[thecavemaster]

Across the top is how many years you have been in the service, up and down is your pay grade. Yes, if you stay in for years and get 4 or 5 promotions, you can make pretty good money. But those just going in for a job and a pay check wont stay in for 8 or 10 years. The ones that does that are doing it for a career. There is a big difference in a job and a career.

For teens mired in poverty and limited opportunties, the
military (Army and Marines) can be made to look pretty
good. The burden of the implementation of war plans falls
upon those who "ain't no fortunate son." As a nation, we
don't pay the "grunts" very well; we don't take care of them
after they are wounded all that well. With that said, I
spent an hour or so yesterday watching footage of 9/11 on
You Tube and a few History Channel programs. The whole idea
of redemptive violence (the idea that some good can come
of the use of it), whether employed by terrorists or
liberators, is a dead end street: it goes nowhere, leads
to nowhere, and ends in destruction, anguish and tears.