https://recruiting.army.mil/News/Article/2897062/army-offers-up-to-50k-in-enlistment-incentives/

All military is not on active duty, or even overseas. This is the story of one of my relatives of a draftee during the Vietnam Era.

He spent all his military time at a base in Brooklyn, NY. His salary was a pitiful $99 a month. He and his wife--they first married while he was serving--lived on the base--probably the most secure place to live in NYC. There was a laundry in the basement of the building. They got great prices on supermarket items, including filet mignon, shopping at the PX on base. They both smoked at the time and the PX practically gave cigarettes away. Their only expense was their phone bill. She got a job with decent pay in Manhattan. Of course, they got free medical care on the base.

Through the USO in Manhattan, they got tickets to good to great seats at ballets, operas, movies, Broadway and off-Broadway shows, etc. (The house holds good to great seats until near the last minute, in case some VIPs show up. If not needed, they get donated to the USO.)

If he wore his uniform, they might luck into free military flights, say from Germany to Paris. (IIRC, Lufthansa gave them a significant discount on a flight from NYC to Germany.) He would also qualify for discounts at US hotels. If he wore his uniform to filming of a quiz show, he might get plucked out of the audience to be a contestant. (That happened twice.)

The financial downside was the shock they got after his discharge. Being inexperienced, they assumed that they could afford to live better after his discharge, when both of them could earn more than a token salary. Nowhere near, though. Besides, two salaries lasted only until she got pregnant. He was however, eligible for veteran's benefits, which helped greatly in, among other things, getting his doctorate.

Of course, none of it made up for living with their hearts in their throats every day for two years, worrying if he might get sent to Vietnam. (The reason they married sooner than they planned was that he wanted her to get his death benefits if he got killed, something he did not tell her until well after they married.)