I’d question the basic premise.

For most of World War 2, US military pay was defined by Public Law 77-607, the "Pay Readjustment Act of 1942.” This set pay rates based on rank and time in service, and went to into effect in June 1st, 1942. From 1942 to 1946 the base pay for an E1 Private with under 3 years of service was $50 a month (about $840 in today’s money). A career E5 Sergeant with 15 years in the army received $120 ($2000) per month. An army captain with 20 years of service still only received $325 ($5400) per month. Those are only 3 examples from the 154 separate pay rates. But I think they’re adequate to highlight that no one, especially not the enlisted men were making what we’d call a lot of money. Mean monthly pay across all services, was $71.33 ($1200).

Now of course, at least for the enlisted, this came with most of their expenses (food, “lodging,” clothing etc) already covered. But even with expenses covered, the $50 to $100 the vast majority of enlisted men were getting didn’t go very far.