Should veteran status be reserved for those who have deployed?

I feel that anyone who has served honorably in any branch of the military should be able and proud to call themselves a veteran. The only thing that I will add to that is if you were deployed to a combat zone, you should be able to be considered a combat veteran without getting flack from other vets that did not deploy. I have seen a lot of vets giving flack as if the combat vets were insinuating that it made them better than others and get all huffy about it saying that it isn't their fault that there were no deployments while they served. In the same turn it isn't our fault that there were deployments while we served. It is merely being more specific about our service not a contest of who served better. Off of soapbox now. Lol

Yes they should be considered Veterans because if there were a flare up all could be deployed or working in a support function that still serves the needs of those being deployed. Now there are some even Veterans that I find really did not like the fact that are Vets! Simply because they disrespected their own service and likely had a hard time with deployment or while deployed! Give them the option if they feel they earned being a Vet!!

Nope. Veteran is a veteran.

A veteran is anyone who served their country and successfully completed their service obligation. I myself never deployed, despite being in during thre wartime operations. I volunteered three time to serve in Desert Storm, but was denied all three time because my MOS was too critical in my current duty station. I retired honorably after 20 years service. So, yeah, I consider myself a veteran, as I consider all my fellow brothers and sisters veterans.

NO! We all gave the US a blank check,up to and including my life!

No, there shouldn't be a distinction between Veterans! Reservists and NG train to the same standard as AC. Just because as a Reservist/NG you don't get the call, that decision is beyond you and you don't have a say in the matter. The last 9 years of my 38 years of service was to train RC staff personnel to standard for deployments. I also spent 11 years in Filed Artillery as a Reservist. Oddly enough my one and only deployment came when I served as an interim Band Commander. It was a local deployment. Funny things we almost deployed to Afghanistan to support the US Embassy in Kabul. Only at the last minute, they pulled the plug on the deployment. Now you see why IMHO a Veteran is a Veteran regardless of deployments. Also a note, when RC personnel attend Army schools, they tend to do significantly better than their AC counter parts.

Pretty sure we signed on that same line on the same contract.... done it honorably and you are a veteran of the armed forces of these United States of America..i serv ed 4 years in a cav unit with a mission in west Germany on the boarder... looked communisum straight in the eyes... got blown out on alert after alert every one as if we where gonna be fighten then vaporized or just vaporized...but since it obviously did not happen...and you should be glad too... does that make m e any less of a veteran than say soneone who got shot at...no i stood my ground and would serve again thats a veteran....

Having served on both sides of that coin, one could NOT successfully deploy if they did not have the support of those that did not deploy but made things happen back on shore/in country. “A Veteran is someone who, at one point in their life wrote a blank check made payable to “The United States of America,” for an amount up to and including their life.”

As long as you joined and finished your contract without being a shitbag you're a veteran

Many moons ago, as a young Buck Sergeant...with a combat deployment under my belt, the idea of only counting deployed military personnel as veterans might have made sense to me.

However, when Desert Storm kicked off, I was one of a very small cadre on Fort Bragg. Just 35 of us were known as Blackhats, experts on everything Airborne-and they didn't know what to do with us as the 82d began their deployment routine.

It didn't take long for the higher-ups to realize that we knew the aircrews,and we knew the airfield on Pope AFB. So, they had us marshaling aircraft, and ensuring the right equipment got to the right aircraft.

As someone whom, at the time believed "if you're not Airborne Infantry, you're not shit", I was blown away by the professionalism, efficiency, and mission first mentality of those I used to call pogues. The Army and Air Force loggies were loading and sending aircraft at an incredible pace. It seemed as if an aircraft was landing empty and being sent out for the desert every few minutes.

Seeing as how this massive deployment of equipment was destined to support my Paratrooper Brothers, I knew how vital the loggies role was in our (eventual) successful mission accomplishment.

Each and every role in our Armed Services plays their part. We can't fill the battlefield foxholes if there's not anyone to send us the shovels needed to dog our foxholes, or fox the stuff we break...and we break a lot of things!