"It Defines Me to This Day" — Kai Ryssdal on What Military Service Teaches

The gist

1. Ryssdal says young people's gloom comes less from today's numbers and more from their future: inequality, broken politics, and no shared national purpose.
2. Ryssdal, 62, left the Navy at 29 and says service still defines him through duty, loyalty, respect up and down the chain, and mission first.
3. He argues the military won't hand you a code of honor, but if you already have one, service sharpens it, and he backs some form of national service.
4. Ryssdal calls the Venezuela operation something only the US military could pull off, but says Hegseth is eroding the professionalism that money can't buy.
5. On carrier groups moving near Iran, Ryssdal says they're a classic show of force, but the president is a chaos agent and impossible to predict.