Should Veterans feel bad about being awarded and receiving VA disability compensation for non-combat related injuries?

Not at all. The VA looks at your active duty time. Not just combat time. If you had any disabilities that you had acquired during your service time and it met the VA’s laws and regulations as a disability that is warranted then you we be compensated by the VA.

Well depends. PTSD is usually though not always caused by combat stress. That is a combat wound indirectly. Many Service people are injured in peacetime or while not in combat and they most deservedly should be awarded disability. If you are injured while in the Armed Forces you're eligible for disability and one shouldn't feel bad about it as it was usually not their fault it occurred.

No. I don't. I went on sick call once when I was having runny bowels shortly after I arrived in Germany. The Chief running sick call thought I was bullshitting, accused me of shirking duty and sent me back. From then on I only went on sick call when I was ordered to do so. I even skipped my annual physicals and almost got in trouble for that. But those runny bowels never recovered and I was sending nothing but blood into the toilet. I took terminal and went home like that. No outgoing physical either. A nurse signed our forms because of course we all wanted to go home at the end of our tours and we looked okay. But my folks took me to a doctor who referred me to a GI specialist. He tested me and diagnosed me with Crohn's Disease about a week before my ETS date. I refuse to feel guilty about that.

You are right. It is service-connected not combat-connected. If your condition was caused by an accident or exposure while in service you are entitled to compensation.

I’m glad I saw this post. I have suffered guilt for almost twenty five years. I was only a cadet when I hit my head at Airborne School and spent 9 days in a Ft Benning Hospital. I was only a cadet when it happened. (I had just completed Advanced Camp and CTLT). There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about my SNAFU.
I had friends who were Lts and Captains in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. I let them down by not serving with them.

This is a subject, near and dear to my heart...figuratively and literally. Not to bore any one with a rehash about the Problematic U.S. Army Europe of the end of The Vietnam Era and what I and many other's endured, nor coming home to a Self Indulgent Society that could not have gave a flying screw to the moon about how they were free from Communism or a 20 year old vet, who most thought I was a freak...Read Audie Murphy's Bio
Four years out, I had problem, couldn't sleep, nervousness, anxiety...this was 1976, before they coined a term PTSD. Paid, out of my own pocket, at $4.56 an hour, for a Hypnotist/Psychologist, to pull me out of "this, then, situation!", because I heard all the horror stories at The VA and wanted to keep this private. Always, wondered what happened to me in 1976 and over the years, I read every thing I could get my hands on about PTSD, when it was finally put out there in the public eye.
I had a relapse, in 2006, 30 years to the day. I thought I would be laughed out of a Psychologist's office, if I told them about this, plus show them the amount of published stories about The Problems in U.S. Army Europe that where just surfacing in the press...even one book concerning a son of a very famous General, who was a Vietnam Era General himself and The VA shrinks, who looked like they never wore a uniform, didn't want to hear it.
Eight years ago, I had a prostate removal, By-pass heart surgery, and second corporate take over in the same company, all in 30 days. I felt more comfort, with that tube sticking out my chest the following day, after that heart surgery, than I felt going through "that, then, situation!" I had back in 1976...please, never again and this was over a multiple non-combat situation. My Claim has been up before The Appeal Board, for 3 years, it will probably be some circular file soon.

No, I was struck by lightning 32 years ago during flight training, both my flight parter and myself spent 7 days in the hospital, they denied my claim.

Heck no it took me 35 years to come to that conclusion and I kick myself for those lost years of possible compensation

I was injured during peace time on a airborne operation. It was many years after I left the service that I applied for and received my benefits. Back when I got out, I wasn’t told to apply for my VA benefits and it cost mean the long run. I always thought that you had to be injured or wounded in combat to receive benefits. I was wrong! Because of the time it took to file my benefits, the VA has questioned my injuries that I had in the Army and tried to make it look like it was because I became a police officer after I got out. My hearing disability was because I had my ear drum ruptured while in the Army. They asked me what types of weapons I fired as a police officer. Lucky for me there was documentation on my ear drum. But to answer the question. No! A person that sacrificed their body while serving their country should not feel bad about it. It’s no different than receiving Workers Comp when being injured in a civilian job. The only difference between the two is the VA benefits last longer!

No. If you've rucked almost all over creation in full Battle along with your MOS gear(Medic for me) which is at least another 30lbs, then we're guaranteed lower back problems with pain at a minimum for the rest of our lives.
I got an LB injury and a minor concussion while in the Army, non-combat related but also on a deployment with the later one happening CONUS and injuring my back again. The past few weeks I've had to use a heat/massaging vibrating mat on my bed a few times a day and when I go to sleep to help reduce the pain.
They can have their opinion but they don't know what each of us is living with. I did NOT get a Purple Heart. I do not feel cheated or deserving of one since I did not meet the requirements. I'd rather have a fixed/new spinal cord but that's not realistic.