If you do not think mil personnel are 'expendable' (tongue slightly in cheek) then you must not be aware of the 'second-class citizen' mindset that pervades the corridors of power.
That is why the UK mil at least were decades behind HSE and airworthiness regulations. If you ever thought otherwise I'm afraid you were very much mistaken.
The list of examples is effing endless and now we have slipped the surly bonds of this topic and danced the skies of thread creep........