My son is in the military and whenever we are on base with him I used to ask why all those young men suddenly stand erect and salute him every time they see him - sometimes takes forever to get across the base.
His comment was, first they are in basic training, and that they are learning that to be successful they must be polite and respectful and recognize authority. Those who do that well do very well and in his case get to fly very fast and expensive planes
Those that don't are not successful in that environment. He did comment recently that in the past the drill sgts did not have to teach those lessons like they do now. It is a different generation and many of today's generation want nothing to do with the military. They see it as too archaic ---right up until they need them