Something about veterans that bothers me is how widely and freely some share their war stories. A funny story here and there is fine. A story about someone else’s heroism is great. But all too often the stories smack of vanity and end with some self-aggrandizing point. I have also been guilty of this myself. After my first deployment, I moved from a rifle platoon to weapons company. When I arrived, I shared stories of my platoon’s firefights and other action too freely with the officers in my new company. Another officer in my new company—we’ll call him Michael—did not. After about a week, I noticed that he was taking the high road, and literally walked away from me and the others sharing stories. At one point, one of Michael’s other lieutenant buddies started making fun of me behind my back. But Michael steadfastly refused to participate in the storytelling and, to my knowledge, did not engage in the backstabbing. After hearing that another officer was talking poorly behind my back, I tried to table my anger and instead listened to the criticism. While I think the other lieutenant misunderstood me and had his own anger issues, I recognized some…Continue reading War Lesson #1: Vanity