Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Recruits' Ineligibility Tests the Military
The Wall Street Journal ^ | June 27, 2014 | Miriam Jordan

Posted on 07/03/2014 5:46:51 AM PDT by KeyLargo

U.S. News

Recruits' Ineligibility Tests the Military

More Than Two-Thirds of American Youth Wouldn't Qualify for Service, Pentagon Says By Miriam Jordan

June 27, 2014

More than two-thirds of America's youth would fail to qualify for military service because of physical, behavioral or educational shortcomings, posing challenges to building the next generation of soldiers even as the U.S. draws down troops from conflict zones.

The military deems many youngsters ineligible due to obesity, lack of a high-school diploma, felony convictions and prescription-drug use for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. But others are now also running afoul of standards for appearance amid the growing popularity of large-scale tattoos and devices called ear gauges that create large holes in earlobes.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: military; obesity; recruits; rejected
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-58 last
To: sickoflibs; Impy; NFHale; Clintonfatigued; BillyBoy; fieldmarshaldj; KC_Lion

HERPES,
HPV,
TATTOOS,
HIV

“THE NEW AMERIKA”!”THE NEW AMERIKA”!”THE NEW AMERIKA”!”THE NEW AMERIKA”!”THE NEW AMERIKA”!”THE NEW AMERIKA”!”THE NEW AMERIKA”!”THE NEW AMERIKA”!”THE NEW AMERIKA”!”THE NEW AMERIKA”!”THE NEW AMERIKA”!”THE NEW AMERIKA”!”THE NEW AMERIKA”!”THE NEW AMERIKA”!”THE NEW AMERIKA”!”THE NEW AMERIKA”!”THE NEW AMERIKA”!”THE NEW AMERIKA”!”THE NEW AMERIKA”!”THE NEW AMERIKA”!”THE NEW AMERIKA”!


41 posted on 07/03/2014 12:29:11 PM PDT by GOPsterinMA (I'm with Steve McQueen: I live my life for myself and answer to nobody.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: KeyLargo
Ineligible to serve in the military for the reasons cited, ineligible to vote!
42 posted on 07/03/2014 2:35:03 PM PDT by SandRat (Duty - Honor - Country! What else needs said?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Caipirabob

I’ve often wondered what kind of doofus pays to have a tattoo put where they can’t see it.


43 posted on 07/04/2014 4:25:22 PM PDT by Baynative (How much longer will the media be able to prop up this administration?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: AbnSarge
But then, the army has been on a campaign to make people brave through language:

And Sir Robin bravely ran away...

44 posted on 07/04/2014 8:07:47 PM PDT by kiryandil (turning Americans into felons, one obnoxious drunk at a time (Zero Tolerance!!!))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Caipirabob

First of all it’s ignorant of you to be like that, second of all there is NO way that that could be offensive to anyone in any way shape or form. It’s not anything to do with religion or any of that it’s a memorial for my grandfather who passed away and I was extremely close to him so before you go spouting off, maybe you should bite your tongue and think again, you can’t judge a book by it’s cover.


45 posted on 07/04/2014 11:35:21 PM PDT by Bcrippen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: ChildOfThe60s

Please elaborate on how it’s offensive?
I’d love to know since I find it hard to believe that a fish would offend someone.


46 posted on 07/04/2014 11:35:21 PM PDT by Bcrippen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Senator_Blutarski

The article didn’t clarify on what I was upset about, I wanted to serve this country and I was told no over a simple thing, most military members are covered in tattoos, which is normal. So why would this be a issue?


47 posted on 07/04/2014 11:35:21 PM PDT by Bcrippen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Antihero101607

That is a very ignorant thing to say. I was contacted by the wsj after going to go get my tattoo removed. Remember there is always 2 sides to a story.


48 posted on 07/04/2014 11:35:23 PM PDT by Bcrippen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: RipSawyer

Then please tell me how it offends you, there is no way that a simple outline could offend someone one and if it does then there are obviously issues there.


49 posted on 07/04/2014 11:35:23 PM PDT by Bcrippen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: oh8eleven

It’s 800 dollars to remove, I’m a college student and I have bills. You do the math.


50 posted on 07/04/2014 11:35:23 PM PDT by Bcrippen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: Baynative

At one point my hair was short enough where you could see it.


51 posted on 07/04/2014 11:35:23 PM PDT by Bcrippen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: SandRat

How does that have anything to do with voting.


52 posted on 07/04/2014 11:35:23 PM PDT by Bcrippen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: Bcrippen

I don’t think that there is any kind of inked image that can improve the appearance of any human, whether it is a dragon, a piece of barbed wire, an eagle, a rose, a butterfly or a pile of steaming garbage, to me it DETRACTS from the enjoyment of life. I am just as entitled to my opinion as you or anyone else is entitled to believe that a tattoo is attractive. I am the great grandson of a confederate veteran and I was born and raised within ten miles of the site of the first secession meeting but I consider a “Rebel” flag tattoo offensive as I do a stars and stripes tattoo or any other kind of tattoo, even if it is just the outline of something. I don’t go out of my way to tell people I don’t like their tattoos, I try to ignore them but I will never find them anything but a negative. It is my nature to prefer things plain and simple, I wouldn’t wear a ten thousand dollar Rolex watch if you gave it to me, maybe if you paid me to wear it I would, I wouldn’t give fifteen cents for all the fancy men’s jewelry on the Earth if all I could do with it is wear it, now if I could trade it for a log cabin on a Trout filled stream in East Tennessee that would be different, if you see that as my having “issues” then think what you will, I don’t really care.

Basically I agree with a comment I once heard on the radio from some commentator, “Nothing else says low rent like a tattoo.”


53 posted on 07/05/2014 7:15:14 AM PDT by RipSawyer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: RipSawyer

I agree, particularly about the log cabin on the trout filled stream.
My father was career Navy, and was adamantly against tattoos.


54 posted on 07/05/2014 7:21:27 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: Bcrippen
<...most military members are covered in tattoos...

Your statement above is patently false.

In any event, the location of the tattoo is the issue. By ignoring the long term consequences, you made a poor decision when you chose to get that tattoo. I can't work up much sympathy for someone who made a bad choice.

55 posted on 07/05/2014 7:29:00 AM PDT by Senator_Blutarski
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: knarf

Lol...maybe in DC or San Francisco....


56 posted on 07/05/2014 8:41:11 AM PDT by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: KeyLargo

Lol...”you’re not going to make it, soldier...”

I knew a guy from High School who was a really unpleasant wise @ss. He joined the marines right out of school but didn’t change his attitude. One day his unit organized a “field hockey” game with training rifles. 3 guys in his unit charged him and all of them hit his leg, breaking it in multiple places. He was later honorably discharged having been disabled. This was his version of the story, and knowing him it was worse than he related.


57 posted on 07/05/2014 8:50:34 AM PDT by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Bcrippen

I know I’m stepping into it, but you deserve an honest answer.

Even though I used the word “offensive”, that’s really not a proper description. However, “offensive” seems to be the chosen word for anything people have a negative opinion of. So be it.

I’m not offended by a fish on this woman, nor am I by any of the visual content of the dozens of tattoos my 26 yo niece sports all over her body. Some are technically artistic, others just plain goofy, and a few which look homemade that I am pretty sure they are not. I like the young woman, treat her much better than her mother does. Nonetheless, I do not like tattoos, neither esthetically nor as a practical matter. IMO it was dumb to cover her body in the manner she did.

Now, and this is the key to this discussion; I don’t have to justify, to *anyone’s* satisfaction, my distaste for tattoos. Does not matter why I don’t like them. People can do what they want to their bodies in that regard. But they are stupid, intolerant and selfish if they think they have some sort of “right” to demand that I like it or that I be required by the PC thought police to hire someone that will have a negative impact on my clients or customers, or whomever I do business with. There is no such “right”. Many years ago I had very long hair, and at that time that meant a lot of jobs I was qualified for I could not get. My choice and their business to run as they wished.

But I also knew that long hair and clothing was a fashion statement, that fashion changes, and that if and when I wanted those jobs I could cut my hair and change my clothes. People usually get tattoos as fashion statements which is illogical given that fashion is temporary and tattoos are not. Nonetheless, as a free person they may certainly do so. However that imparts them no special rights as if they were born with something they had no choice about.

I like what I like, and I don’t like what I don’t like. If anyone finds that offensive, they are quite free to simply not associate with me.

Right of free association. That is indeed a fundamental right the left would like to eliminate entirely.


58 posted on 07/05/2014 9:51:51 AM PDT by ChildOfThe60s ((If you can remember the 60s.....you weren't really there)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-58 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson