One could essentially sign up to be a librarian (bit of an exaggeration but there are active duty members who work at libraries). Same goes for Coast Guard which doesn’t get deployed in the traditional sense and are more like water police.

Ceteribus paribus, the military provides stable job, income, and a generous scholarship.

The scholarship is roughly $70-$100k depending on school and a monthly housing stipend. For SF area, that stipend is $4.2k/month

Anecdotal, but my mother was a mechanic, my uncle a cryptographer, another uncle was some type of police on base, my cousin is a drone pilot and just sits in an office like building despite technically being involved in combat I suppose. Several former colleagues mostly did admin-type work while enlisted. The last person I know to have actually seen combat was my grandfather in Korea--but he knew what he signed up for and it was fairly deliberate at the time, he had wanted to be like his cousin that had fought on Iwo Jima years prior who was also a volunteer. All used their GI bill to get an education.

My point being, there's tons of military jobs that don't involve violence. For each job that does require violence, dozens more auxiliary positions are required to support that job.

>> my mother was a mechanic, my uncle a cryptographer, another uncle was some type of police on base, my cousin is a drone pilot

They have been fortunate. Obviously, in some conflicts, some people in all of those roles end up in postings where they are in hazardous areas. (Also: IIRC drone pilots stationed far from conflict still experience combat-induced PTSD.)

The other feature of the armed services is that in general, once you enlist you don't always get to choose your posting. It's great that some people get to choose plum jobs away from war zones, but (most?) others don't (and this can change for anyone in the military, at any time). A defining feature of a military is orders, and following them.

Military careers can be rewarding for some people. But just as it's wrong to say college is for everyone, it's not correct to suggest that one can embark on a military career without adding additional personal safety risk.

OP didn't say to join the military to get an education he said to do it as an alternative to college. It's a good career path that teaches useful skills. Most people in the military aren't employed in combat roles.

Uhm.. apparently you have little to no experience with the US military.

This worked out fine for me, no shooting involved: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/35T

There are plenty of jobs more hazardous than "soldier". I believe there's a guy who made a show about such "dirty jobs"? Mining, oil fields, and commercial fishing come to mind.