My son is considering joining the Marines next year. What should we be asking recruiters?

[DFW]

37. Wish I could help, but I'm clueless here

The last generation of my immediate family to be in the armed services was my father and my father-in-law. My dad was in the army in France and Germany in World War II. He came back with no lasting damage or trauma. My wife’s dad was drafted off his farm at age 17 and sent to Stalingrad, where he got a leg blown off by an artillery shell. He was returned to his farm at age 19, a cripple who was useless for farm work. Beyond the obvious physical damage, he retained vestiges of his trauma for the rest of his life.

The likelihood of your son returning home like my father-in-law is obviously practically zero, but that is part of the package all the same. No one who signed for the military in early 2002 thought they would be going to Iraq or Afghanistan. Not all of them came back in one piece, either. Know the whole package before you make a decision like that.