The US has an obsession with veterans in general Arathorn. Even people who never saw any combat (during peacetime for example) but served in the army are considered 'veterans'. Satis qualifies as one.

In contrast, in Europe veterans are only people who have actually served in warfare, which hasn't exactly been a primary activity of our armies in the last 60 years or so.

Besides, I don't know if I'd want to put a vietnam vet in a supervising position. What with the dope, crushed dreams, PTSS and general war fail.

Now, a veteran of Mboto Gorge on the other hand...*
*
Melchett: Don't be ridiculous, Darling. The Hero of Mboto Gorge, mad? Well, you've only got to look at him to see he's as sane as I am! Beeaaah!
Darling: Would that the Mboto Gorge where we massacred the peace-loving pygmies of the Upper Volta and stole all their fruit?
Blackadder: No -- a totally different Mboto Gorge.
George: Now, come off it, sir -- what about Mboto Gorge, for heaven's sake?
Blackadder: Yes, that was a bit of a nasty one -- ten thousand Watusi warriors armed to the teeth with kiwi fruit and guava halves. After the battle, instead of taking prisoners, we simply made a huge fruit salad
Field Marshall Haig: I haven't seen you since....
Blackadder: '92, sir -- Mboto Gorge.
Field Marshall Haig: By jingo, yes. We sure gave those pygmies a good squashing.
Blackadder: We certainly did, sir. And do you remember...?
Field Marshall Haig: My god, yes. You saved my damn life that day, Blacky. If it weren't for
you, that pygmy woman with the sharpened mango could have seriously...
Blackadder: It was a viciously sharp slice of mango, sir.
Captain Blackadder claims to have joined the army in 1888, when "if you saw someone in a skirt, you shot him and nicked his country". He joined the 19th/45th East African Rifles, when Britain was fighting colonial wars during the Scramble for Africa, a time when "the prerequisite for any battle was that the enemy should under no circumstances carry a gun".
