Really? That's probably shocking to millions of veterans and to the U.S. government. Thank God they have got someone like YOU to set them straight on this.
The funny thing about this is that I am in and out of a V.A. hospital on a twice monthly basis and during the past two years I have never yet heard one veteran ask another veteran if he or she ever saw combat. It's usually, "What was your rating -- sometimes what was your rank -- where were your deployments and what was the chow and entertainment prospects like over there?"
I can't wait to tell everyone from the patients to the physicians and technicians and nurses that if they never saw combat then none of them are veterans. I predict that will go over well with them!