Uniformed Soldier v. Military Contractor = both Vets?

Most of the severely injured in our occupations over there have been people in the supply convoys. It is not even treated by the military as a "combat" injury but like an auto accident in the states. Do you call these soldiers vets when they never actually fired a rifle much less shot and killed anyone?

With a volunteer armed forces everyone becomes a mercenary. Contractors only make more money and are not subject to either military or local civilian law in either of those countries (or in any of more than 100 countries where the USA maintains more than 711 bases around the globe.

I doubt that the survivors of an attack care whether the bullets or RPG were fired by an official US soldier or a contractor or someone working for one of the many warlords we fund in Afghanistan.