Ill take the Viet Cong over a government code base any day :)

No, but its arguably more important. Less risky, but as a good developer the opportunity cost might be high aswell.

I believe parent was balking at the appropriation of "tour of duty" to describe taking a government job for a couple of years.

The phrase carries strong connotations for a certain subset of people and it would be pretty tone deaf of us as a community to repurpose it to mean "writing instructions for computers the government owns."

Unpopular opinion that needs to be said: plenty of people spend their military "tour of duty" writing instructions for computers. Even more are glorified paper pushers or janitors. Only a small subset actually ever see their lives at risk--being a fisherman is more dangerous. The main substantive difference is that in theory you can't quit on a whim.

We need to stop promoting an idea of martial valor over all other forms of work, and stop coddling those who demand that everyone grant their line of work more respect than everyone else.

This is incorrect - a sizable number get sent to the warzone in a time of war, by far the majority. All who do have received some sort of weapon training, as well as scenario prep when encountering the likes of IEDs or combat situations. This is even more true for the Army and Marine Corps. The risk is pervasive just by virtue of operating in a warzone. In addition, everyone still has to stand post except for higher ranking officers and SNCOs.

While there are plenty of people who spend their deployments behind a computer, don't assume it is so black and white.

Source: I am a Marine grunt

> The phrase carries strong connotations for a certain subset of people and it would be pretty tone deaf of us as a community to repurpose it to mean "writing instructions for computers the government owns."

It's definitely an appropriation but I'm not sure this appropriation means "writing instructions for computers the government owns." I think they are implying there is a kind of sacrifice taking place, perhaps putting your country before your own personal gain. Translated literally it might mean something like "writing instructions for computers the government owns for meager compensation when you could be making +$100k per year working in the wider tech industry." Some similarities here with the Peace Corp whom does use the language "tour of duty" to describe time served in the Peace Corp http://www.peacecorps.gov/media/forpress/news/453/

Ummm, those who fought in Korea are responsible for the fact that 51 million people enjoy a respectable GDP and living conditions; those who fought in Vietnam were trying to attempt to prevent a brutal takeover which led to hundreds of thousands fleeing for their lives.

I'd say that's inarguably more important then rolling out prettier government web sites.