The median salary for the Army in 2016 was $58K.
typical gov‘t employee misinformation - the military, like all gov‘t employees, receive largess in non-salary compensation not granted to those of us in the productive sectors. Therefore, it is a fair comparison to show total compensation which averages $99k for gov’t employees in the military.
One also should recognize the vast majority of government employees, especially those in the military, would not be compensated as lavishly if they were in the productive sector. Most of these people would be in retail earning minimum wage with nil benefits.