Family friend- two kids in the military, identical path (Naval Academy). Two years apart. One kid spent the bulk of the commitment in an air conditioned office somewhere in the Southwest (but weekends off in Vegas, so not too remote) programming, debugging, etc. One quick tour at a coastal location (San Diego) which was described as “heaven on earth”.
The other had three deployments to hostile off-shore locations in the Middle East, missed the birth of the first child but courtesy of the commanding officer, was allowed a Satellite call after wife delivered.
This isn’t summer camp and you don’t get to choose the geo-political environment you want to serve in!!! We all know people who spent their military service in Hawaii, gorgeous places in Western Europe, interesting spots in Asia. And most of us adults also know people who won’t or can’t speak about what they saw (recently, I’m not talking about Korean War vets) in Baghdad, Afghanistan, or helping to process Syrian refugees who had been gassed by their own government.