Thank you for saying that.
As a current active duty Naval Officer who was raised middle/upper class in the PNW and had many (likely higher paying) career opportunities after college, I'd like to briefly add another point of view from a "veteran" on the other end of the spectrum while hopefully not getting this thread too off topic.
I consider myself decently well-cultured and traveled for my age, and I certainly feel that I knew what I was getting into when I joined the military. There are hundreds of reasons why people volunteer, and to group them all as misinformed or "disillusioned" is a crass and naive generalization usually made by someone who has only looked on from the outside.
This is a conversation that deserves much more debate, but in the interest of brevity and not drifting away from the topic of this thread, I joined because I wanted to fly. Simple as that. My political views had almost zero bearing on it. A fellow squadron mate of mine has an M.S. in Aero Engineering from Stanford that cost him $0. Another friend I had in flight school was a football player at Harvard who finished with an English degree then decided to join the Marines because of the challenge.
My point is: these people are far from unintelligent and yet come from all socioeconomic backgrounds and every corner of the country, with many different views of the world and military. While some of the junior enlisted may have left home at 18 with a "disillusioned" view of their own future, I agree that they shouldn't be looked down upon so negatively or with such a condescending tone. Admittedly, I'm still relatively young and inexperienced in terms of career variety, but I've never met a group of people who work harder than those of whom I serve with in the military.
Often this military foundation in early adulthood and exposure to the world outside of American culture leads to much success later in life for these formerly "sheltered" adults. I'm leaving the political opinions out of this, but I hope that others aren't so quick to judge those who decide to serve. It's not so black and white.
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