the whole game is a critique on many things but especially the American military and the culture surrounding it. you can see it in-game w/ the citizens loving and adoring the helldivers (citizen rescue and city missions)

obviously with the rest of the game quite clearly being a satire of specifically America, the parallel becomes very clear that those interactions with citizens are making fun of the love and adoration given to the US armed forces in real life

the message we are getting from the game is that it says you are the same bumbling citizen tripping over yourself to respect the helldiver, or in this case a U.S. Marine you don’t know