As a consequence many of them behave like stereotypical used car salesmen.

They are usually considering making the military their career. They want good reports. So, on occasion some of them will make promises they know they can't keep, falsify histories, and it general fudge here, there and everywhere. And it's institutional.

During Vietnam there was the promise to vulnerable recruits to make pilots out of them. So they signed up, certainly headed off to learn to fly helicopters. And a very, very high percentage couldn't pass the qualifying exams. Which was known to the military, but not divulged to the recruit. And the fellow was relegated to filling a "need of the service" slot, which was grunt.

Not all of them step over the line, and of those that do they don't do it all of the time. But the temptation is there, certainly, and once someone has signed they are off to war. No turning back, no getting out because the recruiter may have sold a product he didn't have. The pressure has been on them for a long, long time. Some folks like it, though, and there are some advantages. A more or less civilian life, fairly regular hours, that sort of thing.

Arf