That's a weird bit on mental gymnastics. Would you accept, "Trained as a fighter pilot, but served as an Attack guy?"
No. Not really. I was a trained fighter pilot. And I flew as one. Yes I trained in both air-to-air and air-to-mud. But I was always a fighter pilot flying a fighter, regardless of the mission.
I dropped bombs in training from my fighter aircraft on all the ranges in SoCal, Fallon, a couple in Hawaii and the PI. I did CAS for our Marines, Army grunts and ARVNS from the Vietnam Delta to the DMZ from my fighter. I bombed enemy bridges, tanks, trucks, factories, bunkers, trains, POL storage, barracks, boats and barges, SAM and AAA sites, and once a division of NVA gomers caught out in the defoliated open. I even dropped some underwater anti-ship mines from my phantom fox-four
fighter aircraft. I provided Bar-cap, mig-cap, and recon escort in my fighter aircraft.
I recovered first on the boat as a fighter. The number on my aircraft was no [higher] than the 200 series, signifying a fighter.
I loved the attack mission. They did the heavy lifting. I was in awe of the A-6s, or the A-4s and A-7s. They were better than I in that arena... the attack arena, but not by much. However, even though they put sidewinders on our A-7s, they could not do our mission, like we could do theirs.
So I never served as an "attack" pilot. I was not an attack pilot, nor was my aircraft an "attack aircraft." I was and indeed served as a fighter pilot, and prosecuted that fighter mission of the day, whatever Strike Ops called for. QED