rather than the generic DoD. Military people in the DoD join the Army, Marines, Navy or Air Force. While DoD "Headquarters" civil servants are technically owned by a service or defense agency for administration, they identify more with their workplace, e.g. Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Policy), DoD Comptroller, etc.

The predominance of Executive Scale and Schedule C appointees (political patronage positions that change with administrations) also are concentrated at higher level DoD offices and logically, a political appointee would be more likely to contribute than a non-partisan career civil servant or uniformed member.

The Ron Paul thing is an anomalous blip on the radar screen. I'd write it off probably to uniformed people who drank the kool-ade that Paul adheres more closely to the Constitution more than anybody else.

“Obama's best source of donations was the Department of Defense; Romney's was the Army.”

There are many civilians who never been in the military working for the Department of Defense, on the other hand Romney is getting huge support from the Army.

"service members". Do you have any numbers on the contributions of the different branches of the military?

Oh, and thanks in advance for that information (proof), and welcome to DU!

Edit to add: I found what you were talking about. If the article were just about "The Army", you might have a point, but this is about all branches of the military, NO? And did you miss this?

"Members of the military sent $36,448 to Obama and just $17,733 to Paul. Even though Romney solidified his position as the presumptive Republican nominee, military donations to his campaign remained anemic -- only $8,630."

"If Obama's fundraising edge among troops continues to build, it would be a repeat of his performance in 2008 when for a time troops were giving to Obama as much as six to one over his Republican opponent, Arizona Sen. John McCain."