My recollection is a few years back, it could be a Clinton, when visiting troops, that the troops were all disarmed at that particular base.
I thought that was totally amazing, as when I was in a war zone we had loaded weapons stored in our rooms, they always stayed with us.
So to answer your question, even the lefties know they are unpopular and that many troops would rather shoot the bastards as look at them.
In 2003 when Hitlery and President Bush visited Iraq, the general sentiment among troops who’s services were directly needed to support both visits was all of them wanted to work on the President’s visit. In most all cases calls for volunteers to support the Hitlery visit went unanswered.