Many of your volunteer respondents have chosen the Corps, the subject of your first book. Even the ladies. The Marines have always been primarily a volunteer service, but the shock infantry ethos and image seems far from the complex peace-keeping, nation-building, intel and COIN tasks that lie ahead.

TPM Barnett, who I've never seen mentioned here, chooses Marines as the portion of our weapons-heavy big-war machine best suited to provide lethal, flexible protection for an expanded non-kinetic side of US policy. That fits with his choice of the Dept. of Navy, with their long-term littoral and maritime experience, to manage the logistics and administration of supporting people and protecting the access into the unsettled 'Gap'.

Marines somehow can be enthusiastic about getting into the fight, while knowing that their gear is old and the mission screwed up. The USMC command has been volunteering the Corps for Afghan duty, angling to get unstuck from the Anbar mission, since 2007. The Marines in Iraq consistently got the short end of the occupation mission, suffered disproportionally from American mismanagement of this war. And yet the volunteers keep coming.

"We need your service, right now, in this moment - our moment - in history. I'm not going to tell you what your role should be; that's for you to discover. But I am going to ask you to play your part; ask you to stand up; ask you to put your foot firmly into the current of history. I am asking you to change history's course."~ Barack Obama, Colorado Springs, July 2, 2008

This above quote is one of the things that got me thinking about serving as an officer in the U.S. military again. The want and the need to stand up and do my part. Coming from a military family (father retired enlisted Army, uncle retired enlisted Army, another uncle passed away while in service, grandfather enlisted Army and fought in Korea), if you would have asked me during my senior year of highschool (back in 2002) what I my career plans were, they would have been getting an engineering degree and 20+ years in the army. But after watching the events of the Iraq misadventure unfold, along with the ultra watered down training of my schools ROTC program, I decided to focus on my studies and if I still wanted to serve, I could take either the Marine OCC route or the Army OCS college op route, that IRR soldier speaks of. After getting a masters degree in engineering and working the last 8 months in a boring mindless job that pays very well, I've decided that I need to do my part in making the country and military stronger with my service. So in my case, a refreshing change with the new administration has helped out.

There is something going on; I posted in the other thread, but I'll reiterate my comments here. I think we're seeing a generation of liberals in the Roosevelt/Kennedy vein, angered by eight years of mismanagement of foreign policy and eager to make a difference, but disillusioned by the anti-war left's disinterest in victory. I went to an New England prep school too, and now an Ivy League university, and at each step have reacted not only to America's evolving role in the world but also to the inability of current political leadership to evolve with it.

Mr. Ricks, I have to personally thank you (and other writers, including the fantastic Robert Kaplan and Nate Fick) for showing me a different side of the military than that to which I had been exposed. It's Naval intelligence for me (OCS June 2010), though I have many friends here who are enrolled in ROTC and PLC (unfortunately, we don't have a NROTC program). I am in a similar situation to the commenters you cite - not from a military family, with no college loans, yet pursuing a military career - because I feel that the military is one last bastion where I can challenge myself intellectually while serving my nation and defending the ideals I hold most dear.

Most of those I tell about my decision are not so much appalled as mystified; I think there is a growing cultural divide in this country between those who serve and those who do not. It is not so much that those members of the national elite who are my peers are opposed to military service as that they would never even consider it - it is culturally alien to everything they have ever known. Their fathers (like mine) did not go to Vietnam, they did not have family friends who were veterans growing up, and their only experience of the military is television reports from Iraq and the latest installment in the Call of Duty videogame series. I think many of my generation could be called to service, if only they were not conditioned from an early age to think of the military as something "somebody else does".

"For nothing in this world is free-
that's why I love the Infantry."

I just wanted to second Occam. Military service didn't register at my prep school. The generation that taught there was still strongly influenced by the politics of the Vietnam War and its aftermath. Still, you walked past memorials to those who died in the Great War, the Second World War, Korea, and even Vietnam every day. The centerpiece of the chapel was a stained glass window featuring three service men.

Best of luck Occam.

What is going on is a reclaiming of one of the most important institutions of our society by a newly self-aware and socially aware educated elite who have recognized the massive destruction done to society by the wholesale adoption of the culturally polarized legacy of the Vietnam era by the U.S. military. A fundamental reason for the colossal strategic failures of the past decade is limited worldview, excess self-regard, and cultural resentment of large portions of the professional military officer corps. Political deference to that establishment then elevated those limitations into guiding impulses of U.S. policy. Reacting to that sorry spectacle, a new cohort of elite-educated are stepping up to right the ship of state by shoring up a broken institution with a more diverse intellectual outlook. They may claim simply to want a greater challenge than the private sector can provide, and to serve their country. None of that is untrue, of course, but don't underestimate the seriousness of their views regarding where we are as a country in terms of security and military policy. These people have a vision of a country that works differently; there may not be enough of them to make it a reality, but then again there might.

A comment on this from a Brit. In my professional life, I had to deal with several serving and ex members of the USMC from enlisted men up to and including a retired general. They were among the best of all people that I have met and it was a privilege to have worked with them.

I think Jessica made some very good points in her email. I would however, like to respectfully disagree on one issue that she highlights. I am a recent college grad with a good job who is giving that up to go to OCS. During my four years of college and for my first year post college, I would likely fall into her category of “burdening society with [my] existence.” While I have never watched the Hills, there have been many weekends (and some weekdays) that I have spent drinking away with friends. Despite my decision to join the Marine Corps, I do not take issue with my peers who have done the same. I think there might be a greater problem with the culture of “young professionals” whose social interactions revolve around happy hours and bars, but that is not something I am qualified to address. My point is this. Eight months ago I would have been one of those kids that Jessica found disgusting (and, I still might), but, after realizing I wanted to join the Corps, I managed to get my ass out of bed every day at 5am and get to the gym before work, score a 300 on my PFT, and do everything in my power to succeed at OCS. I do not always agree with my friends who don’t seem to show much ambition or drive, but I think we should wait before writing all of them off as a burden on society. It just takes some of us a little longer to find something to get motivated for, and passionate about.

Jessica, I salute your thoughtful decision.

All that you learn in the military is then yours, forever — and there is much to be learned which is not readily available in the civilian environment. A few of the more simple things are the 24-hour clock — the reality that if it is 3:00 a.m, that is merely a fact, and whatever must be done, if at 3:00 a.m., must be done; diversity — nowhere, like in the military will race fade into the background and skill-sets forward; and finding how much more there really is inside of you, in terms of capacity — pushing through in the face of adversity, especially with someone in your face and not caring whether your are tired, or cold, or hungry, or happy — the glory of a good Drill Instructor!

I am an old dog, enlisted in October, 1968. I have never regretted my time in service. It provides a potentially fabulous new perspective on life, on love, on family, on duty, on citizenship.

Enjoy the challenging process.

Nathaniel “Niel” Fick

"I am seeking a commission as a Marine Officer because I believe that nothing in this world is free. I want to serve my country and I want to make a difference in the lives of others...however small.

Does anyone else find this troubling? These are her professed motivations. Why not:

Teach for America, City-Year, Americorp, Peace Corp, volunteer in your community, be a mentor.

This way you can actually measure the the difference in the lives of others . . . however small that you are making.

We need educated people from diverse backgrounds in the Corp, but let's not delude ourselves and buy into the hype, that training to kill foreigners (which is, once you strip away the pageantry and euphemisms, is in essence, what the military does) is somehow virtuous or altruistic in itself .

If anything, it'd be laudable, if today's generation realized that war itself is a symptom of failed policies (deterrence aught be sufficient in almost all cases) and try to work on lessening the necessity of our country spending more on the military than the next 20 countries combined. If we spent, only as much as the next 10 countries combined, perhaps we could use the savings to, I don't know, probably provide health care and/or college for the poor (right now, you have to be at or near poverty to get meaningful government benefits). Maybe I am an outlier on this, but I feel, that if one really wishes to make a difference, then work on making our society more egalitarian, rather than putting yourself in a position to kill on behalf of our nation.

So yes, join the military, but don't act as if you're doing it to "make a difference in the world."

You're doing it to rebel against your family and your social class (which the writer does admit to some extent), and in 4-6 years, you'll go back to your initial trajectory with good leadership and life experiences.

Wanting to serve your country and set a positive example are commendable goals, but that has to be weighed against the reality of that uniform and military culture - whatever personal goals of yours will be compromised by the institution you will serve first. Most of your individual freedom of choice will be negated. If you come up with a bright idea to achieve your goals, you will probably need institutional permission first.

As a recent college graduate, I would have to say that I'm not surprised at all by Jessica's sentiments. I am, however, deeply concerned that she shows no evidence of researching the unique difficulties of being a woman in the military. By that I mean that I would be less concerned for her if she mentioned was aware that in 2008, 11% of women report (and many, many more experienced) rape while serving. Frankly, if this were my daughter I would be very concerned that her search for "esprit de corps and the brotherhood (and hopefully sisterhood, ha)" might not end the way she'd hoped. I support the military, but I would find it very difficult to support a sister or friend who chose to enlist until the military committed more to protecting female soldiers from sexual trauma and assault. For that reason, I would have to agree with commenters who suggested other forms of public service.

Jessica is disgusted by her civilian peers that waste away their weekends getting drunk and watching bad television. The reality is many young soldiers and Marines do the same thing. I would say that soldiers party harder than their civilian peers. She is in for a bit of let down when she gets into the military and realizes that not every soldier or Marine is as highly motivated and idealistic as she is. In my experience there are many that treat the military as just another government job, and party hard on the week ends. It's not a majority, but they do exist.