I would be opposed to privleging the military, as what we have now is a good demonstration of the problems with using military society as the only meritocracy system of value.

Some ideas I have:

Community service which helps other Americans, not just defends them. It could include military service, but military service wouldn't be valued any more, or any less, than other form of community service.

In addition to community service, I would add these areas of merit service:

Teaching
Medical service (ie, cancer societies, etc)
Public Safety (paramedics, etc)
Government service
Social work
Family services (adoption, early childhood, parenting classes, youth services, etc. not covered by the above)