Tell that to the tens of thousands that died fighting in Vietnam and other countries.
Fire department employee are not military veterans, regardless of what you say...
The existance of the draft back then is not really relevent to the situation now, were all service members are volounteers.
But, now that you say it, back in WWII, people were also drafted into service as firefighters (and coalminers come to think of it) do they get to be treated with greater respect than volunteers then?