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

The team (DoD) should be for each other regardless of deployment or not. Having been on both sides of the coin with recently being on "REAR D" and then being first in "OEF and OIF", I feel I can speak with experience versus opinion. There are those in my career who shed disgust with those who have not served overseas in combat. I have witnessed it and while some do not deploy on their own account, most who didn't were not in the right place or time to serve OCONUS combat. Remember that things do not get forward without someone pushing from the rear. It takes the Air Force to STRAT and the NAVY to bring the heavy stuff that can't STRAT. Those of you who have posted saying you feel your service is not as valuable/honorable/recognizable as those of us who may have served 4 or more tours should reconsider. There are many examples one can turn to but while I hold no animosity toward those who have not been "UNFORTUNATE" to serve over there, those who "DO" discriminate and VFW talk about those who haven't really should be ashamed.

I have on more than one occasion had to throttle back the "right shoulder" folks from offending and misrepresenting themselves in public. There are active duty dodgers no doubt, but most folks don't get called up to go anymore and with contractors doing so much logistically and Class I now, the folks normally doing those duties aren't called into combat anymore. We cannot and should not look down on those who did not get the orders. Witnessing and seeing combat is not pleasurable and desirable for anyone I would think. If it is your desire to go to combat to serve up some justice, then rethink your motive for serving.

Veteran status is guaranteed to those who have served period!

MSgt Curtis Borders,

I have no issue with non-combat veterans. As many have related, service is service. You pulled on the "slot machine arm" the same way we did. There is no doubt about whether you would have deployed if added to a deployment roster.

That said, unfortunately, I encountered a number of Army Senior NCOs who did not deploy, chased assignments not to deploy, and were the kind of Soldiers who would do that. I evaluate everyone as an individual and respect your service.

Thank you for your service and dedication to our country,

SFC Joseph M. Finck USA (Ret)

Nothing against soldiers who haven't ever deployed. Since I was a combat arms guy, 11 series.. we always deployed. However, Army-wide there are so many soldiers who never got the chance. I'm fairly certain most soldiers who join the service want to experience an overseas tour of duty at the very least. Individual Deployment experiences may vary... such a an infantry soldiers role versus that of someone who's occupational specialty does not allow them to engage in hostile combat operations. The key to this is each soldier has an importance within the framework of the system. We combat ground n' pound warfighter's could not achieve success without combat support units, engineers, sustainment brigades, air assets, the other service components, and the list goes on. All said and done, we all worked together to make it happen in garrison and overseas.

I'll give the unpopular real answer...
Combat vets do look at those who never deployed differently. And the more direct the combat role, the more they judge people for having not been there.
Most still view non-combat vets as a brother/sister, but yes, different.

So let me understand this, you joined the Military but never deployed? Hmmm, there are several ways to look at this.
If you were to look through recruiting command a few years back there were senior NCO's that never deployed. Some say they were hiding in recruiting, some say the lucked out.
Then you have the ones who made it seem as though they're entire world was falling apart and deployment would devastate them. Or the ones that end up pregnant right before deployments. Questionable ? Sure .
My personal opinion is that if you joined you should serve, period! That means go where and when you are told and if your family situation prevents that, much like the lack of a family care plan, then you should be made to leave.
My wife had cancer and was in remission for 13 years, until 2010. I was deployed and when I was informed that the cancer had returned I was in Afghanistan. My command made me go home, but after getting there and making sure that things were able to be handled by doctors and she was not in any danger, I went back. Does this make me heartless ? Not in my book. My coming home showed her that my command and I cared for her well being. My decision to go back showed that we both knew my being there was not going to make it go away.

I was in during Desert Storm but never over there. My dad was in during Korea but was in 29 Palms his whole enlistment. I feel I am every bit a Marine as the next with battle scars. I just have a few less ribbons.

Honestly, Im glad I was in back repairing aircraft rather than on the front calling them down.

You wanna know where the animosity is from this vet that did a tour in Afghanistan? You never saw the horrible things people do to other people, you never get bothered by fireworks, you dont see an Afghan dressed in traditional attire and get uncomfortable. The animosity is you dont suffer from what you did not experience and be thankful for that. Animosity is not a the word, jealously is. Enjoy your retirement and enjoy the issues you do not have. I am jealous.

I can see this is an old thread. But RP keeps posting it in my "recent" feed, so.....

In general.... No. But I will admit that it depends on the circumstances.

In OIF 1, we had a female who literally got pregnant to avoid deployment. As soon as the order came down, she told her friends she was going to try to get pregnant so she wouldn't have to go. And BOY did she try. The guys in the barracks were very thankful. And she succeeded. No deployment for her, and she was out of the Army a little less than a year later for FCP with an honorable discharge. Yes, I hold animosity towards her.

Now, she was, by FAR, the RARE exception. We had another female who found out she was pregnant on the VERY LAST pre-deployment check. She had tested negative two weeks prior. She cussed out the medics and told them they were wrong and there was NO WAY they were making her stay home. Three more positive tests later, she was taken off the manifest. Against her will. She was also out of the Army about a year later but that was at the end of her contract. I hold NO animosity towards her.

In general, it is not up to us who gets picked and who does not. But there are SOME folks who go out of their way to dodge deployment. We all know who they are. Again, these folks are, by FAR, the RARE exceptions. But they exist. And I hold those folks in less esteem than my deployed brethren and sistren.

Last anecdote. I attended the retirement ceremony for the Chief Warrant Officer of the MI Corps. He was a CW5 who was the senior Warrant for all MI.

At the ceremony was the CG of the MI Corps, the CSM of the MI Corps, and the new Chief Warrant of the MI Corps all on the stage. The senior-most Enlisted, Warrant, and Officer for all of MI. And me, an MI NCO in the audience, had more combat stripes than all three of them. COMBINED. And yes, that pissed me off a great deal. I understand that deployments are a matter of "luck." But this was 2015; 14 years into the GWOT. After 14 years of combat - which these three had not only been in for the ENTIRE time, but had been mid-grade to senior leaders the entire time, too - the "luck" tends to average out. Having only one or two combat stripes after 14 years of being a mid-grade to senior leader DURING ACTIVE COMBAT is questionable. And that these leaders were REWARDED with these senior positions by dodging deployment was exceptionally frustrating for the guy with 5 deployments - 3 of them as a SFC - and NO chance of promotion.

So, for me, it is very much a question of why didn't you deploy? For folks like you who got out in 2004, my natural assumption will be that you just didn't have the chance. The GWOT was pretty new, Iraq had just started, not THAT many people had gotten their rotation yet. And if you retired in 2004, it means your packet dropped in 2003, and the chances that they deploy someone with an approved packet is even less. So I wouldn't even ask the question. I would assume "no harm, no foul," and would thank you for your years of commitment and WILLINGNESS to answer the call, even though the call never came. (In your case, the call came to the unit, but the unit leadership chose not to call you, personally.). The same would hold true for any "one and done" folks who got out after their first enlistment.

But if you had retired in 2014 with no deployment, I'm gonna start asking some questions. And I will be expecting to hear answers I don't like.

Maybe that is a bit knuckle dragger of me, maybe it is a bit entitled, maybe it is something else, I don't know. But that's the honest truth. And I would bet there are a few more like me just not willing to say it because it isn't "proper" to question anyone's career choices.

veterans are my brother and sisters and combat are my close brothers and sisters

From one Cpl to another Cpl …and when u cut I bleed as well …well said