I understand what all you're saying Zeke. I read your posts carefully and disagree with some of what you are saying but respect how you got to those beliefs.
I think A LOT of your "vet talk" grossly overestimates veterans as being radically different than anyone else. And as a side note, being an LEO vets and qualifies you are a warrior about as much as working for any other service department in that municipality from my experience.
We are all inherently weak as humans first and foremost.
When I read about Eddie Slovak to see who you were mentioning, I read several mentions of chronic desertions among the rank. Army made an example of Eddie, in part, because there were so many soldiers that were deserting and refusing to fight, choosing jail over combat once things really were getting bloody in 1944/45.
This is ADDITION to the MAJORITY of soldiers in WW2 that were thought to have never fired their rifle. Only 15% to 20% ever discharged their weapon in the presence of the enemy. Germans were thought to have about the same numbers. Less than a quarter of the combatants on either side did all the fighting.
Less than 1% of US WW2 fighter pilots created 30%-40% of air-to-air kills. Most pilots never killed or even tried. They just flew around.
800,000 men in WW2 were classified as 4-F due to psychiatric reasons.
An additional 504,000 were discharged post-combat due to psychiatric reasons.
The British could only keep front line guys in combat for 12 days before rotating them out due to these issues.
The US Army determined that 98% of combat personnel original to the D-Day invasion, were combat ineffective 60 days post D-Day.
In the 1982 Israeli incursion into Lebanon, psych losses were DOUBLE the combat losses.
In the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, both Israel and Egypt lost 1/3 of casualties to psych causes.
At Gettysburg, of the 27,574 muskets that were picked up off the battlefield by the Union Army following the battle, approx 24,000 were LOADED. In other words, most soldiers loaded up, then looked around, then ran around, then hunkered down, and tried to make themselves scarce in the fog of war until they caught a fragment or just dropped their weapon and made a business decision to move elsewhere.
Even in the modern era, I am aware of a MARSOC team leader who was top of his class in selection, who was by all measurable standards above excellent mentally and physically, who totally dominated every specialized training he was put through, totally fail when subjected to enemy fire for the first time. All team members exited the vehicle and engaged, whereas he staying inside, never exiting the soft skinned vehicle. Following that, he did EVERYTHING he could to position himself within the teams to avert being in a direct action role ever again.
Another example, the much celebrated Navy SEAL, Marcus Luttrell. I am personally aware that he hid during key moments in the fighting. When he was found by the Afghan who "saved" him, he had all 11 mags in his kit, full of ammo, plus frags. Almost everyone in the special ops community looks at him in disgust and he is completely unwelcome in a great many places.
Zeke, I'm sure you're a warrior and none of this applies to you.
But the human condition is weak, and former mil service, while intending to instill much of what you described, does not inherently change a man into a non-human. We are all still weak and all, with the exception of sociopaths, are generally resistant to killing.
I get what you're saying, and whether its a cook or a Raider, everyone knows that you're a slave in government svc. For example, you don't have a yes/no option on being a human pin cushion for whatever they're loading up in those hypes. Oh they lost your paperwork? Full round of shots again! Enjoy that autoimmune disease you'll eventually die from as a result so we have have your paperwork on file. Nor do you have an option on being sacrificed to cover exfil of someone else, somewhere else. Nor is there an option sometimes but always forward thru a fight.
But just because someone was made to do that at age 20 during encounters that are gauged in minutes or hours before heading back in, in today's US mil with the benefits and force multipliers we bring to the table, doesn't automatically mean every vet is Audie Murphy for the rest of their life and the rest of the citizenry are subtier nothings.