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Blame the recruiters, who sell a cheerful vision of the military to high-schoolers who haven't made up their minds on what they really want to do with their lives when they graduate and rarely discuss the issue of enlistment with their parents or relatives

Don't blame the recruiters, both of my sons recruiters were more than willing to spend as much time with us as we wanted. They were very blunt and to the point when it came to my youngest son who joined up as we were already at war in Afghanistan. There was no sugar coating of the truth for him. He signed on as a tank crew member with a 99.9% chance of being deployed right out AIT. This kid and possibly his parents had an agenda from the very beginning. He had the option of walking without consequences before bootcamp was over.

Heck when I was in Nam, we used to laugh about ways to get to Canada, but we always had to wait to get done with our Tour of Duty. I don't personally of anyone that ran. However upon my return to the States I used to go with Marines to pick up Cowards. As a Corpsman I was there to put Band aids on them in case they fell down. I would fall asleep and wake up and they would have bruises on there yellow bodies, never could figure that out.