What is military culture?

One word for your 2LT (Join to see)....BROTHERHOOD.

That is what military culture means to me. It's the deep feeling of brotherhood that is forged in the heat of battle. It's our drive to never accept "OK" as good enough. It's the understanding that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. That's what separates us from our civilian counterparts.

Sir,
Consider that military culture incorporates unity, a sense of purpose and direction, and values that you cannot find in most civilian career fields. Military culture is a dysfunctional family at times, but one that drives service members to complete tasks for a common mission. To defend our nation, and to close with and destroy our nations enemies, both foreign and domestic. This is a concept that most civilians cannot wrap their noodle around because they don't have to concern themselves with the threats of the world unless it is in their backyard.
In the military we have our own language that isn't understood by most civilians. Terminology, acronyms, processes for waging war...these all seem to be alien if not translated into civilian English. We have a dress code that serves to make service members feel part of a team, and strip the peacocking that occurs at many civilian organizations. We have traditions and methods of toughening each other up to prepare for the mental and physical rigors of war. Most civilians only have to combat traffic and the lack of coffee in the office.
We try to teach our service members to be intelligent professionals who can think outside the box in order to tackle any problem. Each service teaches it's service members values designed to guide the individual to do the right things at all times, especially in the absence of experienced leadership and supervision. Most service members exercise a level of discipline and skill in their profession that cannot be found in the civilian world.
The military works hard to turn the dysfunctional family (which is still a family that you can't find elsewhere), and turn it into an effective team. Civilian organizations may preach about being part of a team, following policies, and respecting the laws, but they're not always effective in providing the training, purpose and direction to the employee to motivate them to achieve the company's visions. I'm not saying the military is perfect on that last statement, but most employees at a civilian business are looking to punch a stamp on their time card so they can collect a paycheck and handle issues that only affect them. Service members go in and put in hours, but they are always on call.
Businesses want to make money and have the tendency limit the level of creativity to do so to one a select group with specific levels of education. In the military, we take good ideas from the lowest ranks on up, and from service members of different education levels and experiences and put them to good use to accomplish our objectives.
The level of camaraderie in the military is not easily replicated in civilian careers. Even when we dislike each other, we are here for each other...most of the time. I could keep going but I'm sure I've blathered on long enough and have hopefully provided a different view point for you.

*For anyone who comes across this post in the future and wishes to quote part of it for a paper, or integrate some of it into a training product, you have my permission to do so.

"Fifteen minutes prior to fifteen minutes prior."
"Hurry up and wait."
"It's perfectly acceptable to call your subordinates the vilest names you can contrive, as part of a casual correction."
"Having frank, casual, and relevant conversations about which body part you would least mind losing, and generally agreeing that losing the leg below the knee wouldn't be a big deal at all."
"Even though we've all heard the number '22 suicides per day' you hear at least that many jokes about suicide in any given day."
"Most Infantryman readily admit that they joined primarily for the opportunity to legally kill people."
"Casual talk (among heterosexual males) about homosexual rape and fellatio, several times each day."