Excellent point, Bobert. The world is full of unrecognized heros in every walk of life.

The reason governments make such a public fuss about soldiers all the time (as opposed to all the other heros) is that they are forever attempting to pump up support on the homefront for their military adventures.

They have to put extra effort into that for one simple reason: war is an idea that has so little to recommend it in the first place. It's sort of like selling any really dubious and undesirable product....you have to come up with some damn good advertising to get people to buy it.