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I understand your point completely, and I believe a large number might respond well to the military culture of obedience, discipline, hard work and achievement.

However, if you have ever spent any time in a classroom you will understand that even one disrupter can prevent the other 20-some classmates from learning anything that class period. Under compulsory education, it's difficult to get rid of that person so the others can thrive.

If you carry that analogy to a military setting, you will have training/missions compromised because there's one or more whiner/lightweight in the bunch that distracts the others from sucessfully learning/completing their jobs. Under the draft, that person is there for 2 years and the military must identify and weed those people into non-critical jobs. Under today's voluntary military, that doesn't happen on the scale it would in a draft military.

That said, I also think that trying to instil a love of country at age 18 or later is an impossible task. It's one that rightfully belongs at home and in the K-12 setting. When dis all the books about our country's heros disappear from our public schools ? Why does today's US History curriculum portray us in such a bad light that no child can feel proud of this country ?

IMO until we fix the K-12 schools, there's no hope the military will fare any better.

That said, I also think that trying to instill a love of country at age 18 or later is an impossible task. It's one that rightfully belongs at home and in the K-12 setting. When dis all the books about our country's heros disappear from our public schools ? Why does today's US History curriculum portray us in such a bad light that no child can feel proud of this country ?

IMO until we fix the K-12 schools, there's no hope the military will fare any better

I have to agree with you on the above. There is also a confusing factor in the school over the pledge of allegiance and teachers who teach children their own views. If children are taught to love, honor and be proud of this country at a young age it would be better.

Evidently you have never been to boot camp. When I was in boot camp, Parris Island, January to April of 1970, over half my platoon was draftees. But there was no distinction between volunteers and draftees among the drill instructors. We were all maggots and the ones who couldn't "adapt to military life" were indeed weeded out. One morning when we got up, about 20 of them were gone and we never saw them again.
Funny thing about us draftees: we were older, better educated, more mature and better suited for leadership. When it came time for handing out the honors at graduation, 5 of the 6 of us who got promoted were draftees.
Trying to analogize the military to the public school system only goes so far. Unless boot camp has been totally wussified in the past 37 years.