Would anyone encourage their kids to join the service?

I did for my youngest, to help him get a taste of accomplishment, purpose and the discipline that comes with and contributes to both. It didn't work.

He was drifting into adulthood after managing to coast through his teen years without developing a passion for anything beyond role-playing games. I talked to a few recruiters and came away with an impression that the Marines had the most embrasive program for prepping recruits for induction -- my guy had the typical "scrawny gamer" fitness challenge, and I knew he would need some pushing.

Once I convinced him that the Marines had a plan for guys like him, he contacted the local Marine recruiter, scored ungodly high on the ASVAB and started making bumpy progress down that road. It took longer for him to get into shape than anticipated, so he was officially dropped from the program (but allowed/encouraged to participate in PT) until he passed the minimum standard and got readmitted to the program. I was (and am) proud of him making that comeback on his own motivation.

Things went south from there -- the recruiting station got a new Marine SNCOIC. The new SNCOIC did exactly what I feared an Army recruiter would do: the recruiting staff went passive, providing no leadership, minimal supervision, and no real expectations until his fitness had backslid and it was too late to do anything except cancel his contract.

The net result was an undeniable lose-lose outcome: Uncle Sam's Misguided Children did *not* get a smart recruit who really wanted to be a Marine but had been a work in progress discipline-wise, and my son's just-formed self-confidence took a major body blow when all his previous effort was negated to a fail.