Thanks Flash. Pickle, just a little bit of thought in your thread, ok?
The major one, right? Look, with all due respect, I think this is the unique American thing and a basic for pride as such, in itself. It is quite interesting that, if I not mistake in all Euroasian history since ancient Babylon, China/Mongol empires and all the old European monarchies, the pure meaning of "to serve our country" in a military sence was addressed mostly to citizen soldiers. In a sence, all Americans fall in this category, at least roughly. The professional soldiers in Eurasia were "to serve their crown, regiment and God" rather than the country, and the taste of it is still on the lips of every military professional inside the Eurasian rim, I'm pretty sure. Crown, regiment and God, whatever these words could mean now. In my time the first and the third were almost nullified, but "regiment" has still meant much more than "country", which has been erroded by some inner politics. Given all that, I'd like to say that the proper feeling to your first point is "envy", but I'm rather be glad for USA for this reason.
- Get to do really cool stuff, for some at least
Coinciding with my "playing the big toys" to a degree. Really cool stuff that has no close parallels in civilian life. That is the truth. Here I see no big difference between us.
Rather a style of solving the problems, at least from the Russian standpoint. I.e. it is about breeding/nurturing rather than learning to something. Practice is that while education in European continental military and naval academies was close always to university level and the alumne were clearly overeducated for the primary officer job in a platoon or ship/squadron division, it has no close relations to the economic or manufacturing needs of civilian world. Again, in 1917, the final year of Russian Empire, the Army counted 146.000 officers and the Navy had only about 8.000 officer billets. The infantry held about 112.000 of those 146.000, and the infantry officers en masse were rather trained than educated. So I'd rather like to speak about the general "Navy way" or "Navy style" than some "trade or skill" possessed while in the Navy.
Pure bingo, just like here.
So we have two of four the same, one almost the same, and just the first one with the great difference. Though, this is the decisive difference. Repeat, with all due respect.