I am in the military NOW, and I know for a fact that all govenrment fares are elegible for frequent flier miles, you just can't use them for personal travel. I could say a few choice things about being accused of ignorance in light of that post, but I'll pass.
Just to illustrate my point let me tell you about a friend who is one of those supposedly competing for your seats. This member of a Coast Guard training team has been in the Coast Guard for 11 years, is an E-6, and has a college degree. His job consists of training members of Coast Guard units around the country on proper search and rescue techniques. It consists of six to eight 2 week trips to Coast Guard ships around the country. He usually leaves his family on Sunday morning and flys all day. Upon arrival at the ship he will be working on, he is assigned a bunk in a small room with between 25 and 40 other strangers. If he is lucky he'll get a "free upgrade" to a top bunk away from the door so he doesn't have to wake up all night when his roomates come back and forth from watch. He will work 12 hour days for the entire 2 weeks, including Saturday. On Sunday he gets the day off, but he can't watch the news on TV, read a newspaper, or talk to his family because he is in the middle of the ocean. Oh, and the wine they serve there is even worse then UA, it's grape flavored cool-aid. At the end of the two weeks he gets to fly home and get back late Friday night or Saturday, then he comes in for a regular work week the next Monday. How much extra money does he get for this trip? Well he will get per diem to cover his food and expenses for the two travel days, which will amount to about $50.00 total. While he is on the ship his food and lodging is provided, so he gets nothing extra. His annual salary is a whopping $26,000 a year. Why does he continue to do this? Its so that the rest of the Coast Guard will be prepared to go find and rescue you when you are out there in trouble on the water. These are the kind of people who are most affected by the ban on personal use of miles, do you think it would be such a bad thing if we let this guy use some of the miles he accumulated (at no cost to the taxpayer since he had to fly anyway) to take a vacation with his family to make up for the almost 3 months that his job kept him not only away from his family, but completely cut off from them?
The vast majority of govt. travel is done by poeple like this, not the mythical "Govt. upper management bureaucrats" In fact, most high level govt workers have their own aircraft dedicated to VIP transport and never even enter the commercial air system. So don't take your dislike of government out on those of us who are out in the trenches every day doing a job that actually matters just to ensure you have a complete monopoly on upgrades. A little selfish, don't you think?