Posted on Nov 16, 2015
Do you think someone who has never been in a combat has the right to call themselves a veteran?
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Let me apologize in advance to the people who find this question insulting... I'm just wondering what other people who served viewpoint is.
I personally went many years before I broke down and got "Desert Storm" Veteran tags, and the "Veteran" identifier on my driver's license... I'm still not entirely convinced that I deserve the 101st patch on my right sleeve, for the most part all I did was fix helicopter engines in the sand.
I have a great friend that served in the Air Force, and never left CONUS.
I have a relative that served on Aircraft carriers before Vietnam.
Both proudly stand up when "Veteran's" are asked to at public gatherings, but I always feel strange standing up.
Legal definition of "veteran" aside (someone who served at least six months and received an honorable discharge). I'm wondering more about how those of us that served feel about the term.
When a civilian hears "Veteran" I get the impression that they think we all stormed the beaches at Normandy, and for the most part I was really bored, played Spades and Tetris on my Gameboy during Desert Storm.
Should someone who was in the military during the Vietnam conflict (but never in theater) be allowed "Vietnam Veteran" license plates?
SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4", TSgt Hunter Logan , CH (MAJ) William Beaver , COL Ted Mc
I personally went many years before I broke down and got "Desert Storm" Veteran tags, and the "Veteran" identifier on my driver's license... I'm still not entirely convinced that I deserve the 101st patch on my right sleeve, for the most part all I did was fix helicopter engines in the sand.
I have a great friend that served in the Air Force, and never left CONUS.
I have a relative that served on Aircraft carriers before Vietnam.
Both proudly stand up when "Veteran's" are asked to at public gatherings, but I always feel strange standing up.
Legal definition of "veteran" aside (someone who served at least six months and received an honorable discharge). I'm wondering more about how those of us that served feel about the term.
When a civilian hears "Veteran" I get the impression that they think we all stormed the beaches at Normandy, and for the most part I was really bored, played Spades and Tetris on my Gameboy during Desert Storm.
Should someone who was in the military during the Vietnam conflict (but never in theater) be allowed "Vietnam Veteran" license plates?
SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4", TSgt Hunter Logan , CH (MAJ) William Beaver , COL Ted Mc
Posted in these groups: 
Military service
Purple Heart
Military service Purple Heart
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 358
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SPC David Hannaman My Dad, my Uncles, and I all share being a combat veteran, but that makes us no more a Veteran than someone who served honorably at a time when war and combat deployments were not happening. We all write the same blank check. Where and how we serve as well as what circumstance is rarely up to the individual. All Veterans deserve to be recognized. Simply my opinion.
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Suspended Profile
There is a HUGE difference, between "Veteran" and "Combat Veteran". I am a Veteran - I served in the Navy 22 years. I am NOT a Combat Veteran - I never saw combat. It's that simple...
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I believe that anyone who has put their name on the dotted line and written a blank check to the US for an amount up to and including their life, is a vetran. Do I give them creedence over a veteran who has been in combat, or toured theater elsewhere? Not at all. However, they are still a veteran, in my opinion.
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SPC Robby Robinson
I generally agree. However just taking the oath and signing your enlistment papers doesn't make someone a veteran. One must successfully complete basic training / boot camp to earn the title of veteran upon separation from service. Those who washout of boot camp / basic training are generally given an ELS (Entry Level Separation) and thus viewed as never having served
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If you sign on the dotted line & take the Oath of Allegiance, serve for 180 days ir more, you are. Stopping a bullet or being a magnet fir shrapnell means that the Purple Heart eas awarded for being a casualty of war; it does NOT mean that you have more status as a vet than say a sildier who never got orders for combat. NOT their fault.
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I see and agree with many of the comments here but I'd like to extend it even further. Anyone who at one point signed the dotted line knowing that it could at any given time mean their lives would be forfeit, served honorably and received an honorable discharge, or retired after faithful service is a veteran in my books.
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Veteran is not defined by combat tours. It is defined by the time spent and experience gained while serving in an occupation, any occupation. It is most commonly used with those either in service or former service to the country but it is not solely a military identifier
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A "Veteran" by definition is "a person who has served in the military". I would say you are overthinking it.
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SPC Timothy Crihfield
I have been in church on Veterans day and heard stories of some very heroic acts. I really didn't feel like it was the same as my service.Theses guys were dropped in wooden glider planes behind enemy lines without control of the aircraft hoping for the best. This was just a wooden prop to land and fight. It could've been shot, crashed, or landed on top the trees in the dark of night. I thought who does this, but we all signed a contract obligating ourselves to protect and defend our country.
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CPO Andy Carrillo, MS
SPC Timothy Crihfield - Think of those young men and women who die in a training exercise due to pilot or mechanical error, or who drowned stepping into too-deep water from Normandy landing crafts, etc. All are heroes but not necessarily heroic.
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I'm not voting you down, but that doesn't mean I agree with you.
Your post has the Purple Heart in it. So are you more of a veteran if you have a wound, than if you were just shot at? And are you more of a veteran if you lost a limb, than if you were just wounded? And that brings up the question of who REALLY are veterans; perhaps only the ones 6 feet down count.
If you signed the black check and completed the term of service you signed up for, you are a veteran.
Your post has the Purple Heart in it. So are you more of a veteran if you have a wound, than if you were just shot at? And are you more of a veteran if you lost a limb, than if you were just wounded? And that brings up the question of who REALLY are veterans; perhaps only the ones 6 feet down count.
If you signed the black check and completed the term of service you signed up for, you are a veteran.
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