Posted on May 6, 2014
Should veteran status be reserved for those who have deployed?
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This one has come up a lot in conversations with my peers and Soldiers: Should you be allowed to claim veterans status if you have never deployed?
Personally, I'm an ROTC graduate who chose to go straight into the ARNG in 2011, knowing full well that my chances to deploy would be next to none with the changing op tempo. Realistically, had I been actively searching out a deployment the whole time, I still may not have gotten one. I'm sure there are Soldiers out there who served honorably in a reserve component without deploying, despite their best efforts. So, for example, should a Soldier who completed basic training, had a clean service record, excelled in their peer group, but ultimately served 10 years as a reservist with no deployment and less than 180 days on non-ADT active service be prevented from calling themselves a veteran?
I have my own thoughts, but I'm more interesting in hearing your opinions. For clarification, I'm speaking more towards the legal definition of veterans status - even if the laws were changed here, there would still be an immense difference between a legal veteran and a legal veteran with several deployments, combat experience, decades on active duty, or a combination of all three.
Personally, I'm an ROTC graduate who chose to go straight into the ARNG in 2011, knowing full well that my chances to deploy would be next to none with the changing op tempo. Realistically, had I been actively searching out a deployment the whole time, I still may not have gotten one. I'm sure there are Soldiers out there who served honorably in a reserve component without deploying, despite their best efforts. So, for example, should a Soldier who completed basic training, had a clean service record, excelled in their peer group, but ultimately served 10 years as a reservist with no deployment and less than 180 days on non-ADT active service be prevented from calling themselves a veteran?
I have my own thoughts, but I'm more interesting in hearing your opinions. For clarification, I'm speaking more towards the legal definition of veterans status - even if the laws were changed here, there would still be an immense difference between a legal veteran and a legal veteran with several deployments, combat experience, decades on active duty, or a combination of all three.
Reserves
Army National Guard
Deployment
Posted 11 y ago
Responses: 678
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For the VA, you're a veteran if you served and were not dishonorable doscharged.
Your specific benefits one qualified for depend on the specific type and duration of duty. Appropriately, combat does move you to the head of the line, so to speak, but not being in combat does not strip you of your "veteran" status.
Your specific benefits one qualified for depend on the specific type and duration of duty. Appropriately, combat does move you to the head of the line, so to speak, but not being in combat does not strip you of your "veteran" status.
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I served between gulf wars for 7 years. No opportunity to deploy. I tell my kids I served but reserve the "veteran" distinction for those who stepped onto enemy soil.
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I would say your a Veteran upon completion of you basic and AIT training. I went active duty first and ended up in Afghanistan in 2011. Now I'm ARNG and deployed with them in 2015 to kuwait and then to Iraq. To be honest. I can't speak for other states. But if we want to deploy all we have to do, is fill out a volunteer packet but you will go with which ever unit is going in the state. So you can deploy with NC pretty often if you want. But most I believe get lazy and caught up in the civilian life. Before you know it they have all sorts of attachments at home. But for the Veteran status it should be upon completion of all your contracted training. Then for "Combat Veteran" status is having served for the 30 or 90 consecutive days in a combat zone. I can't remember the exact length of days though.
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I served in active duty Air Force , Air National Guard and the Army National Guard. Retired Honorably from all 3 with 23 Years of Sevice. I was never deployed although many of my friends have. Does that make me less of a Veteran? No. Am I a Combat Veteran? No. When people ask am I a Veteran, I say yes. When they ask if I saw combat I tell them no with a brief explanation. Weather God or fate someone or something had other use for me. I am proud to have severed, was willing and able to deploy and always did my job to the best of my abilities.
Joe (Ret.) SFC
Joe (Ret.) SFC
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If combat deployment status determined veteran status then there wouldn't be many Navy veterans in my mind if you served your a veteran weather you were a POS, POG, or an Operator some just get to ad to the title combat veteran but to be honest if we started talking and you brought up your service I'm going to talk shit to you but don't worry I won't let any civilian talk shit
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Charles; You know you're a Veteran and now I and others know.. because some clown that claims that you are not a Veteran because you didn't deploy to a combat zone is Prob'ly just butt-hurt because they didn't.. or a
Minor technicality .. So they want you to share in their sorrow.. to heck with them!
So you didn't go but you provided the support needed by/to those that did go and you're a Vet too! Those in the rear
providing the logistical support to those in
On the line are as important as those keeping the enemy at bay... without support where would they be and what would they be doing w/o that support that you and others provide? You got that right .. I went to 'Nam and served at Tan Son Nhut AB as a Cook and baker. I was part of the support team.. us, MWR(morale, welfare, entertainment), Mortuary affairs, base exchange, base laundry.. and I did a few tours as a security augmentee.. then to Thailand where I did more of the same: providing sustenance to our Airmen and anybody else; Army, Navy(Seabees), Marines, Coast Guard(LORAN), So whatever you did while in the rear with the gear is important and you're important Charles and on top of that you're a Vet and welcome to the best !
Minor technicality .. So they want you to share in their sorrow.. to heck with them!
So you didn't go but you provided the support needed by/to those that did go and you're a Vet too! Those in the rear
providing the logistical support to those in
On the line are as important as those keeping the enemy at bay... without support where would they be and what would they be doing w/o that support that you and others provide? You got that right .. I went to 'Nam and served at Tan Son Nhut AB as a Cook and baker. I was part of the support team.. us, MWR(morale, welfare, entertainment), Mortuary affairs, base exchange, base laundry.. and I did a few tours as a security augmentee.. then to Thailand where I did more of the same: providing sustenance to our Airmen and anybody else; Army, Navy(Seabees), Marines, Coast Guard(LORAN), So whatever you did while in the rear with the gear is important and you're important Charles and on top of that you're a Vet and welcome to the best !
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First off your out of your mind if you don't think that NG or the Reserves don't deploy. Our of 311 million people in this country less than 2 percent serve in the military to include reserve and the Guard. Active duty can't do it all. During the cold war all those who served but never deployed still were a deterrent. They all still sacrificed time away from loved ones . Sure if you go to combat you truly see the horrors of what you have been training so hard to fight. Does it mean your better than those who never went? All it means is that you were able to be tested. If you survived with out any injuries or not dying does that make you any less than a soldier? Are you a coward because you didn't make the ultimate sacrifice? Absolutely not. Should the recruit who completes basic and their ait but than gets hurt on a airborne jump when he gets to his unit first day career ending jump not be considered a veteran? Of course he should but you should complete basic and ait
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Unless somebody has invented a crystal ball, no one who signs the line and swears the oath should be called anything but a veteran. It really ticked me off when people who had never made that "offer" tried to toss stones at President G W Bush, who with his mates flew the widowmakers the USAF had handed down to the Air Guard and Reserve. My only caveat to this: If you were never eligible for the CAR (does the Army have an equivalent? It always seemed to have too narrow a rule for the CIB, but, hey, whatever makes a service happy)--let's just say something that every service member will understand--if you haven't been "in country" or contiguous air or waters, don't be like a certain slimy waste of a Senator who walked around for years claiming to be a Vietnam veteran when he knew that people were thinking "rockets, mortars, blood....and C-rats for 60 or more straight days."
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No, if a Reservist with no legitimate active duty time and no deployment, you do not get to call yourself a Veteran. As a Reservist you still enjoyed the education benefits, tax free status at PXs and various other benefits, but never really answered the call. There are enough deployments out there to volunteer for if you really want to deploy, so once again, no.
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