[bluekeybox]

> apparent admiration

This. Kids don't know what power is. Desire to serve the country is not going to play a role here either. It's the cultural programming targeting kids: "oh, cool, look, a firetruck!" Same with sports. It's somewhat ironic that many blue-collar jobs are probably more glorified in the mainland U.S. than they are in former Soviet countries. Though this illusion disappears as soon as you realize that jobs where the majority of the workforce are immigrants immediately lose the "cool" status.