For the military professional who observes false reporting becoming widespread among defense contractors there may be analogous temptations and rationalization of dishonest conduct but no amount of such conduct will make dishonesty morally right. Military values and moral rules for military members can well be identical with societal values and moral rules so long as these fall into the category of the moral knowledge that is validated by human history, reason, and experience. The question always must be, is this conduct morally right as tested against that fundamental moral knowledge already mentioned. What we do can only be morally correct when it conforms to what we know is morally right. If this formula is reversed, then the distinction between right and wrong conduct must inevitably disappear.
Military ethics is, like ethical standards for other professions, applied ethics.
Applied ethics is a subset of ethics generally. Some ethical rules and moral values receive more emphasis in certain professions because of their unique services to society. The obligation to obtain informed consent from competent patients is a very serious moral obligation for health care practitioners. Client confidentiality and serious efforts to obtain justice are special emphasis moral concerns for the legal profession. But all of these special obligations emanate from our more general moral principles regarding respect for human dignity, promise keeping, honesty, and our quest for a just society.