Notice the title says "uniformed men", not "military", and IMO rightfully so.

When I lived in the US I also found that policemen and firefighters enjoy a very peculiar status there. Usually the answer is "but they put their lives on the line". However that I find true for a whole lot of other occupations as well (e.g. coal workers, prof. athletes, (war) reporters and many more) so it's not a unique characteristic.