Ataxerxes posted:

Also, there is a thing contrasted to the US I have noticed while reading these forums. To me it seems that any person who has been in the various US services is considered a veteran. While this might technically be true to persons who have served in any army it really isn't used that way in Finland. Usually if you talk about veterans it means veterans of WW2 (since Finland hasn't been in an actual shooting war inside its borders since that), or the rare few who have seen combat in the armies of other nations (for example in the French Foreign Legion). If you have the official status of veteran you get certain benefits. Since quite a few Finns have been UN Peacekeepers I think there has been talk of recognizing them as "veterans of crisis management", to recognize their efforts but to tell them apart from the veterans of WW2. I would be weirded out if I was called a veteran, since while I did my national service I have never been close to a situation where I could have gotten shot at by actual hostile combatants.