I am a veteran. What I see is that the "they" you speak of are actually different "theys" in different clinics. The eye clinics for example are very interested in keeping "us vets" alive and healthy, even to the point of calling in the world's top specialist from England.
On the other hand, the "theys" in the dental clinics, some of them are what you speak of. The actual dental dentists each have their own attitudes though, and though they only took one tooth yesterday, he did it so well and quick and painlessly that I shook his hand and asked for him to do my appointment in August.
Yes, I know well of what you speak. You should be in on the conversations in the shuttle bus.
There is no group who wants a better PEACE than veterans! Even the toughest gnarliest marine veteran, officer or nco, will have wet and moist eyes when speaking of holding handfulls of dogtags.
I believe veteran shuttle bus conversations should be recorded for posterity. Stories get told that do not make it to tv or movies. the not glamorous things. Stories that have no point, but do have an end. "Jack was in his bunk asleep. I went to the latrine. came back and in a flash there was only broken stuff where Jack was"...that was what one vietnam vet said...someone answered he hates war, everyone said yea, mhm, one amen, even a young vet in the bus looked up...
Some of us vets live very long lives, amazingly so. We learn those things that did not kill us...so we are stronger, older but a depth of toughness in us hard to describe. My bosses and others, they seem to think I'm fragile. I'm not such a thing. yea, older, slower, sometimes hurting, but it is actually a worry...that I outlive them all as a person outlives a horse.
Yes, there are still WWII vets. One airman was there. He had not one, but two home care givers. Those two guys looked to me like gang members, real tough and sharp eyed. Maybe that's why he hired them to take care of him! No mamby pambies took care of that strong man. No sir.
Yes, there should be non vets on the shuttle busses to listen to the real scoops. Even us non battle vets have stories. The DMZ of Korea, the time 16 soldiers were helicoptered to the hospital while I had bloody dysentery. A hand grenade had been lobbed over the fence into their truck. It did not make the news. Sick as I was, I felt guilty for only having bloody dysentery while some of those guys died. that was 1977, about a year after the panmunjon incident...
Oh.
(sorry)