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Originally Posted by Faramir Jones
Here's an interesting comment Tolkien made about Eowyn, in a letter of around 1963:
Though not a 'dry nurse' in temper, she was not really a soldier or 'amazon', but like many brave women was capable of great military gallantry at a crisis.
(Letters, Letter 244.)
As has been said, she was presumably trained on how to fight, but expected to do so only defensively, something for which there was historical precedent among the Rohirrim's ancestors.
Tolkien had had some military training, but did not see himself as becoming a professional soldier. As we know, however, he and so many other young men, quite civilian, became servicemen due to World War I.
Tolkien said that he was not a 'good officer', and said that the character of Faramir was the character in LotR most like him, but with far more courage. Like him, two of his sons became servicemen, this time due to World War II.
One can see a resemblance between Eowyn and Tolkien's generation, as well as that of his sons'. Her desire to be 'a shieldmaiden no longer' seems similar to that of many servicemen like Tolkien and later his sons, who wanted to leave soldiering behind now that the war was won, and get on with their disrupted civilian lives. It's no more different than Sam Gamgee, Merry Brandybuck, and Pippin Took after they returned to the Shire, getting back to ordinary, civilian life, marrying and having families.
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I agree, Eowyn was very much like the 'Tommy', idealising the fight and the struggle, and even idealising the Captain she followed. And afterwards, in the shocking light of day, having survived, keen to get straight back to an ordinary life.
It's also true that Faramir is very much like the reality of the men who fought in WWII. He resigned himself to his Duty, he did his duty to the very best of his ability, but he did not relish it and he was pleased to be released of it, though still retaining pride in having taken his part.
It's interesting how Faramir wants to make a 'garden' of Ithilien and Eowyn also desires this kind of life:
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'I stand in Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun,' she said; 'and behold! the Shadow has departed! I will be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.' And again she looked at Faramir. 'No longer do I desire to be a queen,' she said.
Then Faramir laughed merrily. 'That is well,' he said; 'for I am not a king. Yet I will wed with the White Lady of Rohan, if it be her will. And if she will, then let us cross the River and in happier days let us dwell in fair Ithilien and there make a garden. All things will grow with joy there, if the White Lady comes.'
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Compare that with much of the Art produced during and following the Great War, so much of it infused with this emotional sense of loss and longing for a pastoral England that if it had not already gone, was fast going. Vaughan Williams wrote his Pastoral Symphony and revised Fantasia on a Theme by Tallis; Elgar's Cello Concerto; Holst's Planets Suite; Stanley Spencer's murals; and of course, Tolkien's very earliest writings. I could probably gather up some more examples, because I've been looking into this lately...
There was also the Modernist approach of course, but many people were also busily creating elegiac, more backwards looking pieces of music, art and literature. So Faramir and Eowyn wishing to leave the memory of war behind isn't unusual, and in fact it's what their creator did.