JES, I don’t think that enlisting makes someone a hero by default. It’s a job like anything else. Military personel don’t have to join. Military is just just the best job for the best pay for those who serve.
I believe Milton Friedman talked about outsourcing the military. We could hire foreigners with masters degrees to serve as enlisted men. We would save on training and we could also use the military to do more as we would not be as politically constrained. The servicemen would be thankful for the work and taxpayers would save money. The Romans were quite successful at it.
