difficult child 1 had a schoolfriend who wanted to enlist. Bear in mind, this is Australia, whose defence forces are already considered to be berserkers by some other countries...
difficult child 1's friend, we'll call him Jack, was part of that gang of buddies who have a range of problems including ADHD, social issues, discipline problems - you name it. Jack was not the brightest kid, was at times verbally aggressive, often inappropriate, was on medications for ADHD. At school, teachers used to be afraid of him because he was violent and unpredictable. But he wanted to join the army.
So Jack stopped his medications, then went in to the recruiting office. Since they asked questions like, "Are you currently on any medication?" and he could now answer, "No," he slid past. The army took him on.
Time passed. The army put Jack through training, he seemed to get through it OK as far as we were told. Jack got posted to an isolated area and we gather became a problem. They realised he had problems and to their credit, did what they could to help him. Jack was moved from combat position to rear echelon, as a driver. I was a passenger in a car driven by him at about that time - he was scary. Still totally irresponsible and dangerous.
Eventually Jack got invalided out of the army, on the grounds of being unfit.
However, I remember soon after he enlisted, difficult child 1 bumped into a former teacher who asked how he as going. As part of the conversation, difficult child 1 said to the teacher, "Hey, remember Jack? Well, he went off his medications, joined the army, they gave him a gun and taught him to kill. Isn't that nice?"
Marg