What Should We Call Our Newest Vets?

	OEF/OIF – Definition: An acronym that refers to the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Specifically, OEF/OIF refers to "Operation Enduring Freedom" and "Operation Iraqi Freedom."

By Ken Mac Garrigle (OIF 2003-04)

If you fought in the Vietnam War, you of course came home a ‘Vietnam Vet’.

Yet no one I know these days talks about having served in the Iraq War (which one - 1991 or 2003?) or the Afghanistan War. (An 'Iraq Vet' or 'Afghanistan Vet'?) 

And many of our combat vets have served in both theaters — numerous times.

As for this web page's name — Returning Service Members (OEF/OIF) www.oefoif.va.gov

Those OEF and OIF acronyms provide some guidance where you served, among new vets — Afghanistan or Iraq — although OEF encompasses a lot more ground geographically.

As for ‘Returning Service Members’ (those who did tours of Kosovo, Asia, etc.), that is there to include everybody else.

Please note — a recent Pentagon memo said to avoid using the term 'Long War' or 'Global War on Terror' (Gee-WOT). The memo states: "Please use 'Overseas Contingency Operation.'”

OK, so that makes you (us) an 'Overseas Contingency Operation Vet,' I suppose…