Sadly, from personal experience, I can tell you this is accurate. It wasn't until I was actually deployed and saw how the military operated that I began to lose the gung-ho attitude. Luckily, I was never in a position where I had to do anything horrible overseas but the potential was definitely there, and I can definitely understand why veteran suicides are so prevalent.

Just to give any civilians a taste of the kind of things we basically chanted like a cult for 10 weeks (Army BCT) I'll paraphrase a part of a marching tune we sang:

"Shoot 'em in the head, shoot 'em in the head, kill 'em! And if they don't die you got to relooooad and shoot em again!"

Be a teenager and chant that everyday and you will start to feel like a killer. I know I did.