There is more to it than that, as I am retired military. In my 22 years of service, I spent 11 of those years at sea. There are not a whole lot of places I haven't been. I am one of the fortunate ones. When I got my draft notice, in July of 1975, I was on USCGC Glacier (WAGB 4) in the Bearing Sea. I missed going to Viet Nam by a scant few months. During Desert Storm, I was on USCGC Boutwell(WHEC 719) in the Gulf of Alaska patroling the US Exclusive Economic Zone(200 mile limit fisheries patrol). I still have many friends who are still in service, and are deployed. Some are in Iraq, most are not, but their jobs and their service is just as important, if not more so.
I have a lot of my customers that are deployed to both Iraq, and afganistan. They are all in my prayers for a safe return home after they have served their time.

FWIW, the only differance between going to sea and going to jail, is when you go to sea, you have the added risk of drowning.