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Originally Posted by highthief
To the second point, if a police officer and soldier are equivalent or equally noble/brave, would a city blue collar worker (the street cleaner, for example) be equivalent to the cook at an Air Force base? Or is the Air Force cook more "noble"?
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I believe so, yes. The main difference to me is the fact that this cook can at any time be serving meals in a tent in a hostile situation. I know an Army cook who just rejoined his family after two years in Korea. He was home a little less than six months and has just found out that he's going to serve "in the sandbox". Yes, he's "just" a cook. But he puts his life in danger doing it. Becoming a soldier doesn't necessarily mean you tote a gun. Being a soldier means serving the "higher mission"; supporting the troops in whatever way you are skilled and approved to serve. So if your career of choice happens to be something that's not typically thought of as glorious, are you serving your country any less than a fighter pilot? Someone has to cook for the troops who are deployed. And someone has to clean out the jet engines. Someone has to program the satellites who recieve informatoin that helps combat personnel keep from getting killed. My husband spent time working on databases for a group of satellites. That's not so noble until you consider that the data he was helping retrieve and store could have kept thousands from ending up toast. Of course, I'm not allowed to know specifics, or he'd have to kill me... *grin*
His reason for doing this in the military despite the fact that he could be paid at LEAST three times MORE as a civillian? Because he _can_ save those lives. Self sacrifice for the good of others = nobility?