TBH the military isn't that great of an option economically. It allows for a little bit of a distraction from the immediate conditions, an opportunity to travel, a sense of purpose, and a promise (read: lie) that it will give them an advantage.

Anecdotally, I've met a few veterans who completed 1 tour and then decided to go to college because there was nothing much available for them, and a few more who picked up substance abuse and other bad habits from their enlistment, or were just floundering. I don't know the exact figures but I would suppose that for each 1 returning veteran success story, there are 8 veterans barely getting by working in dead-end jobs, and 1 veteran either homeless or institutionalized or prematurely dead.

The graphic phrase

"suck-start a shotgun"

is one I've only heard from ex-military personnel.

[–] UmmmCheckPlease@hexbear.net 4 points 2 days ago

Yeah I’m the first generation of my family to go to college instead of the military, so lots of veterans in my family. Mostly because they were drafted, or some had unexpected kids in their early years (or trouble with the law, etc) and it was the “best option”. No officers in the family, so they’ve all received the shit end of the stick, and that’s greatly tempered most jingoism. I’ve not met a “proud soldier” in my family. But I believe there’s a strong line of audhd that runs through it that the state has greatly benefited from.

The wwii grandpa, who lied about his age to enlist at 15 had departed to signal school shortly before his shipmates mostly died in Pearl Harbor, was probably the closest to being “proud” of his time in the military (and idk how much of his background is even true lol). After that he deployed with operation torch, then the family story is he was in the “state department” (OSS), and remained in north africa where he had met my grandma, and covertly supported the Moroccan independence effort (my dad recalls playing with Mohammad V’s children). And after all of that, moved back to Appalachia to take over the small family farm. He and my grandma are buried on the farm in the “family plot”, but had to sell the rest of it to pay for medical bills.

Others in the family include my cousin (only survivor of an ied - (was kind of an asshole before and it didn’t help)), half brothers (ones spouse left for his CO, ones stepson took his life), and my father (during the end of the vietnam war, so he lucked out and never deployed outside of the US, but still managed to get COPD/asthma from being a mechanic).

Similar to everything else in America unless you’re of a wealthy, West Point dynasty, the most charitable thing Uncle Sam will give you is a ditch to die in