I spent four years enlisted in USN.

It has its good and bad. I traveled a lot. Somebody's always tellin' ya what to do. I learned a trade. Freedom is a memory. I saved some money. I put my personal life in the freezer for several years and behind the job curve with my cohorts. I got a good education inside and post military. I made life-long friends whom to this day, are friends to die for....

When you're in, you are an instrument of the political will of the USA.

If you cannot subordinate your beliefs to those of the national leadership, you are destined for a world of hurt.

If you love your country such that you can ignore or subdue your self-interest for the common good, you're their boy.

If your desire to follow your own drummer is greater, do yourself and the gov a favor and don't join.

In either case, you honor yourself and your country by seriously considering serving the armed service of your country.

That goes for any country, by the way.