>>The average user doesn't care if it's a virus, worm, trojan, or whatever. All affect their computer.
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>That's not what I got accustomed to while in the US. People (aka the language users) want you to be specific - whenever I mentioned the army, someone would ask about navy, airforce and marines. Must be it's because of a lack of a common noun for armed forces. "The military" is not a noun, just like "musical" isn't, it's an adjective (which is also an adjective :). There should be a default but omitted noun, just like we say Češka, Poljska and Turska for Czech, Poland and Turkey - all of them adjectives, but with an assumed noun (country) to them. Somehow I expect "the military" to be a plural, just like "the poor".

I frequently hear people use the word "service" as a general term for armed forces. As far as why people ask about the branch, IMHO, it is because in the USA there is a much greater respect for people who serve/served in the military than, for example, in your or my former world. Here people volunteer to serve as opposed to being sent like herd of sheep kicking and screaming. Therefore, I think naming a specific branch of the services shows a certain extra respect.