I spent a great deal of time in and around the military over the years and one takeaway is that the military is a great equalizer... anybody can be anything if they work at it.
Having experienced that equality I have noticed that the civilian sector has lagged behind.
I spent some time around the military, too, to the tune of 20 years on acrive duty. What you say is true, but a whole lot of it is affirmative action. I saw many instances of that.