I joined the armed forces as an 18 year old, BPF, can't remember any of it being remotely traumatic. I knew that after the initial heavy duty indoctrination had finished things would dramatically change. They did and things just went better. I would far prefer my children to join the outfit I joined and not today's aimless self loathing mess. As for asking 20 year olds their opinion, you must be joking. They want to spend their days on social media and need tick tock advice for everything including what sex they will be today. I didn't think it would be long before someone pointed out that these senior officers were too old but I would far prefer to be defended by one of them rather than some politically appointed, politically correct sycophant metrosexual REMF.