One of the bones of contention that exists among vets is the terminology “”veteran” and “era veteran”.
An example: Local talk show host Bryan Suits, veteran of the Gulf War, Bosnia and now OIF, caught Washington Rep. “Baghdad Jim” McDermott publically calling himself a “Vietnam War Veteran”.
The trouble is, McDermott never served in Vietenam. He was stationed in San Diego in his psychaiatrists office telling soldiers that they were too PTSD’d to serve. This qualifies him as a “Vietnam Era Veteran”.
It led to many, many offers from Suits to McDermott to come on the show or be interviewed so that he could explain himself. None of these offers were taken.
Now Kos, head pig at the dKos Animal Farm, looks to be doing the same thing with his service time during Desert Storm.
It may just be the AP not knowing the difference, but as Ace writes here, this isn’t the first time he’s said things of this nature, for the same reason McDermott did it, to gain credibility amongst his friends.
I really do not understand the distinction–
I have never heard of WW2 ERA or Korea ERA veterans so what is the big deal all about — For those veterans of the vietnam time period who were fortunate enough to miss the dance I say peace be with them…
They still stood duties and could have been placed in path of injury and death when or if they had been sent to a combat zone — Claiming to be a vietnam veteran is not the same as claiming to be a combat veteran and there is a difference —
My former father in law who recently passed away spent the entire WW2 in California as medical records clerk – although he was a member of the American Legion he never complained about being rejected for VFW membership – so what is the big deal – he was still entitled to his GI Bill education and home loan like the others — This ridiculous posturing by some vets sort of reminds me of the Monty Python skit where the old fogeys gather around and retell stories about the trials and tribulations of their youth —
Get over it people – “they also serve who stand and wait!” and their duties performed as are important as any other duty –
For what it is worth I guess you can now state that I am not a full tour combat vet because the Army decided to advance my Deros from 9 Nov 70 to 26 Oct 70 – oh yeah, and I had an entire week of R&R outside of the war zone – It is time to stop the Swift Boat Attacks – it simply allows others who are not friends to the veterans to play the old divide and conquer game — so hold your grudges if you need them but keep you mouth shut – there is no reason to claim that anyone’s service is less honorable than anothers simply because of decisions made at levels far higher than his pay grade — because now I can say that all the generals without a combat tour should now be RIFed out for cause – that does not seem a very effective way to manage the force-
Just Another Vietnam Vet