History Main / FromCamouflageToCriminal

* Very common after the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar - for several years after its end bands of deserters and discharged veterans roamed Central Europe, essentially continuing in the wartime RapePillageAndBurn, especially in severaly depopulated areas, without effective control of local governments.

* The first ''VideoGame/Mercenaries'' game has the second in command of the [[TheMafiya Russian Mob]] being introduced as a former [=KGB=] agent, and implied to at one point to having been Spetznas.

* ''Literature/PrinceOfTheCity''. The 'paratroopers' are particularly tough Mafiosi with military experience in WW2.

** Post-WW2, several members of the former Imperial Japanese military ended up becoming members of the Yakuza. The most famous example would likely be [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshio_Kodama Yoshio Kodama]], whose wartime government-funded drug smuggling operations gave him the funding and connections to become one of the most powerful and influential post-war Yakuza.

** UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler himself served as a dispatch runner in WWI and was jailed for his role in the aforementioned Beer Hall Putsch coup becoming a Chancellor of Germany.

** UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler himself served as a dispatch runner on the front lines of WWI and staged a failed coup before becoming a Chancellor of Germany.

* In the aftermath of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, several veterans in both Germany and America went on to formed armed militias and gangs
** During Prohibition, there were numerous bootleggers who cut their teeth in [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the trenches of Europe]].
** In the Weimar Republic, several German veterans formed the Freikorps and Sturmabteilung militias to rob and terrorize leftists, Jews, and other group that they blamed for Germany's defeat. These gangs would later join the Nazis and participated in the failed Beer Hall Putsch coup

* During Prohibition, there were numerous bootleggers who cut their teeth in [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the trenches of Europe]].

* Frank Castle, aka ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'', in all his various incarnations, is a veteran turned VigilanteMan after his family is killed by criminals, and he goes far, far outside the law to act as JudgeJuryAndExecutioner on any criminal he meets. He's also faced off with other veterans of various wars who have turned to crime.
** The Slavers from the arc of the same name are hardened soldiers/war criminals from the Bosnian war.
** Barracuda, the badass hitman and Frank's arch-nemesis is a former Green Beret

A companion trope to LawmanGoneBad. Compare and contrast the {{Privateer}}, who was essentially paid by his nation to become a pirate against another nation's shipping, the RogueAgent, and the BoxedCrook. The inversions are TradingBarsForStripes, where a character facing prison time or in prison is given the choice of serving in the military instead, and RecruitingTheCriminal. May sometimes overlap with FormerRegimePersonnel.

* After the end of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, quite a few ex-soldiers (especially from the Confederate side) turned outlaw, the most famous such group being the [[BanditClan James-Younger Gang]] led by Frank and UsefulNotes/JesseJames. Many others went into a campaign of terrorism and guerrilla warfare by forming groups such as the UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_League the White League]] and striking against anything perceived as Northern, Republican, and ''especially'' attacking freed slaves.

** Trevor Philips of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'', enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force, and was almost done with his training until the head of psychological evaluation [[SociopathicSoldier deemed him unfit for service]], this is used to explain his skill in piloting.

** Subverted by Trevor Philips in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'', in that Trevor enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force, and was almost done with his training until the head of psychological evaluation [[SociopathicSoldier deemed him unfit for service]], this is used to explain his skill in piloting.

** Vito Scaletta from the previous game, ''VideoGame/MafiaII'', was also ex-military. He served in World War 2, and almost immediately upon arriving home his friend, Joe, convinces him to resort to a life of crime. When he meets Lincoln in III, he asks him about his experiences in Vietnam. Then again, Vito was always a criminal, as the reason he was in WWII [[TradingBarsForStripes was to avoid going to jail]] after a op caught him breaking into a store.

A companion trope to LawmanGoneBad. Compare and contrast the {{Privateer}}, who was essentially paid by his nation to become a pirate against another nation's shipping, the RogueAgent, and the BoxedCrook. The inversions are TradingBarsForStripes, where a character facing prison time or in prison is given the choice of serving in the military instead, and RecruitingTheCriminal.

** Vito Scaletta from the previous game, ''VideoGame/MafiaII'', was also ex-military. He served in World War 2, and almost immediately upon arriving home his friend, Joe, convinces him to resort to a life of crime. When he meets Lincoln in III, he asks him about his experiences in Vietnam. Then again, Vito was always a criminal, as the reason he was in WWII [[TradingBarsForStripes was to avoid going to jail]] caught a cop caught him breaking into a store.

** Vito Scaletta from the previous game, ''VideoGame/MafiaII'', was also ex-military. He served in World War 2, and almost immediately upon arriving home his friend, Joe, convinces him to resort to a life of crime. When he meets Lincoln in III, he asks him about his experiences in Vietnam.

** Season 2 episode ''Sleepless'' focuses on a disgruntled Vietnam vet who was has no need to sleep and the ability to alter other people's perception and plans to use his abilities to murder everyone involved in the experiment that gave him his powers
** Season 3 episode ''The Walk'' focuses on a disgruntled Gulf War vet who can astral project annd plans to use his ability to murder his superior officer's family

[[folder: Live Action TV]]

* The protagonist of ''Film/Scarface1983'' is Tony Montana, a former Cuban Army soldier who gradually becomes a fearsome Miami [[TheCartel cocaine kingpin]], known for his {{badass}}ery and ruthlessness. Tony's military training could explain his deadly skills with firearms, such as an [[MoreDakka assault rifle]] and {{grenade launcher}} that he uses to [[OneManArmy kill dozens of enemy gangsters]] with in the ending.