"Some people on these boards have a completely unrealistic view of the military and what they are all about. Starship Troopers it ain't."
In my wildest dreams I never thought I would ever be accused of having a completely unrealistic view of the military. I have had a life long, passionate interest in the military, two Honorable Discharges, and this year was told by an Army recruiter I'm just too old to go for a third. I didn't mean that the military would only consist of single men (I even said that wasn't my top priority), I simply meant that it is an incredible burden to accept recruits with no consideration for costs, and complications of bringing in family. Is it really arguable that a young single male is preferable to the same male with a wife and kids? With rank or time in service of course people will pick up wives, but they will be in a better position to take care of those families. To accept a situation where desperate failing families are encouraged to get one of their members enlisted so they can find a secure environment of benefits, pediatricians, gynecologists, off post housing, and separate rations, just doesn't seem to be a completely realistic view of the military and what they are all about.
Please note the qualifier "some."
I simply meant that it is an incredible burden to accept recruits with no consideration for costs, and complications of bringing in family.
Recruits are one thing--they already are not accepted if they have too high of a family burden (more than two kids, I think). However, I think it is incredibly stupid to deny a soldier as normal a life as possible, just to fulfill some romantic notion of what a soldier should be. Yes, it's incredibly inconvenient and costly for the military to deal with spouses and housing, but that's just the expense they're going to have to accept if they want to retain qualified people.
If the Pentagon number-crunchers were to institute such an idiotic plan, they'll probably be able to keep a few nutbags who want to stay bachelors forever. However, most people in the military above the age of 25 are married. Those are your senior people, the ones with the skills and knowledge, the ones the military needs to keep.
If I was told today that I had to get rid of my family or get out, I'd be on my way out. If, in that distant past, I had been told that I wasn't allowed to marry, I would have done my two years and left. I think that's the kind of answer you'd get out of just about anyone.
I'm still enlisted, and I'm watching with growing apprehension as the current leadership monkeys around with social engineering. Just because you can order someone to do something or to live their life a certain way doesn't mean you should. They'll reap the benefits, of course--another star is just around the corner for their "successes"--but it's going to bite them in the ass once young people start flooding out of the military in droves after their first enlistment.