weren't considered a veteran. There were certainly hurt feelings about it, as acceptance to social clubs like the VFW were all the rage. (I believe the campaign medal is still needed to be a full member of the vfw?)

it seems as times change the term is evolving to include all former service men and women?

 

[excoastie]

During my first four years of service on active duty, I lost two close friends from boot camp. Both died in the line of duty but neither were serving in a combat zone. One died when he was crushed when the fire truck he was on rolled over and crushed him. The other died in a tragic accident on the USCGC Blackthorn. Both served with honor. Neither served in combat or in theater. Both died in the line of duty. Had they survived, both earned the right to display a veteran license plate.

For what it is worth, my opinion is that if you raised your hand and took the oath to support and defined the Constitution of the United States, you gave the nation a blank check with your life. You agree that they could send you anywhere on Earth to do anything the military ordered you to do. You agreed to place yourself in harm’s way if that is what the nation needed. You volunteered to die for your country if need be. How the government cashed that check was up to them. The veteran did exactly what was asked of them.

In my case, I never served in combat but have five years overseas. During two tours, our station were the focus of terrorists. One of those stations was attacked with missiles shortly after I left… Lampedusa, Italy. The second was never attacked but we were on high alert for 18 months… and we had no weapons (thank you NATO). I think I deserve to display a veteran plate if I desire. Why? Because I wrote a blank check to the US government and they used me as they deemed fit for 22 years.

 

[Rockrivr1]

in the past, the criteria for being a veteran was having a campaign medal which was only given to those who made it to the combat zone.

This is the part I have an issue with. Who makes the decision of what a campaign is? In the years I was in the Navy my Carrier was part of several Operations, but none that were considered a campaign. We were issued Armed Forces Expeditionary Medals, but they are not considered qualifiers to join the VFW. So does that mean we are not officially considered Veterans under the original term of veteran?

I think that is BS. Case in point is Operation Earnest Will in 1987 and 1988. Our mission was to protect Kuwaiti tankers from being attacked by Iranian speed boats and the last of their aging F14 Tomcats. (See how selling arms comes around to bite us in the butt sometimes?) In the time I was their we ran 20 plus hour shifts as the Iranians were determined to throw their fighters at us, then turn tail and run for home. Alert fighters were in the air or at the 5 minute ready on deck at all times. Then the unthinkable happens and the Iraqi's try to sink the USS Stark with two Exocet missiles. We wanted blood, but we didn't get it.

Try telling those 37 sailors that died that day that they are not veterans...... All for Operation Earnest Will...

 

[dustoff22]

Why do you think I am butt hurt? I merely point out an obvious truth. You, yourself use the term vanity. I could care less what kind of plates you have on your car or if you are one of those sovereigns and have no plates, but by the same token there are a large percentage of people here that subscribe to the idea that there are those with a sense of entitlement such as cops and millennials and they find this offensive but somehow its okay to have veterans plates to get out of parking tickets or get other preferential treatment.

It's interesting how you go from zero to 60 and make these quantum and somewhat inflammatory remarks about me being butt hurt. But then I try to read each post critically, even yours. If being a vet is so special to you, that's grand. Being a vet is special to me too, on the first of every month when I collect my pension and my disability pension from the VA. If you liked the Navy so much, you should have stayed in but really I'm not butt hurt and could care less. You are another lower enlisted guy who rendered honorable service, and did his time. Thank you very much for your service, move on with your life and get your free meal at Applebee's every November 11th, and don't forget your USN T Shirt and Baseball Cap. I'd like to see Universal Conscription but that makes me a statist...

Another of your typical cavalier posts. I do, by the way, proudly display a pair of PH plates and SS plates on my two vehicles and don't for one nanosecond consider either an entitlement. You are very much annoying and condescending and for the lack of a more politically correct title, an A$$hole.

 

[Gonzo]

And this is why non-military don't want to give ex-military guys free stuff, like car registrations. Entitlement and attitude.

YEAH?! WELL HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR FREEEEEEEEEEEDOM, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!


Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[whacko]

You served.....that is all that matters. Even if you never saw combat.....the life of a servicemember is not easy......that in itself is something that most people that never served will not understand. Get your plates! You earned em

 

[noddaduma]

Quick question: In what category would you mentally put a retired CIA operative. Say one who had never served in the armed forces before his or her CIA career but spent quite some time in a hot zone? Technically a civilian but someone who had been in harm's way.

 

[goodlife30]

As a veteran I have my plates. It's a pride thing for me. Proud to have stepped up and served. It was costly to me though for a lot of reasons.deployments were Brutal on wife, killed marriage, wife had two awful miscarriages and almost hemmorgaed to death that I was not there for, job discrimination over deployment fears, lost job opportunities because I was overseas and my veterans status impacts my career negatively to this day. Then almost being turned into a red stain a few times as well. I figured i paid a price for them.

As for serving. I get it. But havin been over twice and asked multiple times to go again, I know of many pieces of shit that pulled strings so that did not have to deploy. Yes strong language, but if you have been in since 2001 and never deployed when others have gone multiple times you should be called out. I just can't being in over the last decade with two full blown wars going and not being sent at least once. What that means to me is that someone else without connections had to go in your place..

 

[whacko]

Quick question: In what category would you mentally put a retired CIA operative. Say one who had never served in the armed forces before his or her CIA career but spent quite some time in a hot zone? Technically a civilian but someone who had been in harm's way.

Don't know. But dont most of those guys have to keep a low pro even in retirement? Why do you ask?

 

[OIFer]

As a veteran I have my plates. It's a pride thing for me. Proud to have stepped up and served. It was costly to me though for a lot of reasons.deployments were Brutal on wife, killed marriage, wife had two awful miscarriages and almost hemmorgaed to death that I was not there for, job discrimination over deployment fears, lost job opportunities because I was overseas and my veterans status impacts my career negatively to this day. Then almost being turned into a red stain a few times as well. I figured i paid a price for them.

As for serving. I get it. But havin been over twice and asked multiple times to go again, I know of many pieces of shit that pulled strings so that did not have to deploy. Yes strong language, but if you have been in since 2001 and never deployed when others have gone multiple times you should be called out. I just can't being in over the last decade with two full blown wars going and not being sent at least once. What that means to me is that someone else without connections had to go in your place..

Thank you for serving and especially for the sacrifices you and your family went through during deployments.

While I respect all current and former service-men and women, and the sacrifices they make everyday, I think what you've shared is a great example of why those who deploy to actual combat should be given separate, specific honor. Its why I asked if all servicemen should be given the same honor as those who deployed to combat.

Soldiering anywhere is inherently dangerous work, but the folks who deploy to bases that take rocket, mortar, and machine gun fire on a daily basis, and then have to suck it up and go out and conduct missions in that environment, month after month after month are the folks I'm talking about.

Should the people who haven't been through those hardships share the same honor? Should those serving in Germany, Korea, New Jersey, or on a ship in the ocean be held in the same esteem as those taking fire and conducting missions in Afghanistan or Iraq? I dont know. I know we're just talking about plates, but maybe we need to figure out how to respect all servicemen while still giving separate admiration and honor to those who went into direct combat?

 

[crazymjb]

My deployment was relatively mundane but I patrolled as a grunt in Helmand so I wont short myself what I've done.

There are always some who have done more and always some who have done less.

As far as not hitting a combat zone in the Navy and AF its far from unheard of. I dont fault other "non combat" vets at all unless they actively dodged a deployment. If they were a grunt it may be pretty likely, though as a reservist I know a handful of guys who tried pretty hard to get there and just had no luck with it (in the reserves).

What bothers me is when people get butt-hurt about their service. I've had a vet go from being "Vietnam Era" to a "Vietnam Vet" a few drinks later... Ive heard stories from AF guys who served honarably for years trying to over dramatize how haunted they are from "listening to radio traffic." GMAFB. If you didnt end up down range but did serve honorable, please know that you did your part. When you start taking credit for what isnt yours... you lose my respect and diminish the value of those really in that position.

At least in MA they provide stickers for combat campaigns to go below your service seal.

Mike

Sent from my cell phone with a tiny keyboard and large thumbs...

 

[goodlife30]

My deployment was relatively mundane but I patrolled as a grunt in Helmand so I wont short myself what I've done.

There are always some who have done more and always some who have done less.

As far as not hitting a combat zone in the Navy and AF its far from unheard of. I dont fault other "non combat" vets at all unless they actively dodged a deployment. If they were a grunt it may be pretty likely, though as a reservist I know a handful of guys who tried pretty hard to get there and just had no luck with it (in the reserves).

What bothers me is when people get butt-hurt about their service. I've had a vet go from being "Vietnam Era" to a "Vietnam Vet" a few drinks later... Ive heard stories from AF guys who served honarably for years trying to over dramatize how haunted they are from "listening to radio traffic." GMAFB. If you didnt end up down range but did serve honorable, please know that you did your part. When you start taking credit for what isnt yours... you lose my respect and diminish the value of those really in that position.

At least in MA they provide stickers for combat campaigns to go below your service seal.

Mike

Sent from my cell phone with a tiny keyboard and large thumbs...

Thanks for your service. Helmand was no joke. I wasn't kicking in doors but I was on the bad end of ordinance a few too many times on the fob. It was a beautiful thing being between the Sunnis and Shiites and next to an Iraqi army base and division putting up a big sign saying were here. My spot was hit or overflown so much by rockets and mortars that they literally put a gattling gun system less than 50 feet from my desk and that thing was not idle. Sounded like a piece of paper ripping when it went off. Of course it only shot down about 5 of the thirty rockets coming in.

Yes I see a lot of "vets" turn into war heroes. That's not me. I did my job and came home. Almost got wasted a few times and I am a different person. But like you I get tired of the self made hero syndrome. I was in the airforce and was deployed to Spain for 3 months fueling planes. That's a vacation. Or just the opposite-had a few commanders gleefully tell us the deployment would be full of combat ribbons and action. You know what, ribbon chasers die.
We had a few commanders removed since we refused to serve under glory hounds seeking to become a war hero with our blood.

My biggest want is to have my service count towards job opportunities. Well educated here and have been crapped on more than a few times for jobs. It's depressing that i and my family made this huge sacrifice not once but twice and get nothing for it. There is an active element in the Feds that hates veterans. I know this for a fact. It's all unspoken but there are plenty of tricks to steer opportunities away from them. Have heard this time and time again-hence the vets hiring initiatives. do you really have to convince/make people hire us? The va is a good example of the mentality. It's all words about helping vets.

Thanks for the advice on the stickers. Will track them down.

 

[tuna]

Learned also that there is a DD215 to correct errors. Not that it matters to anyone but mine shows I qualified with a ".38 Cal Pistol" when it was in fact a decrepit M1911A1.

Pansy. My first DD214 shows me qualified on the 45mm pistol. That's one that isn't going to be corrected.

No plates for me - I don't care to give the state one cent more than I have to.

 

[crazymjb]

IIRC the money all goes to charity.

Mike

Sent from my cell phone with a tiny keyboard and large thumbs...

 

[PappyM3]

IIRC the money all goes to charity.

Mike

Yup. It goes to the Chelsea and Holyoke Soldier's Homes.

 

[Len-2A Training]

IIRC the money all goes to charity.

Mike

Yup. It goes to the Chelsea and Holyoke Soldier's Homes.

Has anyone seen a MA Gov't document laying out how much money goes to the various charities from the "specialty plates"?

I'd be shocked (and very much pleased) if MA gave all that extra money from Veteran plates to the designated charities you mentioned. I seem to recall seeing a list quite a while ago and it was a small fraction of the money that I noted as going to the charities but perhaps Veteran plates are treated differently (we can hope)?

Not a Veteran but as for other specialty plates, I prefer to give donations directly to those charities that I believe in rather than filter them thru a 3rd party who take a cut of the action. YMMV

 

[Manomet]

From the registry site
Veteran plate: Any veteran is eligible for this plate for an automobile or motorcycle. Proceeds from the veteran plate fee benefit the Soldiers' Homes in Chelsea and Holyoke.