Sir! Reporting for duty!
Posted on 06/28/2014 9:11:18 PM PDT by QT3.14
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 ...
I could imagine a draft in this day and age.
So do I....and so say most all of us..
Pretty sad because the army is notoriously unpicky.
If the draft is started up again I’d be inclined to help some of the draft dodgers.
I thought they were shower curtain rings.
Got a young friend who just returned from boot camp after a couple of weeks. Had a freakout moment and could not continue. Sorry, I saw it coming when he signed up.
Next thing you know, they will say this is discriminatory against homosexuals.
“ear gauges that create large holes in earlobes.”
They are some of the most disgusting things I’ve seen. Right up there with cutting and other self mutilation.
Imagine the absurdity of a US citizen getting drafted and an illegal gets the vacated job.
Oh come on, you know very well how to relax the standards to let people in...
No, they’re convenient handles to be used against them if they ever become aggressive to me and mine. an advantage is an advantage.
CC
I was a Selective Service board member during Desert Storm and on into the 90’s. You don’t want that.
Had a friend of mine once say, that if you can’t make it a a private in the Army, you can’t make it in life. Pretty true words IMHO.
Similar situation, I told my wife that a young friend of ours would never make it through boot. I think he lasted about two weeks also.
When you've been through boot camp yourself, some people are just plain easy to predict.
Unrelated but it just popped into my mind. Several years ago my wife's brother enlisted, I knew he wouldn't have much of a hard time making it, he was physically and mentally fit. He came home fromm boot and told us that all his comrades called him "old man" - he was 25 years old.
Hey Lap, last time we chose to stay. This time, we head to Canada. I never forgave that dang peanut farmer for that.
There are two different criteria being conflated here. First is that youngsters today can’t meet the military’s entry criteria. Second is that youngsters today aren’t fit for military service. I think both are red herrings.
As for youngsters being turned away, a soldier with a neck tattoo can serve in the military, many have. The military can afford to be picky right now, and if they want to waive or change tattoo policy, it can be done in an afternoon. Before we cut and ran from iraq, soldiers with neck tattoos, felonies, and occasionally questionable mental stability were shuffled through basic because warm bodies were needed to fill billets. Many served honorably, a few are still serving, and a small number became problems.
As for those not fit for military service (physically, medically), I know a number of military jobs barely need a pulse to meet the physical demands. Can you be a network admin and not run to the end of the parking lot? Yes. You can fly a drone with little more than two working hands and a clear head. Is the pool of ranger candidates smaller than in 1942?, Yes and no. The physically capable pool is probably smaller, but the mentally capable pool is bigger. Illiteracy wasn’t that much of a barrier to service in prior wars, Sergeant York had less than a year of formal schooling in his life and he did okay. Most kids these days don’t know how to shoot before entering the military, many have never thrown a punch at another person, or slept in a tent, but then again, many servicemembers today can go an entire career without needing to do any of these things.
Long post short, the military has a different set of needs for candidates today than it did ten years ago, and a different set of candidates than it did fifty years ago. I never understood whining to be a martial value, but I do know confronting challenges and overcoming adversity are things we trust the military to do. If they have to work a little harderthan they did in december 1941, that’s what they will have to do.
I left commercial fishing in the Atlantic for Navy Bootcamp. Was the easiest 2 months of my teenage years.
Please tell me that’s a New Guinea native...
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