In this day and age, duty has become an outmoded ethic. Nobody wants to do anything they feel obligated to do, but in many ways, that’s merely hearsay. People do all sorts of things they are obligated to do, often without second thought. They serve their families and their friends, they show up to work, they stop at red lights. These are all obligations. Duties. It’s not such a dirty word.
In truth, you’re not totally obligated to do anything. But if you didn’t serve your family or your friends, if you all of a sudden decided to stop going to work, and if you no longer stopped at red lights, what kind of person would that make you? You wouldn’t have friends, you’d be out of a job, and you might even wind up dead. So even if you don’t think you do things because you’re obligated, you do.
So herein is the question of the military. Do you have a duty to your nation? You have a duty to your friends, you have a duty to your family and your job. Would friends, family, and a job be possible without your nation? The answer, of course, is no. You have roads that connect you, money that pays you and supports you, friends that speak the same language and share the same interests as you, so is it not your duty to, at some point, protect the safety and well-being of these things and these people?
The US Navy offers you this option. Like all branches of the military, you will spend time away, but your family and your nation will be forever indebted to you. The respect you earn from the hard work you will be putting forth in the military is unmatched in any other life pursuit, and the rewards are not only material, but transcendent as well. You will be doing something right, and the price for that is incalculable.