I would be very, very surprised if there wasn't a long waiting list, or at least a long list they had to choose from, to pick those staff officers and (non-commissioned officers) going over there.

You don't have to have the entire symbolic leadership of the forces and the nation for the fatalities coming back.

Nobody heard about you because there was nothing much happening until the end of the Cold War when it was no longer peacekeeping and things were getting nasty.