Actually Planet_Lubber what the military wants (and I would think every other military on this planet would also want) is to be able to place a large and potent military force anywhere on this planet withing a 24 hour period!
And neither going to the moon nor Mars is going to do anything to influence that!
What the US military is investigating right now is the development of aircraft that can routinely fly in the hypersonic (Mach 4 through about Mach 15) area. And from that to eventually building aircraft capable for taking specialized troops anywhere on this planet in about 2 hours or less.
Another big area for the military is the development of robotics to the extent of being able to fight wars (insurgent types especially) without risking US soldiers in them!
Once again, none of these things so important to the military have anything to do with even using LEO, let alone going back to the moon or going on to Mars!
After all, why should the military be interested in what NASA and the private interests are going to do anyway? Why even pay for something that you might use, when you should be paying for something that you could definitely use!
Our military planners are FAR more intelligent than that!
However, what is just as interesting to me at least is that eventually the kind of research that the military is really interested in developing in the hypersonic area will reach out to the civilian and commercial areas! This would eventually result in the "Holy Grail" of getting from the Earth's surface to LEO at least. That is a craft capable of taking off from an ordinary airport runway, Then getting up to the velocity of the lower hypersonic area with ordinary jet engines, the switching over to scram-jets from Mach 4 to about Mach 15, and finally using something similar to a linear aerospike engine to get up to LEO!
This was the original and overly ambitious goal of the NASP program. The main problem having been the area of jet to scram-jet hypersonic propulsion area. But with the military interest in this area (for military purposes at least), and the enormous funding available for the "Black Programs" of the military, this will be happening (I at least think) well within the next decade or so!
And it is this type of thing that will eventually lead humanity itself out to building a true space faring civilization!
In the meantime, I am perfectly happy with seeing the US go back to the moon first, and then on towards Mars, and even beyond! And, I do not care whether or not it is the government such as NASA, or the pure private capitalistic efforts that do it! However, I do think that the private efforts are going to be much slower (but perhaps much more certain) in doing this!
Perhaps some of the more cheerleader spacex types here should realize that Elon Musk is trying to sell his ideas and products, and therefore is probably going to be just a tad more optimistic than his efforts are eventually going to turn out to be. Even he has been realistic enough on occasion to admit that doing these types of things is much harder than he originally thought it was going to be!! Please note, that I would be more than happy to find out eventually that he was even being more pessimistic than his efforts would eventually prove out to be. I am NOT being negative, just a bit on realistic side of things!
Have A Great Day, fellow space enthusiasts!