So, a Russian Sub Caught Fire

My son (single, thus no mouths to feed but his own) sees this a lot with the NCO's he meets/work with who are just burned out and past their shelf life but hang in there for the pension
in the long term, steady money + benefits for the near term. I hit complete burnout at about 18 years, right after I got back from a very successful deployment to Iraq.
I was literally at my peak of job skills, could not get promoted, and was facing two years of instructor duty. Instructor duty for me means sleep deprivation, PT way, way too early in the morning for an old man to be up, long ass meetings hearing long winded tirades of nonsense, etc.etc. That last two years was really beating me down.

That's why my son and also my son-in-law are only doing one enlistment. They love the shit out of their family and friends and don't want to live all over the globe
far from everyone. But both are smart so they can make it "on the outside" so being a lifer doesn't interest them.

I don't even think that's a reason. I don't know anyone who fears death or injury in the military. Statistically math is on your side - X amount of military versus X amount dead or injured.
You have a greater chance of being killed in a car wreck or getting shot on your street corner as a civilian than getting killed in the military. Most of my more serious injuries/
injuries I have witnessed happen to others were in the civilian world. The military was much safer for me, as it is for many blue-collar people.

That reminds me of an early episode of NCIS where Marine recruiters were being killed by a sniper.

The episode opened with two high school seniors at an arcade being impressed with a uniformed recruiters skills in a first person shooter game. The recruiter (who was later said to be known for the real hard sell) was shown talking to them in his office. He was extolling the virtues of the Marines and travel opportunities and one of them hesitantly said "Iraq".

The recruiter acted thoughtful and said "Iraq is a possibility, but that thing will be over in a year, and you consider your training time.....I'll be honest boys I've been in for 12 years and I haven't been shot at.......(he was killed by the sniper at this point).

That reminds me of a statistical analysis of World War Two fighting (think it was in one of Dunigan's books).

People think of the infantry as the absolute most dangerous type of combat assignment and aircrew as less so. The analysis said that being assigned to a bomber crew in Europe in World War Two was actually considerably more dangerous than in the infantry.

Of course submarine duty was more dangerous than either.

Bombers caught hell! One bomber can cause untold death and damage, more than hundreds of infantry soldiers.
It was all hands on deck stopping bombers. And the enemy POW camps (in WWII and Vietnam) were chock full of shot down airmen.
When you are shot down and parachute out, it's pretty hard to hide a burning aircraft and a parachute.