> > Ah. Yes, that was what I was trying to say,
> but for some reason I couldn't quite put it into
> words.
> >
> > winter"Well, except for the words I made up
> myself, and you probably don't know
> those"mute
>
> So for example, if a young man was drafted to
> fight in Vietnam, went through boot camp and
> everything, went over, fought bravely but was
> injured in his first and only battle and had to
> have his legs amputated and got sent back
> home...you'd say he wasn't a veteran?
>
> Is that farfetched? I don't know. Is it a run-on
> sentence? Probably.
>
> Mirriam Webster defines "veteran" as:
>
> --1 a : an old soldier of long service b : a
> former member of the armed forces; 2 : a
> person of long experience in some occupation
> or skill (as politics or the arts)--
>
> It seems to me that my country would use the
> --1 b-- definition and therefore my hypothetical
> soldier would be considered a veteran. He
> would be entitled to all the honor and all the
> benefits of that distinction, even though he
> only fought in one battle of one war.
>
> Do we have any real veterans reading this
> now? It'd be nice to get the low-down from
> someone who knows for certain.
>
> Gri"Am I being argumentative?"shny

I would use definition 2a, especially as we were discussing actors who had appeared in Star Trek, rather than members of Starfleet. And one film does not count as long experince.

winter"2a being the only non-military one there"mute