conscription and selective service

[Fireball]

You don't have to tell the rank and file that, lol.  Those guys are fuckin crazy.  "You want me to do what?!"  -not for a commemorative coin you senile piece a shit.

Yeah, what's up with all those coins? Kind of like Pokemons or something.

I knew when I was 12 that I'd join the Navy some day. Never regretted it. And "incentives" back then was "not being drafted into the USMC."

When I joined, Viet Nam was a going concern. Join the Marines? Go to Nam and get shot. Join the Army, go to Nam and get shot. Join the AF? Go to Nam and get shot down. Join the Navy? Well, one could still get shot. Naive thinking it was in those days. So I was going to go submarines until I saw how small they were inside, and some of them submerge for months. I've too big an affinity for being able to see that great 100W bulb in the sky for that. I missed out on a lot of that, just by being in the engine room most of the time.

Forgot to multiquote tack in- I know Coasties who worked drug interdiction, which is every bit as much mortal combat as any other branch of service, intercepting drug shippers who were heavily armed.

I will personally agree that some sort of government service should be mandatory. I know from personal experience that learning to follow orders would help a lot of people in later life. Those who served generally get the job done more often than those who did not.