How do a create a catagory for Veteran service on my ancestors profile page?

Question

I would like to identify all my ancestors who served their country in uniform. I am new to WikiTree and Genealogy but think I can create a category for "Veteran" and then Sub-category for each conflict period such as 1776 Revolution, War of 1812, WW1, Etc. Has someone already done this (Template) or a project exist to categorize Veteran Military Service?

Answer 1

Hi Donald,

You should review the WikiTree Projects

The Military and War Project now encompasses just about all the Veteran Categories you can think of.

 

Comments

And the use of veteran is being phased out here on the theory that since the mere fact of being in a military unit makes one a veteran of that unit which may include any war that unit was in.  Thus I was assigned to the 5th Radio Research battalion based in Saigon, S Vietnam and thus a veteran of the Vietnamese war.

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Your reply brings up a very good question. During World War I and World War II, and even Korea if you were in the service you were considered a veteran of that conflict, i.e. WWI Veteran, WWII Veteran and Korea Veteran. Beginning with Vietnam if you were not "In Country" you are not considered a Vietnam Veteran. I served during the Vietnam Conflict (active service dates 1971 -1992) and the Kuwait conflict, "Desert Storm", but am not considered a veteran of either one. I am quote a "Era Veteran". Do we make the attempt to find out if the veteran actually was in a shooting war. With your own example, you were in country during a time of conflict, but is a navy ship repairman stationed in the Brooklyn Navy Yard repairing war damaged vessels during 1942 - 1945 not a WWII veteran. This is really starting to bother me that having served for over 20 years I am in a in between status as we appear to be dissecting our military service into hostel combatant  vs non combatant service recognition.

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Where on Wiki-tree is there an effort to separate between combatant and non-combatant? There is a template that is available to decorate the profile.
http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Template:Veteran_Recognition

There is the Roll of Honor for those ancestors that have earned this honor: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Roll_of_Honor_Template

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as mentioned, anything veterans will most likely be phased out, partly due to the ambugiuous nature of the word, as mentioned already, is it wartime or wartime era veteran, or peace or war, etc.

the direction of wikitree categories is to place a person in the most specific one, i.e. do not add to wwII, and us navy.  what we are attempting to do is create categories for the branch of service with sub categories for the units.  then if the unit was engaged in a war, the war would be added to differentiate war and peacetime service.  for example, going from broad to specific, we would have for peace time, based on what you know

United States Armed Forces  (served their country)

United States Navy  (was in the navy)

USS Missouri, United States Navy (served on the USS Missouri)

 

United States Armed Forces

United States Army

101st Airborne Division, United States Army

 

for wartime

World War II, United States of America

World War II, United States Navy

USS Missouri, United States Navy, World War II

 

World War II, United States of America

World War II, United States Army

101st Airborne Division, United States Army, World War II

if someone was in a "peacetime" unit following a war and just waiting for discharge, no need to add it as a category.

someone who was in WW II, Korea, Vietnam, each category would be added, and the units served in between those wars could be added if desired, or just noted in the profile biography

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Keith, Thank you very much for a better explanation in where Military Categories are trending.

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The comments here amplify why I strongly disapprove of removing the Veteran categories. They can be fitted in with any and all of the other military categories.For those who served in their country's armed services, whether they served in combat or not, Veteran is an honorable title.

I am like Donald, I served just about 11 years in the Army, which included some times during which our military was called into conflicts but as fate decreed I never was in the combat zones. I am a Cold War Veteran and a Persian Gulf War Era Veteran. I am entitled to the National Defense Service ribbon because my service dates include the period covered by the Persian Gulf Conflict as defined by the presidential order authorizing. I'm pretty sure Donald's award rack is pretty showy too {hey Donald, you should visit www.myservicepride.com and put together a rack photo as seen on my profile page!}.

Do I compare my service trials with the Combat Veterans? Absolutely not! But I was not in any way in control over any of the decisions and events that prevented the units I was assigned to from receiving orders to deploy to those zones, and nor were the others who served but were not ordered into combat. Combat Veterans deserve the accolades and awards given specifically for those who were in the combat zones, but we ALL earned the title of Veteran.

I am not a Veteran of the company level units I served in Keith, I am an Army Veteran. I do not see the ambiguity of the term as you say you do, but maybe that is because I don't see it as a "term", but as a title.

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john,

we have gone over this together, and you started a thread about it.  this is not my issue, others could not agree on the definition of veteran....  this is not the place to rehash it all over again.  standards for military and war categories are being worked on, will get staffed out to project members, categorization project members and general wiki population for comments.  re-address your issues then.

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I don't understand why this would not be a place to discuss the issue, it is "on topic" based on the original question, and the move to phase out the Veteran categories was re-raised here before I added a single comment.  {shrug}

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If you really want to start splitting hairs, you should have a separate category for every service award, medal, or ribbon.

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yes, the structure exists for each military decoration to have its own category, starting in [[Category: Military Decorations]]