I don't think this is Hacker News, but... Seems to me like the gap between military certification and professional licensing is due to protectionism (due to the number of veterens) and politics (because the military can be forced to innovate and iterate on a much shorter cycle than the professional community would like).

I was reading the other day about how military trauma response is pretty far ahead of the civilian law enforcement world. Particularly how with $100 in basic medical supplies and a little training you can quickly treat gunshot and blast wounds that typically cause the victim to bleed out before EMS can arrive.