I’ve said it a few times. Mostly to elderly guys with Korea or WW2 hats on (although the latter are becoming rarer all the time). My whole fam damily served except me. Dad, Mom, Brothers, cousins, uncles…..
My nephew served on the USS Abraham Lincoln and died in a car wreck headed beck to the ship after weekend liberty, and a cousin that was a KIA in Viet Nam. That’s the only active duty deaths in our family
My dad told me “if you want to show your appreciation to vets, you go to any cemetery and find neglected stones and clean them, or go to the VA and ask the staff who never gets visitors, and visit them.”
I don’t do either of these things as often as I should…..
I’ve paid restaurant bills for soldiers countless times…. Anonymously. For firefighters, cops, and EMT’s too.
There’s 1001 ways to show appreciation without saying a word.