Do combat arms soldiers look down on fellow combat arms brethren if they have deployed and not been awarded a combat badge/medal/ribbon?

Well I say deployed combat experience speaks for itself. I am Combat infantry and yes I did and as a contractor do look differently at those with no CIB or Combat patch or specialty badges as enhanced training and skills that are needed in the field and in combat. Reality is those that fight and survive and do it again have the real skills that the Army is looking for in the War Zone that we are fighting in now.

It's stupid and childish for those with a CAB/CIB ect to treat others as if they're subpar. Do they treat those in PSD like that? Or the ones at the gallery? I hope not, because not everyone in the military is there to be certified BAMFs. Some just want to be a part of something bigger. If your ego is in such a bad need of a stroke that you have to use a decoration as a means to degrade others than you joined for the wrong reason.

I personally did not look down on people that had not seen combat, however I would get looked down on all the time because I did not feel the need to wear my CAB on my uniform, and being with a infantry unit, it was fun. I was the FO for them and did the same shit as them but because they thought that I had not seen combat I was still way below them that and I was a POG. That all changed when we had a ASU inspection, lets say after that I did not hear a word from anyone anymore.

Haha!! I’ve had a couple make comments to me about my CAB. I’ve even had a few comment about me being a FOBBIT. They’re idiots. I troll them, too. Yeah, I never took one step off of the safety of the FOB. Not once in five deployments. For real...I flew Apaches...we were in the air. Funny, though...I never heard one 11B or spec op dude complaining about us when we’d show up to bail them out of a bad situation

I’d say that most guys that have been around a bit, though, realize it takes all pieces to make the puzzle work. I couldn’t do my mission without refuelers, armament dogs, flight ops personnel, crew chiefs, cooks, etc...

And if the cards just didn’t fall the certain way, and one person was involved in something and someone else wasn’t...that wasn’t their fault.

However...just don’t talk too much shit about how bad you had it, or how you got your CAB by being involved in incoming when you were several hundred meters away from it. Don’t be that guy. Or girl.

I’ve know Officers and NCOs who pass out CARs like candy as soon as they hear the first holstile shot or IDF impact. They’re just trying to build a nice rack.

I’ve also witnessed vehicles hit by IEDs and a Marine who killed an intruder while on post and didn’t get anything.

Sometimes it depends on the units adgenda.

I spent 14 years on active duty during the Cold War. I was US Navy at the time, and the greatest threat was Soviet ballistic missile submarines. As a Sonar tech on a tin can, we were often deployed closest to the Soviet Union as an early warning for the carrier. If the balloon ever went up, we would be the first to know. Our job was to stay afloat long enough to get out a flash message. No, most of us never heard a shot fired in anger. However, every mother's son and daughter slept safely at night because we put our lives on the line.
Do I Honor my brothers and sisters who are combat veterans? Yes. Does that make our offerings at the altar any less worthy? No. All gave some, some gave all.

I personally will cut jokes and poke some fun towards the other branches but at the end of the day anyone who steps foot into a combat zone deserves equal recognition unless you were awarded the Purple Heart bronze star, or etc. for being injured or killed or injured killed trying to to save brothers or sisters in arms!

Some units go OCONUS to pull support missions, and never see any real action, i.e. they never get off the FOB. Some of these can be smaller leg infantry units that usualy are not trusted to go out on real missions. But they can guard!! Sorry guys, no you don't get the same respect unless you take rounds while you're there. If you're not out ever night kicking in doors like all your brothers from Light Infantry units and SOCOM, you are not shit, so don't expect to be treated like some kind of operator for sitting in a hesco shack, drinking coffee & watching a beautiful sunset, while over looking an open wasteland.

I as a combat veteran have no animosity towards those who have not served in combat. We are still all BROTHERS IN ARMS.

I was AF admin and I know just being AF I get looked at sideways...but is it weird or wrong for someone like me who never saw combat and only went to Manas to feel guilty about not having been in combat?