As I got older and started to consider joining after high school my dad sat me down and strongly discouraged me. He pulled out the letters my grandpa sent home before he was killed in WWII. He showed me all the correspondence back and forth with my grandma dealing with his effects. He showed me the letters and journal entries my great grandmother had written upon the death of her son and also what she wrote when her brothers were killed in WWII. At the end he said that he didn't want me to join because our family had done more than enough. I never did join the military.