Go Beyond Saying “Thank you for your service”
For the first time in years, I am not directing programming throughout November to observe Veterans Day. This realization has brought on a sense of longing to find a way to honor and celebrate and reaffirmed that we should be honoring and celebrating veterans, service members, and their families all year round—not just when it is convenient. Don’t get me wrong; Veterans Day has a rich history that is worth specifically recognizing, but hear me out.
Around this time of year, we see the stores and restaurants touting discounts for veterans, business and university best for veterans rankings, and pomp and circumstance ceremonies thanking veterans for their service. We’ll remember service members serving overseas during the holidays, and in May, we memorialize the members we lost while serving. Honoring and recognizing the military-connected (mil-con) community is a moment of highlighting the less than 1% community within our society, and this is a needed first step. We need to shift from going beyond words and fleeting actions that make us feel good as patriotic citizens and move towards taking impactful messages and systemic incorporation that benefits us citizens and, more importantly, the mil-con community.
There is a saying in the mil-con community that they are family businesses in a gated community. There are numerous reasons why a service member serves, and legacy families are a common one. Serving requires security clearances, fitness and ability requirements, and a dictionary of military acronyms. A sociology definition of this culture is a total institution—where individuals are cut off from the rest of society so that they can be controlled and regulated to strip away previous roles to create mission ready roles. As referenced earlier, less than 1% of U.S. citizens serve in today’s all-volunteer force. This context of the relationship between the military and civilians is what creates the military-civilian divide.
But the divide is a two-way street. Civilian messaging assumes that the mil-con community is a monolith—specifically White and male, the mil-con are needy, which results in a culture of wrap-around services. A misaligned assumption many civilians believe is that veterans cannot face labor discrimination. When investigating these assumptions, it is clear that we have a lot more work to do as a civilian society to learn more about the mil-con population. The mil-con community is more diverse today and has varying intersectionalities of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, ability, political affiliations, etc. There is an emphasis on wrap-around services in the military leads back to the military being a total institution, and veterans rely on transitional services as they become civilians as a part of the resocialization process. In fact, the mil-con community has proven to be an asset-benefit to society instead of a deficit-model. Lastly, the mil-con community often faces discrimination in biases and lack of understanding.
Go beyond saying, “Thank you for your Service,” temporary discounts, and creating a designated lounge. Review hiring practices and HR guidelines regarding service member and veteran employment, build proficiency on military skills and experiences to quickly identify the assets they will bring to your organization, and engage the mil-con community as a diverse community. Keep in mind that the military to civilian process is not a one-and-done process upon separating or retiring from the military. Be a part of the process journey by knowing how and where your organization can support transition either internally or externally. There is a fleet of organizations collaborating to provide top-notch resources for the mil-con community—so do not feel like you need to reinvent the wheel. The road to understanding others who have different experiences than us is to take the time to understand their standpoint and journey. We have the opportunity to shift our words of gratitude into actions with positive impact. May you have a meaningful and impactful Veterans Day.
