If you serve and serve honorably you are a veteran. If you go to war, you are a combat veteran.

There's veteran, then there's combat veteran. There is the distinction between the two.

I am a Cold War veteran. Did I love living in Europe? YES absolutely. Did I enjoy pipe bombs under car seats with American license plates, briefcase/bag bombs in our housing areas, offices, train stations, thousands of demonstrators throwing rocks/bottles/bricks, you name it through our windows so we had to evacuate, etc.? Not so much. I am older (really old) having come in after Vietnam, but not much later. I was spit on at airports just because I was wearing an Army uniform in my own country and called names that were unholy by my own people. I missed every family wedding, birth, too many funerals of very special ones I dearly loved. I could go on and on here. No, I wasn't in the desert, I was in a different time and dealing with terrorists. Remember General Dozier being kidnapped? Ever heard of the Red Army Faction? How about the Iron Curtain? Ever seen that East/West fence. Those guys in the towers had no problem shooting. My exhusband served on the DMZ and one of his soldiers was shot and killed by the other side. Respect your elders.