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

I feel like you are a super lucky guy and thank you for your service, I don't that make you less deserving of the title, you're a veteran no matter what

A Veteran is a Veteran. To be honest my service in Korea in the 1/506 Infantry was much more Physically challenging than it was to be a PSYOP Team Chief in Baghdad. All unselfish service for this great nation of ours is noble service.

As a young combat solider we called the REMF's... as a experienced vet, I appreciate all of our service members who support our mission as a whole. Because without food,supplies, and ammunition, there is no mission.

Msgt

A vet is a vet as many have said, so I won't talk about that. There is animosity towards non-combat vets but I think that's more in the actual force rather than when your out and about shooting the stuff with your friends. Case in point (for anyone that worked in the 'gon). At a point, people were being scrutinized in the Pentagon for not having a combat patch, people were hiding out there....this is completely different from your situation, so don't think I'm comparing them. Also, for promotions, deployment helps and I think anyone who denies that is kidding themselves.

In your current world, there shouldn't be any animosity, you choose to serve, not where and when you served. Got it, there's a connection you don't share with them, don't let it bother you. Look at your other friends, there will be connections that they or you share that other's won't, doesn't mean there is animosity. Unless you all lived in the same town, went to the same school and then college, dated the same women, went to the same places on vacation, there are going to be things that you missed out on. I missed outings/b-days/weddings when I was overseas that my other friends got to share with one another....I can't connect with them on those little things, doesn't mean there is animosity....get what I'm saying?

Personally, I have not a single ill thought on those that haven't had the opportunity to deploy. My deployment happened simply because I transferred to a unit 6 months prior to the unit shipping out. Luck of the draw, you might say. Everyone has to serve a role somewhere. As long as people have that thought process, then there shouldn't be issues in between those that have and haven't deployed.

I found it interesting as I scanned the accumulated comments posted in response to this discussion that there was something missing, two somethings actually.

I often found resentment, understandably so, among those slogging through the mud and jungles of Vietnam towards those who served in the rear with the gear. Sure, all understood that it was some sort of a magnificent lottery those dictated where each soldier ended up. Unlike previous wars, there were no true safe havens. Every basecamp perimeter was a front line and I believe that's even truer today as terrorists avoid front line forces whenever possible and strike anywhere at anytime. Still, there was a level of discomfort to be suffered patrolling the rice paddies and mountains that those in the rear never had the opportunity to enjoy.

More importantly (and this is the second something) every soldier who found him or herself among civilians during the time of the Vietnam War was subject to the same hatred and abuse regardless of their duty or rank or MOS. We were all "baby killers" in those days. Many would ditch their uniforms in airport bathrooms, but there were other telltale signs - their farmer's tans, their haircuts, their bearing - that gave them away and made them targets.

We were all brothers and sisters in those times. Interestingly, all who serve today enjoy a different sort of treatment, again dispensed by civilians without regard to rank, MOS, or whether or not they even deployed.

You don't get to choose your war. I hold no animosity towards vets that never had the opportunity to go overseas and fight for their country. Now with that being said I do have dissension with those that have been in for 14 years and have miraculously never had the opportunity to deploy. Now Im not saying that it is not possible to have your career path take you in a different direction however for those that dodge deployments they need to get out.

http://rhinoden.rangerup.com/light-on-the-right-ditch-deployment-dodgers/

MSgt (Join to see), there is no such thing as veteran and non-combat veteran; there is veteran and combat veteran. Calling yourself a non-combat veteran may be true, but it implies that there is something "missing" from the time you served. I'm in the same boat as you...I'm proud of my brothers and sisters who are combat veterans, but the common denominator is that we are all veterans!

I asked a similar question several months back...the overwhelming consensus was that a veteran is a veteran. That being said, there are combat veterans, Iraq veterans, Afghanistan veterans, Vietnam veterans, etc...

https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/should-veteran-status-be-reserved-for-those-who-have-deployed

Simply serving one's country is honorable. Not everyone is given the opportunity to deploy, and that's ok. They still served. I have absolutely no ill feelings towards my brothers and sisters in uniform who have not deployed. They are still service members and they still served and I am still glad I had the opportunity to serve with them.

My personal view from the Infantry barracks...I'm of two minds on this, I'm glad I never had to go to war. I'm not a coward, I would have gone if deployed, but war is that place where people get killed.

I also regret never going to war. I invested a good portion (at the time) of my life and time learning a role that I never got to play.

Makes sense to me, not sure if anyone else will see it that way.

All that being said, I served and I am a veteran, no matter what anyone thinks.