You're almost correct. Almost 90% of US military veterans never saw front line combat. The sheer amount of support roles in the military is completely overlooked by fucking everyone. Including us veterans.
He went to another country. The fact that others are saying he was working as a VA nurse in his home town indicates that he was likely a corpsman, aka a military nurse that wasn't killing anyone, he was working in the modern day version of a M.A.S.H. unit, like Major Margaret Houlihan.
Not exactly probably. Remember that around 1/3 of veterans, such as myself a former Navy Nuke Instructor, never went overseas. Also of the ones that do go to another country, 90% are support staff and never see active combat. He would have been one of those, if he ever even left the US, as he would have been a corpsman, (nurse or doctor,).and would have been serving at a hospital.