Quote Originally Posted by davidbfpo View Post
You will need to resolve two practical, moral questions - maybe not at your age, certainly before making a choice - can you kill people and always obey (lawful) orders? If you cannot answer those two questions in the affirmative the military is not for you.
Very good advice.

My only addition, and this is probably just because I'm a guy who took home a dreaded "boombox" (double Marksman awards) from the TBS range two weeks ago, is it wouldn't hurt to do some shooting and become familiar with marksmanship. They will teach it to you, but it will be fast and it wouldn't hurt to come in with a background as long as you don't have bad habits.

Other than that, get a good physical fitness foundation, read lots (especially military history), and don't make any really bad decisions (kids, drugs, academic failure). And if you're not a people person, become one. In my very limited experience, the guys that struggle on the path to becoming officers mainly have problems in that area.

Merry Christmas all.