"They think: 'It's not something our class of people should be doing. Others should do it for us,'" he says. "It's almost like maid service."

"It wasn't a matter of whether you went into the military, it was when," he recalls. "I had a couple of options: I could get drafted or I could join. I thought of the old line: 'Join the Navy and see the world.' I ended up spending better than two years in Norfolk, Virginia, which was not my idea of high adventure.

[Tony Earl] agrees. "I don't think it's healthy at all," he says. "When the elite of our society have enjoyed the benefits of society but disdain the military and regard it as more appropriate for people of lesser standing, they do themselves and the country a terrible disservice."

Military recruitment
Children & youth