"Service member" is awkward, because it has too many syllables. People won't use...

jrmg · 2026-03-06T04:12:02 1772770322

It has one more syllable than ‘warfighter’, which also doesn’t do any of the things you said.

nostromo · 2026-03-06T04:51:02 1772772662

I'm not sure how much more clear warfighter could be. "One who fights wars."

Service member is extremely vague. "A member of a service."

queenkjuul · 2026-03-06T06:03:02 1772776982

Growing up, "the service" was synonymous with "the military" among my grandparents who, y'know, fought in WWII

jltsiren · 2026-03-06T08:40:04 1772786404

The world wars were an unusual period. When I grew up, "veteran" usually meant an old man. Most men in my grandparents' generation had seen combat.

falcor84 · 2026-03-06T06:56:20 1772780180

Except for extreme periods in history (that I hope we can avoid), most service members don't end up directly participating in a war.

tbrownaw · 2026-03-06T04:50:45 1772772645

> It doesn't tell anything the service those people are members of, and it doesn't tell what kind of work they do.

I'm pretty sure that term could even work for the Pods in some of my Deployments.