For a lot of folks who end up enlisting, it's a way to get out of a shitty situation because the benefits of enlisting longterm are pretty good to help with future civilian prospects.
But yeah, there's a reason recruiters post up in poorer communities like the one I came from.
Speaking as a military brat-turned-Air Force and then Navy washout, I read you. I didn't sign up because I wanted to kill people in exotic places, I signed up because I grew up believing in The Dream, in the idea that we were really a force for good.
I have no hesitation recognizing that I was mislead and to a considerable extent, let myself be, but I don't begrudge anyone going in thinking it's the best course of action for their lives, who go in believing what I did. That's what the system *does*, what it's meant to do.
I think it's less what someone does not after they've been told the truth, but after they finally realize and internalize it. It's one thing to be told you have blood on your hands and another entirely to see it yourself, or how your actions got it on others', and what you do with that knowledge.
Totally makes sense. My parents helped give my younger foster brother stability but he went into the Navy because he needed the focus and structure that kind of career can bring.
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But yeah, there's a reason recruiters post up in poorer communities like the one I came from.
I had to consider joining the military because I couldn't afford college, and the GI Bill seemed like a decent compromise at the time.
I ended up getting a decent scholarship, my family all chipped in, and I took on too many loans.
Imagine lots of people in that situation who made a different choice.