Pros
Education. Friends for life. Old boy network who will do anything for a comrade even if you have never met. Straightforward working environment without snowflake political correctness.
Cons
Pay about 60% of the equivalent private sector job. Risking your life overseas in malaria zones in terrible conditions away from your family. Forced to work hours illegal under the working time directive. Paying up to €100,000 if you leave immediately after doing your degree. Living in crumbling accommodation. Being fed food costing 70% of that served to prisoners in jail. The old pension scheme is gone so private sector pensions are much better. The Department of Defence is where other departments dump their “attitude problem” civil servants who as vengeance for being “wronged” are deliberately destroying the Defence Forces for kicks which has destroyed everybody’s will to live, thus the mass exodus.