I was a conscript in the Danish army. Roughly speaking, they examined all 18 year olds, sorted out those with low IQ and those with physical injuries and asked

I was a conscript in the Danish army. Roughly speaking, they examined all 18 year olds, sorted out those with low IQ and those with physical injuries and asked the rest if we wanted to join voluntarily. They never got enough volunteers so they drafted around 1/3 of the rest of us using what was basically a tombola drum. Then we did 6-12 months. I did 9. I think most of us thought we had been unlucky to draw a low number in the tombola meaning that we had to serve. But we also felt some kind of pride in what we did and you got to meet kids your own age from all walks of life. Most of us had fathers, grandfathers, great grandfathers who had been in the military as well. We were literally craving physical activity, weapons training, exercises, difficult tasks etc. since a lot of the time we were just a bunch of teenagers waiting around. The Danish military mainly recruited professionals among the conscripts. I think such system works very well.