@Hottentot
Well, those who do civil service usually do something that has a direct effect on someone, like helping in an old people's home or similar stuff. They often don't see the necessity for any form of military anymore and see it just as a huge waste of money (hey, we "won" the cold war after all so there is no direct threat anymore). To them there will never be a need of armed forces again because we don't have a direct threat right now and so they don't see the service that a soldier performs and the sacrifices they make even in peace time. There is no direct effect a soldier has in peace time, especially not when there is no direct threat pointing towards one's country. There is only an indirect one of keeping combat readiness up and standing vigil for the case where protection against an outside aggressor might be needed again however likely or unlikely that might be at a time.
They can't understand why someone would be "dumb enough to join an institution where you get yelled at, have to sleep with 6 guys in one room, get your rear end kicked (not literally but you know what I mean
) and don't do anything useful at all".
On the other side I also now some military veterans who belittle the civil service guys calling them wimps and such BS....
Actually I think we've all served our country in one way or another and there is no "superior" way of serving. I don't belittle those who chose the civil service as I think they did society a great service but I also expect not to be belittled because I chose the join the armed forces.