Military meets, exceeds recruiting goals

AP on Yahoo ^ | 12/12/06 | Pauline Jelinek - ap

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

Thanks for clarifying your intent and my name ain't Francis. It's good to hear that your intent wasn't to bash our troops, maybe a little note to indicate that would help, but I've been around a couple years and long enough to hear the scum bag trolls that do.

You seriously need to check your meter.

[razzle]

"Six years is way too long to continue to place any blame on the Clinton administration"

I was booted out of the Navy Reserve during the CLintoon years despite having Surface Warfare quals and 8 years active duty. If we can blame the Stalin purges in the 1920s and 30s for the Russian problems in WWII, I think Clintoon can take some heat for screwing with the US military (he balanced the budget with DoD cuts alone (and the dot com tax revenue boom).

[Steel Wolf]

It's not that Clinton doesn't deserve blame for what he did. Bush Sr's original cuts were pretty deep, and Clinton took it deeper still.

So, six years later or sixty, he'll be responsible for what he did in the 90s. That has no bearing on the fact that our current Administration has kept the size of Clinton's downsized military, which everyone seems to agree is too small, and then vastly increased our global committmets. We've had six years to fix the problem, and have done practically nothing to do so. Blaming Clinton now is a little like buying a car that needed an oil change, and then not changing the oil for five years, while blaming the seller for screwing you.

While he irresponsibly handed us a small military from a relatively peaceful decade, what does it say about the current Administration to be more than halfway through a decade filled with war, and STILL haven't built the military back up?

[carolw]

The rumors you hear are absolutely correct, but grossly understated.
What is being covered up and waivered is truly frightening. The recruiters put guidance counselors in positions that are inexcusable. The whole game is to bring a clearly unqualified applicant to the MEPS on Mission Day and hope a guidance counselor doesn't notice. Once the counselors signature is on the contract...guess who gets the blame?

[tobyhill]

My meter is just fine and when someone is going to crack jokes about our military who just recently signed up I will ask for clarification and indicate to them they need a notation to let others know that it is an innocent joke with no bashing intended. I have seen trolls come up on FR that does nothing but bash our troops and our President.

[MinstrelBoy]

I'll be one of those enlisting early next year : )

[Valpal1]

so we can't figure out the joy in sitting at the bar in Applebee's or wandering aimlessly through Target in your cammies.

Because people come up to them and thank them for their service (and buy them drinks).

[USMCWife6869]

This is a military town, so sadly, no one really looks twice at the uniforms. We have Yuma Proving Grounds and MCAS Yuma here and there is some kind of Naval Station in El Centro.

And people always know my dh is a Marine, even if he isn't in uniform because of the haircut, so he wouldn't need to wander around in his cammies LOL.

[archy]

..The max initial recruitment age has been raised to what, 65? ... Don't get my hopes up like that ..

Not quite.

Army raises enlistment age

FORT KNOX, Ky. (Army News Service, June 22, 2006) – The Army has raised the enlistment age to 42, made possible under provisions of the Fiscal Year 2006 National Defense Authorization Act.

The Army raised the active-duty age limit to 40 in January as an interim step while it worked out the additional medical screening requirements for recruits ages 40 to 42. Before January, an applicant could not have reached his or her 35th birthday. The Army Reserve age limit was raised from 35 to 40 in March 2005.

Raising the maximum age for Army enlistment expands the recruiting pool, provides motivated individuals an opportunity to serve and strengthens the readiness of Army units. More than 1,000 men and women over age 35 have already enlisted since the Army and Army Reserve raised their age limits to age 40.

*more*

There is, however another route that gets pretty close to 65:

United States Code, TITLE 32, § 313.
Appointments and enlistments: age limitations

(a) To be eligible for original enlistment in the National Guard, a person must be at least 17 years of age and under 45, or under 64 years of age and a former member of the Regular Army, Regular Navy, Regular Air Force, or Regular Marine Corps. To be eligible for reenlistment, a person must be under 64 years of age.
(b) To be eligible for appointment as an officer of the National Guard, a person must—
(1) be a citizen of the United States; and
(2) be at least 18 years of age and under 64.