This will likely get lost amongst the thousands of comments, but here it goes: The US Army. I enlisted in February 2007, had dropped out of college at the time. I served as an Infantryman and was in until July 2011. I originally enlisted thinking I'd served 20+ years. I joined, kicked ass in basic training. My PT scores were great, my marksmanship was fantastic. Getting to my actual unit changed everything. I learned quickly that the regular infantry are a mismatch pattern of awesome individuals and total shit-bags. This goes double for leaders.

By the time I returned from my deployment in August 2010, I realized that the idealized version of the Army was fictional. The truth was that the Army was an often chaotic, disorganized cluster-fuck in many ways. Great leaders can slip through the cracks and deplorably bad leaders could easily rise to the top. I watched us waste so much time and resources that by the time my contract neared its end, there was no way I would re-enlist. It was heartbreaking. But it's been 6 years since I got out of the Army and my life is great (married, a baby, a great job, a bachelor's degree, and about to finish my Master's this semester -- all with zero debt from my GI Bill, so I regret nothing).