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

No need to add to the remarkably well stated comments herein...They call it an "Honorable" Discharge because that's exactly what it is.

Are there well-intentioned persons who take it a little too personally when someone aggrandizes their exploits a bit? The people I know who were in the "thick" of things don't talk much to begin with...Unless someone with "questionable" credentials starts questioning the decisions and sacrifices of those who directly involved, I don't think there's much animosity at all.

We use the whole spear, not just the pointy end. You were part of the spear.

I was in for 25 years before I became a "combat vet". I feel that the military sends you where they need you. If a SM has not dodged deployments to me they are just as much a vet as those of us that happened to get orders to a combat zone.

I was in the first Gulf War and your service is no more or less valuable than mine. You filled a need within the military that someone had to fill. I find it commendable that you gave up the need to be with your comrades overseas to stay with your ailing wife. Giving to your country can be done in many ways. You put family first, and that's the way it should be. We never go to fight what is ahead of us, we fight for what we left behind. I hope these words will have meaning to you and thanks for your service.

I feel if your not a combat vet. Well hells bells. At least you did sonething for your Colors, (Country). Thank you for your service.

I believe you were given sage advice! How could you cast-aside your beloved wife, who endured so-many medical tragedies, and then function in a combat environment. No Sir, you are one of us, and there is no shame, or phenomenon of "less than."

You served honorably and that's good enough! I am proud to call you a brother in arms!

What is a combat vet? Is a combat vet when they went "bang" one time from their vehicle mounted .50 cal and then it jammed? Is a combat vet when artillery operators shot their cannons? Is a combat vet someone who qualifies for the CAB? I have seen CoC trying to narrowly qualify Soldiers for a CAB and its disgusting. You either left your family to deploy or you stayed behind in the US doing what ever. I left the safety of my FOB 3 or 4 times a week in AFG to conduct mostly training local police and KLEs. Other than that, I also participated in QRF missions. I drove all over Iraq acquiring supplies. Not one single time was I shot at but does that matter? Should I gauge myself in comparison to someone's war stories? I guess there's some club out there that is unspoken of for "combat vets". Jennifer Lynch is a combat vet only because of incompetence of her unit. If they had their shit together and conducted themselves as Soldiers, maybe we wouldn't know her name. Lastly, I have more respect for combat vets who did a little more than go bang one time or were merely mortared on from several hundred feet from the sight of impact and stayed in their hard sites.

Whether you served honorably and performed your duties to the best of your ablility is what counts. Yes I have deployed several times and on some trips not designated deployments. Be glad you didn't see combat. you didn't miss out on anything. be glad you served. I wont even tell my nephews to join the military now a days.
standards have dropped and there is no support for the common soldier with the politicians in charge.

I say
"Thanks for all the Beans, Bullets and Band-aids. Could not have been done with out them. Here .. have a beer"