For the Jarheads...

[KBCraig]

SAN DIEGO, California — On Jan. 26, 2011, a pair of U.S. Marines put Alan Gourgue in handcuffs and a restraint belt and hauled him across the country to face trial as a deserter. Gourgue was distraught and completely confused; he had been honorably discharged in 2006 and finished his reserve obligation four months earlier.

Gourgue's ordeal provides a glimpse into a rarely seen, slow-moving, stiflingly bureaucratic world of military desertions, where one administrative mistake can result in a catch-22 that Joseph Heller couldn't have invented.

More:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/07/deserter-fuba/all/

[Pat K]

Damn if I ever start having nightmares, this would be it.

[Silent_Bob]

This would be a good story to make a flyer and hand out at recruitment centers.

[Tom Sawyer]

When I was in "The Suck", the warm fuzzy name us Jugheads used to refer to the USMC... I got caught in bureaucratic limbo while on leave in the Phillipines... They wouldn't pay me, they wouldn't feed me... then when I tried to fly back to the states they tried to confiscate my passport... "Oh no you won't!" I shouted at the Major and ran all the way off the base. For 2 weeks I was a man without a country... if I hadn't only had 2 months left in my enlistment I probably would have just disappeared out into the province.

That 2 weeks with no money, I had some of the best fun of my life. The girls and families I was connected with provided, I had a giant bag of stuff to trade... Days on the beach, nights bar hopping dancing with my girl and her friends... damn, now I want to go tropical again. 

But, back on topic, yeah the military will lose your kid... get him killed... let his health fail and not save him... treat him like a a pawn and a number. It cemented my distrust of gooberments and institutions in general.