[bdunbar]

but frankly..nearly every frontline veteran I've ever met seems like an uneducated, violent and scary thug.

I never went to war, but I was a rifleman in the Marines, spent eight years there.

One thing I've noticed about me, and other guys like me, is that you'd never know on first acquaintance that I was a Marine. Commonly heard: But you don't look/act like a Marine!

I suspect you've met more so-called 'frontline veterans' than you think.

[cglace]

I spent a lot of time near Beaufort, SC on a nearby island after college. All the marines from Parris Island would go to downtown Beaufort on the weekends. Most of the marines were dicks looking for a fight. Some were cool but I remember thinking they were the exception not the rule.

[bdunbar]

Sure. And except for the 'looking for a fight' part I might have been one of those guys.

My point was that _some_ guys may be stupid thugs but not all of them are, and most of us grow out of it.

[PakG1]

Are you saying that the frontline changes people? Or something else? Just trying to clearly understand your meaning there.

[bdunbar]

Of course being in the service changes people - going to war even more so.

I'm saying that not every grunt is a coarse thug.

We leave the service, get a job, get an education, get a life. We leave the soldier behind, is what I'm saying.