Not all veterans really are.
I once met a guy who claimed to have been an 'Army Lance Corporal' who served in Desert Storm. He apparently thought it was a cool sounding rank but didn't even know that it's a Marine Corps rank and isn't used by the Army.
BTW, I've also met a 'Marine Corps pilot' who flew the F-17 fighter. (There's never been an F-17, at least not in any of the U.S service branches.)
That's funny. Usually the posers make themselves a commissioned officer and a graduate of one of the service academies.