For the record, officers are commissioned, they don't enlist. :)

The easy answer is none. You have a 50/50 chance of being fucked for a long time. If you see combat.

The friends I have that didn't kill themselves and have gotten over their substance abuse issues (nearly all of us abused drugs and alcohol for at least a year or two afterward) do feel more able to face the world. More important than strength discipline and character has been our adaptability and perspective.

I may have nightmares about my friend trapped and burning alive in an MRAP hit by an EFP. But at least I know I'll never complain about a facebook friend not liking my status. Everything from here on out is going to be cake, and it's going to be fun because it's a zero-sum game compared to a deployment. This attitude pisses a lot of people off, though. People will measure and compare their life's tragedies to it because this belittles their struggles. Yeah, I know suffering, pain, tragedy are relative. Context, please. "but you signed up for it!" -fuck you

But like iammyownrushmore's experience, less than half of the people I know have "gotten over it" so far. It's a different story for non-combat jobs.

That said, nobody I know regrets it, and we all feel it had a positive impact on our lives. Wouldn't be hard to make an objective argument against that, though.

Sorry for the shitpost.