That is exactly what I was implying. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the single most dangerous job in America is meatpacking, where almost 27% of workers sustain an injury on the job every year. The casualty rates for servicemembers are nowhere remotely this high.
But as far as I'm concerned, the element of danger is irrelevant anyway. I am far more grateful to the civilian doctors and nurses who -- admittedly, away from the rigors of combat -- saved the lives of my prematurely born sons than I am to the medics I deployed with, supposedly in the name of defending my freedom, who openly bragged about causing unnecessary pain to their patients because, ya know, they
might have been terrorists (and who gives a shit about ragheads and sand niggers anyway?) -- thereby violating the sacred trust to which all medical professionals ascribe: "First, do no harm."
There was a silly girl in my unit who once spoke up while we were in formation: "I want you all to know," she said, "that we're all heroes just for for being here."
I turned to her and said, "Sweetie, the real heroes don't make it home."