15 years from now your mates who joined in 2006 will be banging on about how it's not like the good old days when we still had Cyprus and were doing a proper job in Basra instead of keeping the 'peace' in ummm [map..finger..stab] Greenland.
Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose. As the SWO used to say.
PS.Tell 'em to join but if they don't know in what job - remember there are only two kinds of people in the world: Pilots and Pax.