What does patriotism mean to US military veterans?

From Vietnam to Afghanistan and Iraq, veterans reflect on their military service and share stories of racism, sexual assault, PTSD, homelessness and suicide.

I remember September 11, 2001. I was in seventh grade. With tears streaming down my mother’s face, she carefully removed her flag from the shadowbox she had been gifted at her air force retirement ceremony just months earlier. She wondered aloud if she would be recalled to active duty as she hung the flag in the window of our apartment. Partisan implications were the furthest thing from my mother’s mind that day. Military service is often lauded as the pinnacle of patriotism. “Thank you for your service,” is regurgitated reflexively every time I ask about a military discount. I served six weeks in air force basic training before being declared medically unfit for service but given a disability rating. It does not feel worthy of thanks but no one asks for details, so automatic is the response. And while people tend to conflate nationalism with patriotism – think of large pick-up trucks with American and “Don’t Tread on Me” flags flapping across their beds – I believe if my mother were alive today, she would disagree.