Advice for military peeps

And veterans also! Are one of those people who gets flustered and doesn't know what to say when complete strangers come up and tell you "Thank you for your service"? I don't blame you! It is a tricky one because you can either just smile or say nothing, which is pretty much like saying "THAT'S RIGHT I AM DAMN AWESOME WORSHIP ME" or you can attempt to contradict them and say something like "Don't thank me, I just signed up three weeks ago after I got fired from the chicken-processing plant for stealing necks" which just makes things awkward as hell.

So I actually found a discussion about this on reddit a nice part of the internet and someone said that he used to find it awkward, but then he started replying to the phrase "Thank you for your service" with "Thank you for your support!". I passed this advice on to A (WHO SOMEHOW STILL LOOKS LIKE A MILITARY PERSON DESPITE HIS LONG MANLY BEARD) and every time he has said it the other person's face just lights up and it's really nice and sweet.