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I had the off chance to meet a young Marine a few weeks ago. Young kid (21-22 I'd say) Pretty well spoken. He enlisted about 4 years ago out of high school. He missed going Irag and Astan, but he had been in some other ME country. (UAE?) He is currently doing embassy duty in Denmark, or wherever they had the failed climat summit last Dec. He said he got to meet the president briefly and some other big wigs. He had some tatoos on his arms which seemed out of character with his bearing imo.
He wasn't sure if he was going to make a career out of the Corps. I asked him if he ever considered OCS. He said he was ineligible to become a Marine officer because of his tattoos! I found it hard to believe, but that's the rule.
I asked him if he'd go into the Army to get a shot at OCS.
He told me emphatically that when he takes his Marine uniform off, he'd never wear another!

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem."
attributed to Ronald Reagan.

I think you are on the right track with suggesting he consider all options.
I might suggest he seriously consider what is is soldiers and Marines do..i.e. Kill people. He might read "On Killing" or "On Combat" written by David Grossman. This may be helpful to him. I found "On Killing" to be an interesting read.

http://www.killology.com/books.htm

Good luck to your son.