I had a friend in highschool who loved Germany, took the language, did an exchange program, recruiters told him he could get stationed in Germany for being bilingual. He did everything he was supposed to do, and trusted what authority figures told him.
He got one month in Germany before he got redeployed to the Middle East.
Grew up in the countryside where our yard ended where my dad stopped cutting the grass, one time I messed up his line and we found a horseshoe pit while fixing it, so we got a bigger yard with horseshoes 😂