“One interviewee just said our men joined the service not out of patriotism but because they were bored and needed excitement”
I would say that for some that was probably true and probably still is. It may not be what we want to hear, but it is reality. I know one young man who joined up a year ago after his girlfriend, with whom he’d had a child, left him. Some amount of fatalistic thinking probably was a reason he signed up. But whatever the reason, I think he will become stronger and a better man as a result of serving his country.
One of the soldiers mentioned tonight joined up for a similar reason. He found out that the girl he loved didn't feel the same way, so he got mad and ran his motorcycle into a bar, smashing it up. He felt so bad about it that he thought joining the army might redeem him. He was one of the survivors of Bataan. I'd say he was redeemed for his actions, but his joining wasn't necessarily for patriotic reasons.