I'm not in the Army anymore. But I had always told myself that I would never get married and start a family until after I got out. I saw waaaaayyyy too many screwed up marriages, and messed up kids in the years I was in to ever want to bring that on myself.
Not saying that everyone was like that, but the bad certainly did seem to outweigh and outnumber the good.
Wow, my family must have been an anomoly. My dad was a lifer (Air Force) and he and my Mom had a happy marriage for 50 years, til she died, and 3 out of 4 of us have lived normal lives (2 with long term marriages and normal kids--one not married). I consider us pretty normal. Except of course we lived in places other than the US and moved alot. When I was a kid, I didn't like it (moving) but now I realize it gave me a much bigger world view. And of course it taught me that not everyone's behavior can be predicted on what I or people like me would do.
susie