A service member’s job IS special in that they risk their lives to defend the nation. That’s simply not on the same level as selling widgets at Walmart. That’s not meant to demean widget sellers. It’s only meant to point out that the military is not just another job like any other.
Most military do not risk their lives. The modern ratio, iirc, is like 18 support jobs for every job at the front lines.
But private citizens in some trades risk their lives every day — anyone who works in a trench, loggers, tree men, farmers, fishermen, fire-fighters, demolition workers, pilots — AND store clerks in many inner-city stores. Do they get to claim special benefits whose cost is extractable in taxes by government agents from the rest of us?
Donald Rumsfeld was right to rely on lean forces, special forces, technology. The more privatization of military operations — including war-fighting — the better.