The Tragedy of Normalcy: Who Speaks for the “Functional Veteran?”
October 5, 2021 by Kevin Wilson
It’s never a good idea to try to break down a group as diverse and complex as American veterans into distinct classifications. At best, you’re going to just confuse the hell out of everyone, and at worst, you’re going to create the sort of false dichotomies that make tempers boil. You can’t really say there are two or three or even a hundred types of veteran, because no matter how you try to slice it, some guy is gonna pop up in the comments section and learn you a thing or two about exactly how you’ve ignored him and his peers.
If, however, one were to try to classify veteran Facebook pages, well, that gets a lot easier. Nine times out of ten, they’re either trying to sell you something, they’ve got the words “dysfunctional” or “disgruntled” in the title, or they exist to share funny or badass stories about days gone by. For the purpose of this discussion, we’re mainly going to focus on the first two.
You can tell a lot about a group by who runs it and who follows it. Most veteran-owned companies (and by extension their Facebook pages) have a few things in common. If you look, you’ll notice that the owners/founders are mostly former Special Forces, or SEALS, or Rangers, or some other type of operator. Less frequently, but still present, are the ones who were either senior NCOs or officers that had exceptional careers and turned that experience into real world success.
https://havokjournal.com/nation/veterans/tragedy-normalcy-speaks-functional-veteran/
