I was the perfect 18 year old target for the recruiters message of "do manly things, be all you can be, army of one, etc...". My job in there was "signal intelligence analyst"(98c), which sounds fine and good, and you might imagine(as I did) that it would lead to a civilian career in the same sector. Nothing was farther from the truth in my experience. The private sector regards "Army intelligence" as an oxymoron/joke, and my only options were a job with the DOD or other government agency.
If I had picked any other branch of service(except the Marines), I wouldn't have had that problem. I also might have found my comrades to be less brawn and more brain if I had joined a branch that was less focused on the combat aspects of war.
