Makes me think of the friend who went into the Marines in the late 60's, on a two year hitch. At the conclusion of boot camp, the DI's came in and suddenly treated the recruits like real humans, and proceeded to explain that they needed to sign up for two more years to be able to go serve their country and fight in Viet Nam.....he and one other guy were the only ones in the room to not add two more years...

I remember the flood of phone calls after taking the ASVAB and scoring high. Promised the moon. But this was in 1975, at the advent of the all-volunteer army, and all kinds of things were promised. Way more promises than fulfillment, that's for sure. Some days I wish I had gone in, but had I done so it would have been just as a regular old grunt - I knew I wouldn't be disappointed by grandiose promises by recruiters if I did that.