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It was another reminder of just what a foreign country this is - on an internal flight across the US, once the routine announcements about mobile phones and life belts were over, the flight attendant took me by surprise:

"On board today is one of America's heroes... a brave member of the military... in uniform... let's show our appreciation, folks, for his service."

Enthusiastic clapping followed.

Some airlines go further than organising impromptu applause and automatically upgrade members of the military to first class.

Companies from double glazing firms to cinemas regularly offer discounts and special deals to America's fighting men and women.

But what is going to happen when the heroes come home from their battles in Iraq and Afghanistan?

For one thing, I suspect they will be held in high regard for a long time to come.

Personally I think they deserve it just as recompense for their harsh training. On a recent visit to the home of the Screaming Eagles 101st Airborne at Fort Campbell on the Kentucky-Tennessee border, I watched soldiers slither down ropes in a mock-up of an air assault by helicopter.

They call it the toughest 10 days in the army.

"How does it compare to the marines?" I asked. "Sissies!" smiled the soldier showing me round. "Only the French Foreign Legion comes close."

But their reward after the rigours of training, and indeed real combat, is the unbeatable satisfaction of being loved by their fellow citizens.

Major Ali Johnston from the Screaming Eagles told me that public appreciation ranged from finding his bill had been paid after eating in a restaurant, to having his hand clutched and pumped by a stranger.

In part this is the unfaded afterglow of the sunburst of patriotism that followed the attack on 11 September 2001.

Americans huddled together in vulnerability and outrage and looked to the mightiest military the world has ever known to defend and avenge.

But there is another powerful emotion at work too.

Maj Johnson told me he was at a regimental dinner the other night with veterans from D-Day, Korea and Vietnam.

In 1969, the Screaming Eagles fought at the battle of Hamburger Hill on Dong Ap Bia mountain in Vietnam - a bloody, pointless victory, a turning point in that war.

The major told me that the veterans spoke about being spat on when they came home, enduring the hostility, and perhaps worse, the indifference of a nation that was anything but grateful for their service.

They told the current generation they didn't know how lucky they were.

That's not luck. That's guilt.

There is now a feeling of deep shame that people doing their duty were treated so badly. The second Iraq war became hugely unpopular; but President George W Bush was blamed, not the men and women who obeyed his orders.

The intriguing question is whether this respect becomes reverence - whether decency and gratitude turns into something politically potent.

The self image of the US military is in stark contrast to the way some others see them.

Abroad the picture may be of a jarhead weighed down with muscles, guns and technology, but not over-burdened by foreign languages or intellectual sophistication.

But many American officers see themselves as warrior intellectuals - Harvard and Yale are stuffed with top brass taking doctorates and second degrees.

Politicians boast of their military record and their children's service as much as their small town background.

If you read too many blogs and tweets, as I do, it can seem a lot of Americans are torn between a very deep theoretical love of their country and an equally profound dislike of its actual democratic expression - politics and government.

It is easy then for the military to be seen as honest brokers, much as officers of the Roman empire were seen to embody stern republican virtues, and periodically felt themselves called to intervene and purify the political process.

I don't see the American military crossing that Rubicon. Their influence is already part of the process.

There was a hint of this when the man in charge of the marines, James Conway, made waves suggesting President Barack Obama's start date for withdrawing some troops from Afghanistan had given comfort to the enemy.

But it was his observation that things had changed since Vietnam that caught my eye.

He maintained that after that watershed war the country had "matured to the degree" that people could be against a war, but still support the troops.

So, he said, the military leadership had to do a better job convincing Americans of the need for victory in Afghanistan.

He suggested the military's political views may now be respected as much as their dutiful service.

The US will be very busy in Afghanistan and Iraq for a long while to come and some of the images of withdrawal are for public consumption.

Still, the two wars ARE winding down, and I do wonder what role the generals will play in 10 years' time.

It is easy to get used to a seat at the top table... although some might choose to relinquish influence in return for a period of peace.

At Fort Campbell talking to the soldiers who are meant to end America's longest war, another major showed me around a new memorial as yet unfinished, hewn out of stone from the Screaming Eagles' home state, Georgia.

Engraved on the giant headstones of Georgia granite are the names of the Screaming Eagles' many conflicts - World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ominously several stones are still blank.

"Not waiting, I hope," I said, "for the word Iran?"

The laughter was unconvincing and nervous.

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