I understand Gato's point. My father flew 25 missions, on a B-17, during WWII and all my uncles served including one who fought on Iwo Jima and rose to the rank of Colonel in the USMC during his subsequent career. I never heard either one tell a "war" story. Stories about guys they knew, friends, humorous encounters but never one story about combat action. The closest my Dad ever came is one evening, while watching a documentary on the introduction of the Messerschmidt jet by the Germans late in the war, he said that those planes terrified the B-17 crews because they would come up and take out a number of planes before running out of fuel and returning to base. He then commented that if Hitler had listened to his military and scientists we might all be speaking German; fortunately he did not That said, it's a different time and I think today people like to celebrate their patriotism in many ways including acknowledging the contributions of our veterans. I also think some of it stems from the poor treatment veterans, of Vietnam, received.