New survey shows service members would not recommend military to their children

A new annual survey of military families shows a majority of active-duty military families, 57 percent of them, said they were unlikely to recommend that their own children join the service.

That would be almost unheard of in past decades. Military families tend to remain military families.

In the survey released by the military family support organization Blue Star Families, 56 percent of the active-duty service members said they had more than one immediate family members currently serving or who were veterans.

More than half had a parent who served, 60 percent had a grandparent who served and 52 percent had an aunt or uncle who had.

And while more than 90 percent say they are proud of their military service, a growing number say it’s just too tough to justify the same career for their own kids.

The most common reasons they give aren’t the risk of being hurt or killed in battle, or the high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder.