Why oh why do "the" Americans (apologies to those who don't) have such
high esteem for fighter pilots, killing and war?

Who wrote this?!

I'm a 43 y/o American who's met a whole lot of other Americans, many of them
soldiers and airmen, and I have yet to find one who holds killing in high
esteem.

I've only met one who liked war, and he got what he deserved.

All the others understood that war, and the killing that sadly comes with
it, is something you stay prepared to do, in hopes that you don't.

Thank God for American fighter pilots. To a person, they would rather fly
gliders in peacetime than anything in combat. The world is freer, happier
and more peaceful place because of them.

'The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do
nothing.' -- Edmund Burke

-tw