For the longest time, I never considered myself one. It didn't matter that I served in the Iowa Air National Guard for 6 years. Well...technically 5 1/2 since I got credit for 6 months deferred. Still, I was never deployed for any of our skirmishes back then so I figured I was never a veteran. Then I came across a news story about Darva Conger that had me re-evaluating my own status.
The name probably doesn't ring a bell to many of you. She was the gal who was caught up in that "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire" scandal. She had been in the military and claimed to be a veteran because she was in the Gulf War. After doing some additional checking on her background, they discovered she was never deployed. She was just on active duty during the Gulf War. Her rationale was that qualifies because by definition, that makes her a veteran. Well hold your horses...
I was on winter break in January 1991 when the Gulf War started. In fact, I happened to be serving my two weeks of required active duty by working at the Air National Guard base attached to the Des Moines airport. I can still recall sitting in the warehouse watching the official announcement that the aerial assault had commenced and the Gulf War conflict had officially began. So using the literal definition of "veteran" that would make me one.
The funny thing about that situation is I recall the conversation that me and my supervisor were having at the time. He even brought up the fact that if our unit was called up, I would have to report to. I practically laughed in his face. In fact, I think I may have actually done it. That was during my rebellious years. I flat out told him that if they tried to get me to go over there, I wasn't going. I was two years from graduating and wouldn't be leaving school for that madness.
He wasn't appreciating my defiant behavior AT. ALL. He told me if I didn't report then they would send the MPs up to the Iowa State campus to get me. I laughed again and told him good luck in trying to find me. Thanks to the personalities that we had in my area at the time, I was able to get away with speaking like that. I was half joking but also half serious. The guys in that area were joking all the time so my supervisor couldn't be totally sure if I was to be taken at my word or not. Was I just joking around like the rest of the fellas always did? I'm fairly certain he knew that I was more serious than not.
The truth of the matter is even if I may be a veteran by the technical definition, I'm nowhere near the vet that the ones before me have been. The ones like Dad who fought in the Vietnam War. Doing it at a time where they had to deal with an entirely different atmosphere than the Armed Forces of today have to face. Dad and those soldiers had to deal with hostilities in Vietnam and then come home to face hostility here from the very people they had enlisted to protect. I could never fathom what type of courage that had to take. All the more reason that Veteran's Day is special.
