I'm always slightly amused by the difference in attitude towards the Forces in Britain and America. In Britain, soldiers - especially infantry - are thought of as minimally educated, yobbish and only in the Army because they can't get a proper job. We still don't want them to get killed, mind, but it's not as though they're nobly sacrificing themselves for the good of the country - they're running around and getting to play with guns. Officers are all public school twonks. Sailors and airmen have it slightly better, because they have to have a trade, but they still aren't seen with any particular respect.

I mean, I don't know anybody who's joined the Forces out of patriotism. My family did it because it's what their parents did and they were at a Forces boarding school (which basically prepares you to join the Forces); my friends did it because it was a way of learning a trade while getting reasonable pay.

Then again, Britain has a long-standing distrust of the Forces, dating right back to Cromwell and the birth of the first modern army, so I suspect that's still an influence.