One of my former students just committed suicide.

[MADem]

28. You don't know what caused him to kill himself; assuming doesn't help his family or honor him.

For all you know, his military service may have been the one thing that went right for him.

I had a sailor who worked for me, never once went in harm's way, avoided dangerous assignments or war-zone conflits, bounced from air-conditioned workcenter to air-conditioned workcenter, and was, sadly, afflicted with schizophrenia. He was separated from service and later committed "suicide by cop." He loved being in the military; his condition (aggravated by his inability to comply with anything resembling compliance with his medication schedule) resulted in his medical discharge/retirement. His mother told me she felt he put himself in a situation where he'd be gunned down BECAUSE he'd lost his military career, even though he had sufficient time in service to be retired, and wasn't left destitute, either monetarily or medically.

You don't know where the guy was being deployed--was he on a ship seeing the Western Pacific or the sunny Mediterranean? In an aviation squadron, forced to "endure" the rigors of Japan or Italy or (gasp-horror) Spain?

The assumption that every deployment "sucks" just "because/military" is one that many civilians (who know zip/zero/nada about military customs, culture or the All Volunteer Force) make. Plenty of servicemembers don't simply like their jobs, they love them. It's why they stay in past their enlistment contracts or commissioned service obligations.

No one is forced to join the military. In fact, in most branches, people are fighting to hang on to their jobs. The military is DOWNSIZING now. Pretty much anyone who wants to leave can just ask, and they'll be shown the door. Plenty who want to stay can't stay, because they're overmanned in some specialities, because they're culling out the too fat, the poor test takers, the occasional pot smokers, the surly or disobedient, and the ones who can't run fast enough or do a sufficient number of push ups.