Au contraire. Many of the mid-grade officers and senior NCO's were vets--but the rankers were draftees who had been coddled by a new peace-time slackness. I suggest that you read This Kind of War. But that author also talks about how senior officers copped out on standing up for high standards in order to "get along" with politicians.
“Many” is a fact. Note, I didn’t say “most.”
And “many” tough, battle-hardened WW2 vets among the NCO and officer ranks in Korea in 1950 were barely enough to prevent the draftees from uttlerly breaking.
And those 1950 draftees were probably about ten times as tough as today’s typical video game sissies, fairies and girls that we are currently calling our volunteer military.
Today’s D.I.s say that the only muscles that our new volunteers have upon induction are their video gaming thumbs. Fat-camp and weakling camp before boot camp starts is SOP, just to get the kids ready for a few pushups and an easy jog.
And the boot camp of today is a coed affair, with “stress cards” to give the D.I.s if it just becomes to much for the little dears.
The Chinese, Russians and Iranians are smiling.