[Deschodt]

I went through this for a year, "military service" as it was called was mandatory for boys over 18 at the time where I grew up... I missed Gulf war I by a few months, and was happy to. The 4 star general I was reporting to (directly!!!) had been overseeing the foreign legion troops there... brought back fun trophies !! I'll confess I hated it initially because of the break it forced in my studies ( and mostly the idea of surrendering to a higher authority which wasn't my parents, and in some cases totally incompetent people) but in hindsight, despite the wasted time, I learned a lot. Aside from the weapons and NBC protection stuff, basic survival skills, basic first aid, learned that people come from all walks of life (made friends with farm kids who couldn't read - it was an eye opener for a "good student"), learned to clean after myself, do laundry, and most importantly made friends with the cooks at base and decided to help out when I was bored out of my skull, and therefore got "free chef techniques training" in the process... Skills that have served me well. I'm all for it, but then again that wasn't in the US which is constantly at war for no good reason, so, grain of salt there as far as where you'd send my kid. Not interested in saving Saudi Arabia for instance.