OK Lanolin, here we go:
No it is not compulsory. It was up until Viet Nam, but the "draft" ended in 1973 (No, I am not old enough to have served in Viet Nam, but Major and several others here did). However, every male, by the age of 18, has to register with what we call the "Selective Service." No one is forced to serve, but this list is for males between 18 and 26 and would be used if we had another major war and did not have enough volunteers. Females do not register; however, if you are a male and you do not register, you are unable to seek any jobs with any government agency (federal, state, or county). No student loans and you can end up doing 5 years in prison and fined $250,000.00.
I was 18 when I enlisted, but, had my parents signed a permission document, I would have gone in at 17. Since I enlisted, I did not have to register with the Selective Service.
I originally was only going to do three years and get out; however, I just fell in love with the military life style and stayed 25 years. At present, about 17% of people who enter the military stay until retirement. No one actually stays in for "life," but at least 20 years (minimum requirement to be able to retire). Like I said, I did 25 and retired at the age of 43.
There are more men (80%) in the military than females (20%). The number of females depends on which of the four branches of the military you are talking about: According to the Defense Department, women now make up 20 percent of the Air Force, 19 percent of the Navy, 15 percent of the Army and almost 9 percent of the Marine Corps.
Yes, it is physically demanding, but I have known some really "bad a**" women in the military. I knew one female that was on a 25 mile force march. About half-way, she became severely dehydrated. She had the medics stick an IV in her arm, strap the bag of solution to her ruck sack and she finished the march.
How dangerous depends on what you do in the military. If you are a cook, not so much. If you are in the infantry, pretty much. To date, women are not allowed to serve in the infantry, but that will change. They do serve as fighter pilots, military police, and other "combat support" positions which are no walk in the park. Obviously, we have been at war since 2001, so that is dangerous. However, that too depends. Since 2001, we have lost over 6,200 members of the military. In 2018 alone, 36,750 people died in traffic accidents in the US. Personally, if I had the choice of meeting the Lord in combat or after a traffic accident, I will go with the former and not the latter.
There is a very high percentage of suicides in the military. A new report shows that 20.6 military personnel commit suicides every day (I have had several friends end their lives like this). Of those, 16.8 are veterans and 3.8 are active-duty servicemembers, guardsmen and reservists. That amounts to 6,132 veterans and 1,387 servicemembers who died by suicide in one year. For several years, I suffered from what is known as "post retirement depression." It is hard to explain, unless you have been there, but being in the military is an incredible experience. You are surrounded by people that would not have an issue dying for you or next to you. In the military, words like "Honor, Integrity, Courage, Loyalty" actually mean something. None of this is available in the "civilian" world where it is all about "you" and not about "us." It takes a while to adjust to the "outside" world and that only happens once you embrace the sad reality that you will never feel the same as you did when you wore a uniform and served with complete commitment to what you were asked to do and those you did it with you.
Well, hope I answered all your questions. At the end of this, there is both good and bad news. It is 13 minutes past midnight here in Miami, so it is Veteran's Day; that's the good news. The bad news is that by the time I read your response tomorrow, at least 10 of my brothers and sisters will have taken their own lives because we have no mechanism available to prevent this. Oh, I should note that only around 4% of this country actually serve in the military, but the other 96% get tomorrow off too
rtm3039
CW4, US Army (Retired)