It wasn't directed at you and none of what you said nullified my statement.
The experience of serving as a soldier was a valuable one for you, but neither does that make you a better person (god how I hate that phrase), nor does it make you a better citizen.
Acquiring and reinforcing your skills (and social competence is one of them) helps one in everday life, but in your case this was a personal "lesson" learned from that particular experience.
During social service, I've learned what it's like to do an underpaid job, being exploited by your boss and having virtually no labour rights in practice (while I did have lots of rights in theory, the only institution I could confront directly -- the company I worked for -- had no serious reason to care about me, thus rendering most of them pretty much useless unless I wanted to go to court, just to be sent to another shithole for the remaining service time).
I know what the intended "educational" effect of the whole thing was -- for military conscripts: discipline, etc; for civil servants: social values like respect, etc -- and I already had them before I got drafted.
If anything, it destroyed my utopianist ideals by forcing me to face the harsh reality of human nature.
Has it made me a better citizen? Probably not. I'm still as social as I was before and since I've never been downright anti-social (clear criminal records, never intentionally exploited anybody else, etc).
Has it made me a better person? Doubtfully so. I think utopianist idealism can be a good thing and if I'd have to draw a lesson from this experience, it'd be that your best option for a worry-free life is to find a job in beaurocracy, work until you get promoted, find someone to do all of your work and learn to "look busy" whenever a superior is around without actually accomplishing anything.
Luckily I've still got enough of a conscience not accept that as a possible lifestyle.
I think the quality of a citizen (the only definition I can come up with is "positive (and/or lack of negative) influence on the society and country as a whole") is mostly based on the personal values and morality as well as the informedness (read: sociological comprehension and awareness) of the individual (although full comprehension is obviously not required -- one can be a good citizen without knowing much about anything other than what one is doing as long as one doesn't have a negative influence on anything).
Anyway. In that respect, becoming a soldier is a method, not a requirement.
That's what I mean by "There are many reasons [to join], but none of them makes [..] the soldier a better citizen per se." -- you can learn certain lessons from serving in the military, but the military service doesn't automatically make you a better person or citizen; neither is a soldier neccessarily a better person or citizen than a civilian (there are assholes on both sides of the barbed wire fence).
