First off, you have my respect for serving your country. It's young men and women like you that make it possible for the rest of us to sleep comfortably at night knowing someone (military, police or otherwise) isn't going to drag us into the street in the middle of the night and beat us senseless.
That said, it all comes down to what YOU like, want and expect from a bike and everyone else's opinions, mine included, don't mean diddly. What used to be called old fashioned is now called retro and everyone has clamored onto that bandwagon. Like the new 2 seater Thunderbird, the new Mustang, the new Chevy pickup that looks like a late '40s model, Yamaha's very cool looking retro instrument panel on it's big V twin (Stratoliner?), everyone has a retro looking V twin and on and on. So when someone says HD is old fashioned, yeah, ok, so what?
First off, I don't own a Harley but have ridden plenty. People who say HD don't handle are the same people who like carving corners at 20 mph over. And they're correct, an Ultra Classic or Road King isn't going to do what they personally want from a bike. Those HD's aren't made for doing that, they're made for covering 500+ miles a day and delivering the rider to their destination unruffled while having to remaining stable in sidewinds, truck turbulence, bad weather and so on. And they'll do that with the throttle thumbscrew set and no hands on the bars. Try that with the hyper sensitive steering on a top of the line sportbike and you'll end up in the ER. Try a 500-800 mile day on a canyon carver and for comfort, you'd consider the rack somewhat below a Serta mattress but way above the bike. That doesn't make the sportbikes bad, just different. Better yet, you being in the military, look at it this way. Howitzers and handguns have very little in common, but each has it's own place and qualities. Both can do their own things very well, but not the other's.
If you're looking for absolute comfort, then you need a Gold Wing, or better yet, a Buick. What many young sportbike riders don't understand is that going slower on a unique machine is just as rewarding as going fast on a cookie cutter speed bike. I have a '51 and '60 Studebaker cars and for comfort, they don't hold a candle to my Dodge Caravan. But cruising up the street and stopping at Sonic for a corndog is a lot more fun in the Stude than in the Caravan. The corndog is the same, but the surroundings make it taste better. My Studes and retro V twin bikes (of any make) are as different from high performance sportbikes as is an artist painting their own painting or them going out and buying a Robert Wood mountain scene at an art show.
Don't listen to anyone here but instead, go look at bikes of any brand and when you find the right one, you'll know it immediately. Bikes are like women, it you have to learn to love them, then it's not true love.
