I think that your views are quite typical of many civilians and as I said earlier, not completely without a basis in truth.
When I left the Royal Australian Navy, I joined the Merchant Marine in Australia and as such had to join the Seaman's Union. Boy! Did I cop it in the neck, being accused of being a right wing extremist, and guilty of every crime against mankind since I was born.
It probably took four years for me to be completely accepted for what I was. I never changed, and neither did the other Union members with whom I worked, but somewhere along the line people learned that I was "my own man" and not such a bad person at that. I judged everything on it's merits and was quite prepared to stand up at a "hostile" meeting and make my point giving the reasons why this was my view. One thing that they learnt about me is that I am always as good as my word and will stand by my views to the death unless someone can convince me that I am wrong (and it has been done on numerous occasions). I also am a very reliable backstop in a fight, be it physical or verbal, not necessarily always good at it, but I give it my absolute best.
I feel that my service experience has certainly shaped my attitudes and made me the way that I am to a degree, but I strongly doubt that they have changed my moral or political point of view.
I am known for my "pig headedness" and I am one of those persons who if I feel that someone is trying to massage my ego or change my basic beliefs I start to "back up". When i say "basic" beliefs, I refer to such things as my judgement on right and wrong and good manners etc,... nothing so petty as politics.
For the record my personal quote on politics is, "The country is going to hell in a hatbox for the want of more Government and less politics" and that's a Spike Jones original
I did 12 years as a member of the RAN and 26 years as a merchant seaman, in two jobs that most persons would agree are totally at odds with one another politically. I ended up being highly respected by my Union and was made a life member on my retirement, something of which I am very proud. There is only one thing of which I am more proud and that is the fact that I managed to take the best out of both of them without compromising my own morals, and in doing so earned the respect of my fellow workers.
There are people on this forum that would label me as Right wing and there are also occasions that persons would accuse me of being left wing. The truth is that I am both. I hear people say that one is mutually exclusive of the other,.... not true, both views have good points and bad, all you have to do is to abide by what you know to be right "at the time". (Things do change).
I'm sorry if this has turned into a bit of a ramble, but I hope that it helps make my point, that service and ex-service persons can't just be put in a box and labelled one way or the other, we too are individuals.