Please don’t thank me for my service. It’s a lovely sentiment and I appreciate it, but please. I am a veteran of twenty-one years in the Air Force, but I didn’t do anything more valiant than go to work every day and get a job done, same as everybody else who works for a living. I mean, I literally reported to work every day at a cubicle farm. It was like working at the DMV, except with twelve-hour rotating shifts.

If you really want to thank someone for their service, go find a combat veteran and say thank you. Those are people who most deserve your kindness.