Most people who join the military at 18 aren’t really thinking about Patriotism and all of those issues. At towards the end of the book, “The Cain Mutiny”, by Herman Wouk, he suggests that people select military service, just as a person selects any other way of life to make money, except, there are no great rewards for military service. You’ll never be rich from serving your country. It is just the fact that we have people at the ready during times of peace, so that when there is times of war, a trained and ready military can do something about it.
“See, while I was studying law ‘n’ old Keefer here was writing his play for the Theater Guild, and Willie here was on the playing fields of Prinshton, all that time these birds we call regulars – these stuffy, stupid Prussians, in the Navy and the Army were manning guns. Course they weren’t doing it to save my mom from Hitler, they were doing it for the dough, like everybody else does what they do… Old Yellowstain, for dough, was standing guard on this fat dumb and happy country of ours… Of course, we figured in those days only fools go into armed service. Bad pay, no millionaire future, and your can’t call your mind or body your own.”
It is no different today than it was in WWII. Buy his book today!