New Zealand Army emergency responders Cpl Thomas Grant and Cpl Reginald Reid arrive at Palmerston North airport after fighting fires in California.

The outgoing chief of our armed forces wants New Zealanders to be prouder of their military.



Lieutenant General Tim Keating left his job as chief of the NZ Defence Force at the end of June after four years at the top, and now says he believes military men and women deserve the same sort of plaudits usually reserved for our sports stars.



"We treat our top sports stars as heroes, but we have people doing really neat stuff on behalf of New Zealand, but they don't get that recognition," he told Stuff.



"It would be nice for our people in the community to acknowledge just what those Defence Force people do as part of those communities.

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"How many mayors go out there when their troops come back from deployment? It would be nice if some leaders go out there and shake their hands."

HAGEN HOPKINS / GETTY Lieutenant General Tim Keating is calling for greater appreciation of armed services personnel.

This morning, 65 firefighters return from fighting the Canadian fires while another34 firefighters quietly returned yesterday from weeks battling devastating wildfires in California, which claimed 1,200 homes and 50 business, and the lives of three firefighters and five civilians.

Among the contingent were defence force personnel, including NZ Army's Corporal Reggie Reid. Their arrival at Auckland Airport was met with little fanfare – just four army officers – but that was enough.

"It shows the Defence Force cares about us. That means a lot to me," Reid said yesterday.

NOAH BERGER/AP Firefighters monitor a backfire while battling the Delta Fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest this week. California is taking a financial wallop from unrelenting wildfires that have drained its firefighting budget and prompted nearly $1 billion in property claims even before the start of the dangerous fall fire season, officials said.

His colleague Sergeant Alex Walker, who spoke of Americans coming up to them in the street to thank them, also appreciated his bosses there: "It's pretty good, instead of just turning up and looking lost and seeing no one."

National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies founding director professor Kevin Clements said the time in which New Zealand surrounded returning soldiers with fanfare had passed.

He said while troops from the first and second world wars received mass adulation, which ended with the Vietnam War.

"The country was so divided about the validity of the war."

ALDEN WILLIAMS/STUFF Alex Walker served as a New Zealand Defence Force emergency responder fighting the wildfires in California.

More recently he said Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson's controversial Hit & Run case highlighted military acts could be heroic but others "mired in controversy".

"So the notion that mayors would turn out to welcome returning soldiers, I think, is really not appropriate.

"Why I would be reluctant to distinguish returning soldiers for special acknowledgement is because, I think, there's far too much attention paid to the role of the warrior in making history, rather than to the role of everybody else who really did make history."

The focus should be on becoming a more respectful society and recognising all individuals' heroism such as volunteers, midwives and teachers.

DAVID UNWIN/STUFF Army firefighters, Cpl Thomas Grant and Cpl Reginald Reid, arrive in Palmerston North after spending the last six weeks in California helping to put out fires.

Former army major Simon Strombom, who has a Distinguished Service Decoration for work in Afghanistan in 2008, said the country should acknowledge soldiers' contributions "as it's a huge risk and commitment to deploy".

Strombom, from Porirua, developed new procedures for International Stabilisation Assistance Force Headquarters vehicles to counter the threat of improvised explosive devices and trained soldiers against that threat.

"It's hard to compare to sports stars as theirs is about success which, in military terms, is a hard one. Yes, New Zealanders should be proud, yet for me (it) wasn't about fanfare.

"Walking off the plane to my boys was reception enough."

Keating left his job as chief of the NZ Defence Force at the end of June after four years at the top. During his tenure, he had to contend with controversy flaring up over historical allegations from New Zealand's time in Afghanistan, and with the military forced to make some adjustments to life in the modern world a string of stories about bullying and harassment.

But he says he left with his head held high, proud of achievements under his watch, and saying that his reason for going was that his contract was simply up and he felt it was time to find out what civilian life was like.

Keating is replaced by Air Vice-Marshal Kevin Short.