What's so special about veterans?

A persistent thought bubbled up during a recent four-day volunteer stint at a retreat for disabled vets. Why do veterans get such generous medical benefits and other special benefits — plus a bundle of discounts and courtesies from an admiring public — while we who served our country in other ways get the usual pension, and maybe an "atta boy"?

Before you launch into a rant about how soldiers risk life and limb protecting American freedoms while others in public service are merely a taxpayer burden, hear me out. Stop and ponder this: In a democracy, who are the freedom protectors?

It takes pages to list the myriad veterans benefits offered through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). At the retreat I learned of some new ones, like the all-paid outing at a classy casino resort near Iowa City to help disabled vets become more active. The services go well beyond medical care. There's housing and educational support, and broad-ranging counseling.

I don't begrudge vets their benefits, especially those who served in perilous hot-spots and most particularly those who incurred battlefield disabilities. Americans are grateful for their service, as they've always been: Pilgrims fully cared for those wounded while protecting their villages and families of those killed; same for colonists in the War of Independence.

Veteran benefits grew impressively through World Wars I and II, and have expanded still more since. Once limited to those who served in battle and their families, vets now get support even if they served far from any hostilities (as most did), and for disabilities developed long after military service and unrelated to it.

The several hundred vets at the Iowa retreat were in good spirits, healthy and seemed to lead stable lives. They were warmly welcomed by upbeat VA staff to a well-run event where they devoured three squares daily and learned ways to stay active at first-rate facilities. Nice going, VA (and private funders).

It was a bit curious, though, that along with high praise for the VA, many vets openly grumbled about how big government "always screws things up," as one said, and griped about expanding "socialism," apparently oblivious that the VA, like the military, is very big government indeed and among the world's most socialistic organizations.

It's said soldiers risk their lives to protect America's freedom. Some surely do, but in truth very few ever see combat. Yes, WWII vets are rightly esteemed for fighting and dying for America and allied nations. But no war since then presented an existential homeland threat. And only 60% of our soldiers have ever deployed (counting those who served a few months at sea or were stationed at foreign bases well out of harm's way).

The many who never deploy tend to administrative duties and jobs like data and supply management; regular jobs. One survey said only one service member in 10 ever carries a weapon after boot camp.

Local police and first-responders are more likely to face danger, but even here there's popular misperception. In the list of America's most dangerous jobs, policing ranks way down in the mid-20s, well behind logging, roofing, hauling waste and guarding school-crossings. Soldiering in general doesn't make the top 25.

In broader perspective, however, it's fair to say those in the military do protect freedoms by being part of America's deterrence through preparedness. And yes, cops protect freedoms by maintaining order and protecting people and property.

But it's also true that in any "of, by, and for" democracy like ours, every citizen maintains freedoms simply by practicing them. Freedom protectors include public workers at every level, construction workers, those in elected office, judges, hospital workers, teachers and parents.

Danger doesn't only lurk overseas. A young Abraham Lincoln once warned that threats to American democracy are most likely within the nation from individuals and mobs who disrespect laws and courts. It was true then, and certainly is now.

All law-abiding, socially tolerant citizens are freedom foot-soldiers who share in making ours "a more perfect union."

Still, vets get high-quality, no- or low-cost public health care while the rest of us pay dearly into a private system (average family premium is $22,500) that's the world's most costly by far while delivering health care rated in the mid-30s by the World Health Organization.

On the return bus ride from the Iowa retreat, another thought bubbled up:

By all indications, VA health care is less expensive than private care and outcomes are mostly superior. Wouldn't it follow that we'd all be healthier longer and live happier, more productive lives if the VA model of care were available to all freedom-protecting Americans?

Just sayin' … .

Ron Way lives in Minneapolis. He's at ron-way@comcast.net.