@SpurgAnon When you think about it they aren’t all that dissimilar from getting a new stapler, coffee mug, or stress ball with the Fedex logo every 6 months you work there. What value does something have if you have 20 more just like it just for going through the motions?
Maybe I’m just colored by all the pilots. I work with these guys who talk about being an “Enduring Freedom Veteran” and when they share their war stories they’re just describing dorm life in germany in between 2-day flights to AFG and back. “Oh shit dude, life was so tough, they put us up in this HORRIBLE roach motel in Greece for a month in 2007, it sucked man, you civvies have no idea what it’s like to suffer for the country.”
Even their desert accommodations weren’t all THAT bad, by 3rd world standards they’re downright civilized. Oh no, you have to shit on a bench with the boys, awful. Feel free to grab another ribbon from the jar.
If the services remain, we’ll probably see a return to sanity when the boomers die out and there aren’t a lot of old guys sitting around trying to capture some of the glory their grandpa had