I enlisted. I did stuff. I retired
Pros
You get to travel a lot, medical, college benefits and retirement plan are 2d to none for self or for family. Pay is o.k. for amount of work given and 30 paid vacation for everybody per year. For individuals who have drive and talent, the sky is the limit. Just remember, it is a good place to start. Right now the severance package is pretty good for Sailors under six years...
Cons
Being on a ship was the single most depressing thing I have ever done, It took more than a year to fully recover from chronic depression. The closer I got to retirement, the more stupid my management became. With all the Sex Assault, Drinking and Driving, Anti-Terrorism, and anti-stupidity training that was piled on, add in the ridiculous Physical training schedule and I was only able to use 19 hours of my work week for work. Unfortunately, my management gave me 40+ hours of actual work per week...Shrinking budgets, aging infrastructure and growing Operations tempo portend that things won't get better anytime soon.