Firstly, condolences to the family and friends of the two SP killed in Afghanistan. I recently attended a workshop on the ‘insider threat’; the prognosis was not particularly encouraging.
On the second issue of how SP and ex SP are treated, let's not get too dewy-eyed about how US personnel are treated in the US. A week or two ago I was reading 'Stars and Stripes' and was surprised to read several letters from the families of ex US personnel decrying the lack of public support - and lack of employer sympathy for 'Vets'. With a tough job market in the US (as in the UK) ex SP appear to be having a hard time getting good jobs - partly because of the inadvertent victim culture that has emerged from 10 years of continuous warfare. Getting a discount at Universal Studios or a free cup of coffee at Walmart doesn’t equate to a post-Service career and family stability. As identified in the Ashcroft report, some employers are reticent to take on ex Servicemen because they feel they might be injured/suffering from PTSD/violent/heavy drinkers/wife abusers etc. Now we know that is generally not the case. The same goes for the reportedly high level of ex SP who are homeless – analysis shows that these are generally personnel who were released from the Services for being unsuitable in the first place – but it’s easy to label ex SP.
US personnel I have worked with recently have been amazed at the level of ‘transition’ support we get at the end of our careers or if we are made redundant; ‘early retirement’ in the US Forces, at least for officers, is considerably more brutal compared with us and immeasurably more bureaucratic.
Now I’m not saying that British personnel should not be more widely appreciated and ‘favoured’ (as in the US) but I would welcome ideas of how to get the message across to the wider public that we are no all damaged or brutalised by our Service careers.