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Over the last 20 years, the word and the notion of “values” have acquired a remarkable place in France, both in public discourse and in private conversations. The military has not been exempt from this enthusiasm for the word. Over the decades, much-vaunted “military values” have become increasingly popular to the point of invading public debate. Brandished as an emblem or as a solution to all the dysfunctions of society, the expression nevertheless calls for critical examination: while French society perceives itself as a society undergoing an acute crisis of cohesion and while the armed forces have re-established their place within it, it seems that this success is based on a persistent misunderstanding, the corollary of which is the absence of the word virtue in these same debates.