I'm pretty sure I know where you're going with that, and I hope you're not about to use my lack of experience as a "shut up" trump card. I have the utmost respect for people who experienced combat, including my brother for that aspect. I don't, however, respect desertion and oath-breaking, and I never will, and that (followed by the blatant lying and stolen valor afterwards) are what I find contemptible. I fully understand that I don't know what it's like to be in combat, but it would be one thing if he was forced into the army. It would be one thing if he had no choice, was serving under duress, and deserted because he found an opportunity to escape. In this day and age, however, it's inexcusable. I'm talking about someone who had a father who was in Desert Storm and a grandfather in WWII. He had a neighbor who was a Vietnam infantry vet. He had a high school teacher who was a former Green Beret. All of this, and he had a great career lined up with the Navy. Then he decided he wanted to be cooler than that, and despite all of the above people telling him "Dude, don't join the army; and if you do just don't do infantry. Don't do it. You'll regret it." He gave everyone the middle finger (a few of them literally) and thus dropped out of high school, enlisted as 11B, came home from basic and wore his uniform everywhere, and then decided he didn't like it after he got stuck in Afghanistan for 8 months (he was the only one in his unit that got that, while they were on a 12 month deployment). He chose, by his own free will, to ignore everyone who knew better than he, do his own thing, and then chicken out. My dad raised us to be responsible for our actions and to know that they always have consequences, and that when you commit, you commit. I got medically disqualified from joining the military because of a herniated disc in my spine, so I tried. I put all of my hopes and dreams on being ATC in the Air Force but they didn't want me. So, no, I never saw combat. I've been shot at by gang-bangers while at work, I had to dodge a hail of bullets while everyone else was clinking champagne glasses at midnight this last New Year's due to guns being shot in the air, so I've been under fire and somehow lived, and the taste I got of it I fully understood was tantamount compared to what those on the front lines have to go through every day.

For that, I respect anyone who serves in combat for the mere fact that they served in combat. That doesn't mean I have to kiss their feet and respect every single action they make in their lives beyond that. Anyone who runs away from commitments they made under their own free will, especially when combat is a well-advertised and well-known requirement of said commitment, does not deserve a hero's memory and nor will I grant them one. You can make me out to be an uneducated and inexperienced little fuck like my brother has made clear to me, but it doesn't change the fact that people like him are cowards, oath-breakers, and deserters; and those are titles that I will never wear because I think my choices through.

No, I did not serve in combat, and I hope I never have to.