GothikOrk: Are you frequently approached and thanked for your service, or is that more of an American thing?
What service? We have a compulsory military service here (or one can choose to serve also outside the army in civil service). I became a second lieutenant ("vänrikki") during the year I was there in an arm that I don't think exists anymore (coastal artillery; they've been replaced with some kind of missile and rocket systems now I think).
It is not like I have been abroad fighting commies or nazis or kinks or yanks, in fact I've never got to shoot anybody. However, those old farts who were fighting during the WWII (against Russia) are generally highly regarded in here, there's an annual nation-wide money collection for them etc., but they must be like 90 years old by now and getting fewer and fewer in numbers. We haven't been in any war after that, no Vietnam or Afghanistan.