Reply #44: Yeah, but I guess we'd disagree on the definition.

[trof]

Conscripts can rise to hero status just as well as volunteers.
To me, it takes a bit more to volunteer for something dangerous in the first place than it does to be put there against your will.

But just being present doesn't make you a hero by my definition.
If there had been no draft, I probably wouldn't have wound up in a fighter squadron.

Oh I volunteered. But maybe only because I was faced with the draft if I didn't.
I guess I'll never know for sure.
And back then we had no combat troops in Viet Nam.
For me, it was a choice of being a grunt in a green uniform, humping an M-1 and a 50 pound pack and being PAID to learn to fly along with being a commissioned officer.
And absolutely ZERO humping.
Believe me, every day in every way, officers have it better.

And you're allowed to have anyone you want as a hero.
It's a free (sorta) country.
;-)