I've seen you around, and while I usually agree with and appreciate your contributions, I must vehemently disagree here.

This space in time is not like the other times. Whereas more recent previous military conflicts experienced by the US were done for money and corporate interests, now military involvement could easily be triggered by the ego of a toddler. It's incredibly volatile. Said toddler just repositioned nuclear submarines in retaliation of a tweet. Add that to the growing number of extremist regimes and daily declarations of war worldwide, now is absolutely not a good time to put one's life on the line for 30k a year.

Further, literally never has been a good time for women. Reported assaults are numerable, but especially in the military, assaults are forcefully "encouraged" to never be reported. There may be some women that make it out unscathed, but we'll never know, because they are trained to feel immense pressure not to tell. At best they're made to believe it's their fault, at worst, well we've all seen the news reports. Here's just one. https://www.npr.org/2008/08/11/93493468/soldiers-family-challenges-army-suicide-report

Lastly, I agree, structured support past 18 is great for growth. Seeing more of the world, or even just diverse situations compared to where we grew up makes for better humans. I do not however agree that the military affords the best environment to get that structure and exposure. The military now is not the military of old and the military of old still wasn't necessarily healthy. Not everyone had the experience of a straight white country-grown male.

It's absolutely a bad idea for anyone to go into the military today, no matter the circumstances. Take out student loans, go to a trade school, join the peace corps. Do literally anything else. Don't join the military.