I don't doubt that my not being there had a lot to do with my opinion of what was going on. But I got the impression morale was much better, motivation was much better, the leadership was much better, the training seemed much better.

Probably the biggest single factor was we had a volunteer army. That made a huge difference, although it was greatly resisted at the time, it only makes sense people aren't going to give it their best if they feel they are in forced servitude. Its one thing when the country is fighting for its life, like in WWII, another when you can't get a straight answer why we're "over there".

We have a professional army, like the Roman legions. There's no question it works better. But whether that is a good thing for a democracy, I don't know. And I don't know how it will scale up if we ever get in a big war and have to institute conscription again.