12 years of service, 3 trips to the Persian Gulf for 6 months at a time, leaving my daughter when she was 5 days old to deploy, launching over 30 Tomahawk Cruise missiles at the start of the war in 2003, 120+ hour work weeks on rotating watches, etc. I thank God I am not on the ground in the heat of battle (thankfully, I have not yet lost any of my personal friends who are) but that doesn't mean the rest of the enclave and battle group is not fighting elsewhere or providing support through comms, networking, and security.

Yes, there are many in the military who milk the system and do nothing but cause problems. Those people have no business here and eventually get weeded out be it voluntarily or forcefully. It's not an easy life though it does have its benefits.