The military comes from and remains firmly embedded in American society, and while all professions shape views and attitudes, our military people are Americans through and through. Our project concludes that the differences are growing in large part because with the end of the Cold War, military affairs are growing less important to the American people and less in their consciousness. My response to the previous question probably applies here as well. There is not just one gap, but several, but they are all related. The functional gap refers to the differences between what society does and what we ask the military to do.
Soldiers have to be trained to meet the rigors of war and armed peace.
The legal gap arises from the functional one. The military justice system includes offenses that do not exist in civilian life. They are offenses because of the nature of the military and military life. I am not convinced that the gap is growing. I think it was much greater during the Vietnam war and for years afterward.