Should veteran status be reserved for those who have deployed?

RIDICULOUS THINKING!! YOU WEAR THE UNIFORM IS ALL U NEED TO BE VETERAN!!

If you gave up X amount of years to your branch, regardless of what you did you are considered a veteran in my book. There are things that setup combat veterans from non combat veterans, such as CIB, CAB...etc. if you feel so strongly about making sure everyone knows that YOU have seen combat, make sure you put your badges on....I guess

I served in the active Army during the Gulf War. I always add that I didn't go. I joined the ARNG in 2005 and deployed to Iraq in 2009. Even though I was in the infantry I never fired my weapon and was never fired on directly (mortars, a few badly aimed shots, many found IEDs). I always feel like it is important to make that clear. I have brothers that endured weeks of nearly constant fire fights, one that was killed by a sniper, one that drank himself to death after being unable to cope with multiple combat deployments. But legally speaking...our society shouldn't bother with these distinctions. We all wrote check for up to and including our lives and we meant it. You put on the uniform you are my brother or sister.

It takes 11 non combat to support one foot soldier. FYI and that is not spec ops. Supply, air, fleet. It is a team. Though I understand even being in hazardous pay zone is different than not. Not everyone is the quarterback but quarterbacks never would win a game without the line, to think they would is arrogant and could get them killed.

Every service member has made a connection to support those in service within combat zones whether it be direct, or indirect. Providing provisions, supplies, intel, or support. Even the janitorial jobs. If the facilites werent clean to a certain extent, operations of that facility could have ultimately ceased for hygenic health reasons, rendering vulnerability for support. Bottom line, if you served, you have made some sorr of contribution no matter how tiny

If you graduated boot camp your a veteran

No.

Don't feel too bad. I've spent six years on active duty, and the only "deployments" I've been on have been either being stationed in Japan or a multilateral exercise in a foreign country. It's pretty frustrating being a Marine who hasn't been on a combat deployment, despite being in deployable units my entire career up until I recently began embassy duty. For us, it's hard to find a sense of purpose when you aren't afforded an opportunity to do what you've ultimately been training for when there's been a war going on your whole career, and so I don't consider myself a true veteran until I've been sent to fight the good fight with my fellow Marines.

This is a touchy and confusing topic for me, which still leaves me perplexed. When Desert Storm broke, I was on leave, transitioning from Germany to FT Lewis. WA. During that time the war started, two weeks later I arrived at my new duty assignment in WA, and found that my unit had already left for IRAQ, two weeks prior. Just six months ago my unit in Germany was in a middle of a withdraw from Germany, Per President Bush Senior. While this went on, escalation between Iraq and Kuwait was gearing up. I can’t count how many times I was told to have a go bag at the ready, because they were sending people out. During those 0300 formations, my name was never called. I saw a lot guys that I spent years with leave for IRAQ, for most, it was the last time I saw them.

When my unit returned, the city of Seattle hosted a parade, it was huge, all of FT Lewis. Except me, I refused to participate, I did what I could to get out of it. Why? I felt like I didn't deserve to be marching among others who were deployed. Plus, the fact that they were assigning temporary "chocolate chip desert" BDU's, just for the parade. (To be returned afterwards).

Fast forward 25 years
I quickly found out that the term "Veteran" has multiple meanings
I thought I could join the VFW, found out that I couldn’t since I was never deployed.
We have;
Veterans,
Protected Veterans
Non-Wartime, Deployed, Combat Veterans, (Panama)
Wartime, Non-Combat, Deployed Veterans (Most fall in this slot)
Wartime, Combat, Deployed Veterans (Never fired)
Wartime Non-Combat, Non-Deployed Veterans
As far I can figure, my status is Protected, Wartime, Non-Combat, Non-Deployed
(You don’t see a lot of shirts of ball caps depicting the above)
To add insult to injury, I found out that I am not eligible to wear the Desert Storm Campaign Ribbon (Never deployed) so no t-shirts or ball caps that have this on it. Am I still a Desert Storm Veteran? I do have the NSDM. According to my town, in order to receive the $1,000.00 property tax credit, I had to been deployed. My neighbor down street was, but non-combat.

To wrap this up; I firmly believe that Purple Heart and Combat Veterans should get more benefits, they deserve that. But I believe the distinction between non deployed and deployed should be changed. If you served during wartime, the only distinction should be your combat patch.
I like to add that my SFC wore a NSDM w/bronze star, one for Vietnam and the other for Desert Storm, both which he was never deployed to, no combat patch. I Wonder what he benefits gets?

No, you are veteran in my opinion, but even my VA standards it take a deployment to a combat zone (with ribbon) to receive benefits. Does that help answer your question?