Military pay is very low?

why is the military pay so low?i want to join the military to serve my nation and have the pride of serving my nation. But you can only go so far with pride we all need money too. I was checking the pay grades and an E1 earns 17k thats like on the poverty line. E9 makes like 86k about what my dad makes and he never went to high school. E1 earns less than a custodian. Which is kind of crazy considering E1's go to war and should be payed more than a janitor for defending us.