Caution: :skull_125ANECDOTAL:skull_125
A kid I grew up with in the suburbs of Denver...he was a really nice guy. We played baseball and football together. He seemed normal. His home life, however, was less than ideal. I remember one time his mom was dropping him off at school, and she ran over his foot. No one else saw it, and he toughed out the day with a broken foot. His dad came to our practices and called the kid an idiot when he made mistakes (We were about 11...so that's just dumb- at any age, really). He ended up running with a pretty bad crowd through our teenage years. Spent a couple of months in jail. He TURNED HIS LIFE AROUND after he was allowed into the Army. While I don't think that it's the role of government (read: US military) to rehabilitate ex-cons, I do believe that the people who want to join after getting into trouble in their adolescence are doing so for good reasons. It appears to me from what I've seen that they are very into the cause that they have taken up. While there are going to be d-bags that come into the military with a criminal waiver, you could probably say that there are plenty that come in without a criminal waiver.
No one deserves a second chance, but some are lucky enough to get one.
my 2¢