Probably not.

After September 11th 2001, I joined ROTC, and spent the best years of my adult life in the military. In return, all I ask is that those who did not serve, get to know someone who did.

After I separated from active duty, I used the Post 9/11 GI Bill to attend law school. Unlike the image that many people have of veterans, I do not shoot billiards at a VFW pool hall, or wear a mesh snap back that displays my service. Rather, I browse Instagram more than I should, and wear skinny jeans, and drink lattes. For all intents, and purposes, there is nothing that distinguishes me as a veteran. And that's the point.

My classmates are remarkable. They are bright, ambitious, and generally aware of the world around them. That is, until it comes to veterans. Time and again, I am shocked at the lack of understanding that my generational peers have about veterans, and sometimes I can't blame them. After all, the news cycle constantly reminds them of PTSD, homelessness, VA scandals, and veteran unemployment. At times I try to tune that out too.

But tuning things out is not always the best way to handle things, and with the enormous sacrifices that new millennial veterans have made, why would anyone want to? It is remarkable that my classmates who can seem so sophisticated, so worldly, and so compassionate, can at the same time be so absent minded when a brief mention of Iraq or Afghanistan comes up. For few if any of them even know the name of single battle, operation, or a person who served in those conflicts.

If our society doesn't even know what veterans look like, then how will it ever begin to know what veterans have gone through, and help solve their problems?

A person would have to knock on 250 doors before they came to the house of a service member's family. The civilian/military divide is as much a product of the all-voluntary force, as it is ignorance, but this should not be an excuse to refrain from knocking on more doors to find veterans.

So my advice to my civilian friends, is that the next time Iraq or Afghanistan comes up in conversation, don't just dismiss it, and act as though it's a historical fact, like the civil war. Do some research, ask some questions and dare to talk about it. Chances are there are veterans among you who served there, who have some pretty cool stories to share that ought to be told. Lest, we forget them, and forget their sacrifice.