I believe we now have more people claiming to be Vietnam Vets than we had troops in Vietnam. I suspect we’ll see the same thing happen with Iraq and Afghanistan.
I’m a Vietnam vet. I spent a very short time in Saigon just passing through. I never will understand why there are Vietnam vets and Vietnam ERA vets. I certainly understand the difference between combat vets and RE guys. But they all served during a time of war and all got the national defense medal.
I knew lots of WWII guys who never left the states. They were all WWII vets as far as I was concerned.