Combat vets how do you feel toward non-combat vets?

In my 20 years I deployed to several "combat" zones; Somalia, Haiti, Iraq, etc. but never saw actual combat and yes u was infantry. I personally don't care if there is animosity as a lot of soldiers were there but never got in firefights. It just never happened to them.

Do not sweat it Brother, Earning the right to wear our nations uniforms is honororable. Think of all of the troops you mentored and trained who did go, that is the way of things. Perhaps one day again the combat patches and awards will be rare. When I got in only senior NCO's and officers had them. They seemed different to me at the time, and it was well known that you did not ask them about it. Top was at hamburger hill, he was a fair leader but as hard as nails.

I served 1983 to 1987 in a time of relative peace. I served in an infantry battalion and had deployed twice overseas. Our unit never saw combat during that time. I sometimes have guilt because we did not do that which we trained continually to do. I know I shouldn't feel this way, but there are times I do. Maybe this is why I want to be a combat correspondent. I don't think it is, I want to tell service member stories as they live them.

I have the utmost admiration and respect for my brothers and sisters, past and present that have had to answer the call.

Even though I never deployed to the sandbox I would like to think that 2 tours on the DMZ in Korea in the 70s and 80s is close enough to combat. Combat patrols with live ammo, skirting live mine fields and UNDOCCUMENTED fire fights with PRK patrols.

This is actually a question I have worried about.
I left AD in 2002, after my divorce. I had a one-year old little boy. About a month after separation from the husband, I learned that we were deploying. At that point, my hardship paperwork was already going up the Chain.
Went Guard in 2004. No deployments. In 2006, I volunteered for ANY place overseas. I wound up with...Operation Jumpstart. It was a state-side activation. Pretty cool working with Border Patrol, but definitely not the overseas assignment I requested!
Discharged after tour and enlisted in the OKARNG, who, just deployed to Iraq. Joined an Officer Candidate Program and stayed for two years during college. Deployment? Nope. Tracking a different route right now.
In 2013, joined a unit JUST BACK from TOD, and still wondering how horrible my timing was.
Before I retire, though...I shall DEPLOY!

I served in combat and I never had a problem with non-combat vets, with a couple exceptions. Deployment dodgers who continued to get promoted while everyone else deployed and they stayed home for whatever reason and somehow were now outranked much better and experienced NCOs and officers. The other is the gung ho newbie who is far to ignorant to understand that most of it takes to be successful on a deployment is teamwork, not false bravado. I would rather they work on becoming tactically and technically proficient than tell me how much our unit would have been if they were able to go because they are the baddest thing to ever wear combat boots. The rest of the bunch are fine with me as long as they don't try minimizing what my men, woman, and I endured during our time in the box.

My dad did 20 years in the Navy and never saw combat. I did 7 in the Army and saw 2 deployments is he any less of a vet than I am no because in the end we both scarified. In my opinion I believe that he sacrificed more than I did.

To me as long as they honorably served a veteran is a veteran. Can't always pick your duty stations or deployments. We have had this discussion many of time at my VFW post. You have to served on foreign soil or waters during a hostile period. And it can be heated at times. But just the same I have the same respect for a non combat veteran. Just with a Combat vet I can understand the hell and pain we mentally went through as well as the physical to certian degrees. Thank God I still have all my arms and legs. I'm fortunate!

I felt quilty about people having to deploy while I served in danger spots like Oklahoma City and Des Moines, IA. I submitted a 4187 requesting to go but was told that I was going to stay where I was. It has always bothered me a little...makes me feel like should have done more.

There should not be stupid distinctions like combat and non-combat when you are talking about veterans. These separators serve no purpose except to put one group above another group. We are all veterans, period.