Who do you consider a Veteran?

I've struggled with my thoughts on this. I continue to serve in the Reserves, but prior to this I did 3 years active duty Infantry '09-'12, and was sent to (and fenced into) the Army's dedicated testing brigade; it was never in the plan to do more than 3 years active. As a consequence, I did not deploy when active, and my current Reserve unit isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. I can admit that I never saw combat; my ego isn't so fragile as to require me to claim something I didn't do. Still, sometimes I would view my time in comparison to others and use the term "veteran" with a small "v".

Then I think about the soldiers of the Cold War. Outside of Korea and Vietnam, very few members of our military saw combat or lost their lives, yet without their very EXISTANCE as trained military professionals manning missile silos, guarding the Fulda Gap, keeping the communist threat in check, it’s not at all unreasonable to think that we'd all be speaking Russian today. Those men and women trained for something that never happened, and it never happened BECAUSE they were there and they were trained to do their job. They won the war without a shot being fired. Should we call a soldier who served at Checkpoint Charlie or near the North Korean border in the (late) 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s a lesser veteran because they didn’t have to do what they were trained to?

Personally, I prefer not speaking Russian.

My definition of a Veteran is someone who joined, served their obligation term (or longer) and got out with an Honorable Discharge, regardless of having deployed or not.

I am not sure how often this topic has or will continue to come up.

To put it bluntly If you served your time you are a veteran.

I have 14+ years active, and 8.5 years army reserve. I have held 10 ranks. My retirement letter says I have 39 years and 2 days service.

I was never in combat. But I am damned sure a veteran and I very much resent those who say I am not.