Likewise, one can be a Vietnam vet and not be a combat veteran.
I am very careful to always refer to my service as a Vietnam - Era veteran.
While I served for 9 years, it was in the U.S. and Germany.
As someone has already noted, military people go where assigned, and do their jobs.
Personally, and in retrospect, I was lucky.
I could have been assigned a combat role, and died.
I could have lost body parts, disabled for the remainder of my life.
I could have suffered recurring, life long nightmares.
I could have ended up a POW, or MIA.
We should honor those who were given the job and did it, but understand that no one in his/her right mind seeks it.
You could have had a sense of pride for putting your life on the line for your country. I know it's not your fault that you did not go to Vietnam but don't consider yourself "lucky" that you did not see combat. I consider myself "lucky" that I did.
Vietnam 72-73
Likewise ... served in the USMC 1964-'67. Barely out of Marine boot camp when the Gulf of Tonkin incident occurred in August of '64 ... the following March the first Marines to arrive in Vietnam, as a large scale unit, made an amphibious landing at Da Nang. I, on the other hand, was making an amphibious landing (as part of a Battalion Landing Team attached to the 6th Fleet in the Med) on Corsica. When I got back from my 6 month deployment to the Med I had orders for WESTPAC (south east Asia) ... however, they were changed at the last moment and I was re-assigned to another unit ramping up for a Med deployment. After returning from that cruise I had less than a year left in service ... in other words to short for 'Nam.