It was all done by the military and times have not changed that much. There are civilian employees but they work alongside the military. They don't make much more money than the military does. There are only a few cases that are exceptions (civilian post leaders or in the IT field are a couple of them). A friend of mine runs a moterpool and just received a $30,000 .00 reinlistment bonus. There are some civilian jobs in the motorpool, at post facilities such as gyms, dining halls, bowling alleys, et al. Those are positions and places that support the military. None of them are prisoners, not even those who work in the laundry.

The problem with government civil service is that salary is commensurate with experience by years in service. The longer you are employed, the more you make. Of course that is based on pay grade as well but typically you advance in pay grade by years of service. There is a lot of dead weight.



>>Are you stating that only the poor and indigent join the military?
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>No. It's just that they have many other options off the table, but this one is pretty much always open.
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>> Or presenting it as an option to serving time?
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>I presume that's a XOR nowadays. But in light of recent economic development, both the prison population and the troops are just ways for some corporations to reap huge profits.
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>> Joining the military in lieu of jail is no longer an option. I was neither poor nor indigent when I joined the military.
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>And those were different times. Who was running the cafeteria then? Who was doing your laundry (bed sheets etc)? Who was providing transportation? Were they civil contractors? Were they paid two or three times more than you?