Back in '68 (right after Tet) I had four older HS friends who got in trouble. They were caught stealing batteries off construction equipment to sell for beer money. Next day they went before the County Judge ( Liberty co. CT House) and they had a choice....either the work farm Prison out at SugarLand (sort of SW of Houston) or the Marine Corp. All four went to Nam and all four served in combat and very well. Two Bronze Stars and one Silver Star, which is tough to get in the MC! They were getting out right when I was going in (but I went Army) I won't say they adjusted well to civilian life, but they did adjust w/o going to prison for anything, ha. There were alot of guys like that back then, at least where I came from.
Had a group of about a half-dozen serious 'street thugs' in basic training from the same neighborhood in Detroit who were offered and took the same deal. One of them intentionally jabbed another trainee in the eye during bayonet practice and even though the bayonet had the scabbard on it it still damn near put his eye out. Even the training cadre didn't like messing with them. They stayed in trouble and several wound up getting recycled.
Best friend when I lived in Chicago got into some trouble with the law and was offered the deal by a judge and took it, too. He was wounded in Vietnam and after he got out he went to work as a fireman. He retired from CFD a few years ago, sold out his Chicago interests and bought a nice place in Florida.
Also, the minimum mental evaluation and passing test scores were lowered substantially. We had one guy (drafted) in basic training who never should have even been considered for military service because as a kid he had accidentally shot and killed his little brother. He went AWOL every chance he got, in and out of the stockade several times and eventually got a Undesirable Discharge after almost a year.
