Not having served, I can't possibly have the same feelings that you veterans do about this game, but the ARMY-NAVY game is one I never miss on TV. If there is one football game to attend that's on my bucket list, it's this one.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. You watch college football and the "scholar-athlete of the game" has a 3.5 GPA and his major is ethnic studies or maybe communications. At the ARMY-NAVY game, the scholar-athlete of the game has a 4.0 with a major in Nuclear Physics or Molecular Biology. Or something else so advanced I can't pronounce or spell it. These are special young men (and women) at the service academies.
If I must choose... Great-grandad was Army (Mexican-American War), Dad was Army (Air Corps, WWII) and Uncle (Dad's youngest brother) was Army (served in SE Asia) so... Go Army!