to divert attention from what those heroes actually brought about (through no fault of their own) and to infect the 16 year-olds with enthusiasm for enlisting. We're gonna need more heroes for all the upcoming ME wars & occupations, not to mention what's planned for oil-bearing Africa. The agents of state-sanctioned killing are always ennobled like that.

real compensation costs money.

I know nothing about the character of their service. If I get deep into a conversation, I add an apology for our misuse/abuse of our troops.

Probably a collective cultural reaction to the way vets and soldiers were treated in the U.S. prior to the interwar period until the mid-thirties.

I'd guess that given a choice between the two extremes, the current is a far better cry than the former.