In the US Air Force, a feather merchant was any civilian worker, regardless of their role. Forty-five months loading the bomb, a SAC-trained warrior, we flew for real 24/7. MAC was infested with lazy feather merchants...
I'd echo those here who say that you go where they send you and, in the overall scheme of things, it's all a vital part of the Big mission. I served as a Cold Warrior in both MAC and SAC, and they both had their missions. There's just a lot less edge in your mission when your main resource is giant cargo planes as opposed to being a SAC trained killer with Alert aircraft and missiles.