There was a different mid set during WW2, I recall watching some of the men who were members of the real Band of Brothers and they said that some of the guys in their neighborhoods who were qualified as 4F, killed themselves because of the shame. My Dad recieved a medical discharge during WW2, and you are quite correct; the shame of it endured in our family for at least 40 years. As an aside, he was tall and very skinny, and they thought he had some condition that would kill him in a few years. Just what that condition was, was never said (To me anyway ). He's still alive now, and 88.
I remember reading that Lew Ayers was a CO prior to WW2.He received such bad publicity that after the war began he became a corpsman. He still did not fire a weapon but he served in the face of battle.