Possible Clues:

• Officer material with a neat exterior
• Air Force rank
• Possibly Troy's greatness, endlessly spread about
• Serviceman agrees about not losing heart
• The Beatles' Pepper, for one
• Copper is possibly uniform material placed on an end of element
• A noncom rank
• Pepper, say, prepared around hot range
• Doctor greets an officer of the law
• Rank American artist, by the sound of it