My instinct tells me that where a particular military member stands on the left/right continuum would probably depend on how far that person stands from the tip of the spear.
Special Forces, Marines, etc, are more conservative than the officer class, logistics personnel, etc.
A generalization that is generally true?
Don’t forget to measure any left/right differences as a whole between the Marines and Army vs. Navy, Coast Guard and Air Force.
I know a retired special ops high ranking officer who keeps his political views very closely guarded but is ultimately more liberal. I know another who when I’ve had conversations with him claims conservatism but also once said he found nothing wrong with Obama having met him on the job. Both of these guys have seen extensive combat.
Rank, age, and distance from the risk or experience of combat surely explain a lot — and the distinctions carry over to civilian life. Years ago, conservative friends who were Vietnam veterans explained that American Legion members could be politically squishy, but that the combat veteran VFW — the Veterans of Foreign Wars — was where the reliable conservatives were to be found. I soon realized that as a rule, the men I knew and admired when growing up were combat veterans — and staunch conservatives, of course.
One day at the office, a co-worker asked me how it was that I served multiple tours in Vietnam as a combat infantryman and I didn’t get PTSD. My rather flippant answer was “I didn’t get PTSD in Vietnam, I gave it.”
However, this PTSD question made me wonder what PTSD is and what the symptoms are, so I did a little research on the subject and found that I did indeed possess symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) concerning a traumatic and very stressful incident that occurred during my last tour in Vietnam. I was a professional soldier when the traumatic incident occurred and had accumulated several tours in Vietnam engaged occasionally in close combat with a vicious and cunningly capable enemy, but the traumatic event was not as a result of close combat with this enemy.
One day when I was totally focused on closing with and destroying the enemy, something caught my eye, I looked around and found a new enemy had unexpectedly appeared behind me; it was the American people. The same Democrat Party who had originally sent me to Vietnam promising that, “We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty,” had now sided with the Communists I was fighting. They were parading in the streets of the United States under a Viet Cong flag, were quoting from Mao’s Red Book, and were spitting on and flinging insults at returning Vietnam Veterans. Then, a Democrat led Congress cut off funding for the Vietnam War, American combat troops were withdrawn and we abandoned a valiant ally to their fate.
I was ordered out of the country in 1972, and when I arrived at Travis Air Force Base/ Oakland Army Terminal, purposely in the dark of the night, I was advised to change out of my uniform and put on civilian clothing to avoid being attacked by the American people when I entered San Francisco. I was not at all surprised when a few decades later in 2008 these same people elected a Marxist-Communist as President of what was once my country.
Yes, the deep, burning hatred I feel for the Democrat Party to this day could be diagnosed as a symptom of PTSD, and I assure you, every Vietnam Veteran I know feels the same way.