No, I don't like this oversimplification. I have thought long and hard on this, and while yes, there are obvious differences between the wars of different gener

No, I don't like this oversimplification. I have thought long and hard on this, and while yes, there are obvious differences between the wars of different generations, there are many things that transcend those differences. Of course, even some of the most grizzled people I know have spoken of some vietname/ww2 vets as a different breed, but what they are doing is downplaying their own tribulations as lesser, instead of just different, and I've often heard the nam vets tell the youngins to stop doing that. If your friend is laying there dying does it matter that he was drafted or if he voluntered? No. Of course the numbers are vastly different. 5669 for Iraq and Afghanistan wars (still ongoing) vs 47,424 for Vietnam and 291,557 for WW2. It's hard to explain what I mean about the after being the hard part. I'm not trying to downplay combat, it can be it's own kind of terrifying (and also it's own kind of the most addictive drug-esque high ever), but when thats what you train to do, day in, day out, for a long time, and are doing it, it becomes normal. Nobody trains you for getting out (though to their credit, the military and other resources have gotten vastly better at this since the earlier days of the war afaik). I know it's sort of a dichotomy, but many of my fellow combat vets have expressed this to me as well as it being my own personal experience. I would say there are a lot more similarities between Vietnam vets and GWOT vets than those two groups and WW1/2 vets, given that WW1/2 were completely different warfare types. That said, those wars also have another very different thing about them that makes the home part different, in that Vietnam and GWOT are quagmires without very clear reasons and justifications, which I personally think contributes more to PTSD than many want to admit (fighting an "unjust" war being harder to return to normal from). > The notion that the soldiers could have the same experience of "they just don't understand" is pretty unlikely. I don't understand what you mean by this statement. Care to expound?