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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
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To: ChildOfThe60s

she said. “My tattoo isn’t offensive.”

“Uh, it is if one is offended by stoopid. Which I am.”
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger, you definitely have company.
As for the young lady, if you want to have a tattoo that is your choice but don’t imagine that you get to decide to whom it is offensive.


21 posted on 07/03/2014 6:48:37 AM PDT by RipSawyer
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To: KeyLargo

Thank God we don’t have the draft and be forced to take these mental defectives.


22 posted on 07/03/2014 6:48:38 AM PDT by MNnice
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To: defconw

My son is at Fort Benning right now. He can barely bring himself to use the term “battle buddy,” at least not without laughing.


23 posted on 07/03/2014 6:52:42 AM PDT by hcmama
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To: KeyLargo; Gilbo_3; Impy; NFHale; GOPsterinMA; BillyBoy; fieldmarshaldj

This looks like the non-college bound Millennials who would make up the pool for military recruits.

This is why Grahamnesty, McCain and Rubio want amnesty so bad, because so many Millennials are losers disqualified from the military.


24 posted on 07/03/2014 6:55:27 AM PDT by sickoflibs (King Obama : 'The debate is over. The time for talk is over. Just follow my commands you serfs""')
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To: KeyLargo

Tats are dumb, but they shouldn’t be a disqualifying factor. How many soldiers get them after enlistment?


25 posted on 07/03/2014 7:03:34 AM PDT by snowrip (Liberal? You are a socialist idiot with no rational argument.)
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To: hcmama
Good to know. Our grand nephew is in the Marines, I hope he feels the same way. He was raised by the Marine so I think he's OK. But really what a dumb term! I understand the reasoning, but they really could come up with something that sounds a bit more intimidating, I should think.
26 posted on 07/03/2014 7:04:36 AM PDT by defconw (LUTFA!)
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To: KeyLargo; Gilbo_3; Impy; NFHale; GOPsterinMA; BillyBoy; fieldmarshaldj
More info:”U.S. Army First Sgt. James Sawyer, who heads recruiting across a swath of Los Angeles County, said tattoos have become the most common cosmetic reason that applicants are disqualified. The Army already banned tattoos on the face, neck and fingers, but according to regulations in effect May 1, soldiers also can't have more than a total of four visible tattoos below the elbows and knees, and tattoos must be relatively small. The goal of the tattoo rules is to maintain a professional-looking Army, Sgt. Sawyer said. He added that “the average person in California has a tattoo.”

Tattoos still look freakish to me. I missed that culture wave.

Those who get them can always work at Walmarts.

27 posted on 07/03/2014 7:07:12 AM PDT by sickoflibs (King Obama : 'The debate is over. The time for talk is over. Just follow my commands you serfs""')
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To: RipSawyer
if you want to have a tattoo that is your choice but don’t imagine that you get to decide to whom it is offensive.

You have summed up the state of our culture in general.

Via a young relative, I perused a facebook page of tattoo oriented people. It was a non stop whine-fest about how unfair and biased employers were in expecting their employees to meet their appearance standards. Appearance standards which are essentially dictated by the customers/clients of the employer. IOW, those that keep the employer in business.

So, I'm expected to put a pierced and tattooed girl in the front office of my business that services a clientele who find said girl's appearance offense and likely take their business elsewhere. That makes *me* biased and intolerant. But the tattooed covered girl with the ring in her nose, who expects me to lose money on her behalf, is the epitome of tolerance. Nuts.

28 posted on 07/03/2014 7:16:29 AM PDT by ChildOfThe60s ((If you can remember the 60s.....you weren't really there)
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To: KeyLargo

There is also the little problem of no one wanting to serve under an administration that despises the military.


29 posted on 07/03/2014 7:25:32 AM PDT by formosa
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To: ChildOfThe60s

Yes nuts, there have always been some but we now seem to have a real bumper crop of nuts of all kinds. I knew a man about thirty years ago who ran a small print shop and I used to service his equipment. He also sold advertising specialty items and he had a woman selling for him on commission. She was paid 25% of gross revenue on all her sales. He let her go finally and said that the reason was that she came to him and said that she thought she should get 50% of the gross. He replied to her that he PAID 50% for the items, if she got the other half there would be nothing left for him. He asked her where she thought he would get the money for rent, utilities etc. I still can’t believe the idiocy but he swore that her reply was, “That’s your problem, use your own money for that.” Some people should not be allowed on the street unescorted.


30 posted on 07/03/2014 7:30:03 AM PDT by RipSawyer
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To: KeyLargo
Brittany Crippen, from Fort Worth, Texas, was disqualified because of a tattoo on the back of her neck.

Tattoos are allowed if they cannot be seen while wearing dress uniforms. That has always been the policy.

31 posted on 07/03/2014 7:34:31 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (The Second Amendment is NOT about the right to hunt. It IS a right to shoot tyrants.)
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To: hcmama

The term “Battle Buddy” has been around since the early 1990’s, and started during the drill sergeant scandals. Female recruits could not go anywhere alone, and had to have their “Battle Buddy” with them.

20 years later, I still think they would have been hard pressed to come up with a dorkier term.

But then, the army has been on a campaign to make people brave through language:
- Everyone is now called a “Warrior”
- The work “soldier” must be now capitalized
- Army Reserve drill weekends are called “Battle Assemblies”

..and the list goes on


32 posted on 07/03/2014 7:36:09 AM PDT by AbnSarge
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To: AbnSarge

“work” = word - sorry


33 posted on 07/03/2014 7:37:00 AM PDT by AbnSarge
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To: KeyLargo
...right now I really don’t know what I’ll do,” she said. “My tattoo isn’t offensive.”
Thanks and there it is in a nutshell - military says no go but she she says it's not offensive. It's all about her.
I'll bet a year's pay she doesn't make it through basic training.
34 posted on 07/03/2014 7:40:26 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: KeyLargo

Is this the case for why illegals have to be accepted into the military?


35 posted on 07/03/2014 7:50:40 AM PDT by GOPJ (Why no outrage over IRS targeting? Same reason Pravda didn't make a stink about gulags.FREnterprise)
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To: KeyLargo

The bottom line is that the vast majority of these potential recruits “just need some work”, before they enlist.

The easiest solution to this is to set up pre-enlistment camps where they get individual diets, lots of exercise, tattoo remove if possible, and classroom to make sure they are literate, and while they are at it, to give them a big dose of military history and culture.

There would be three tracks to this program. A one month camp for those who are marginal, to get them up to standards. A three month camp for those who need a lot of work. And a six month camp for those with critical specialties, but who are otherwise in sorry shape.

Optimally, the camps would not be run by active duty personnel, except a few TRADOC (United States Army Training and Doctrine Command) evaluators, but by veterans. It would have some support staff for medical evaluation, maintenance and logistics.


36 posted on 07/03/2014 8:46:03 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

Hell, we had Fat Boys Squadrons when I joined in 1969. Also, Skinny Guys Diet regimens (I was in one until they figured out I was stronger and more agile than anybody else in my BT class.) I still hate macaroni, spaghetti and potatoes. I think they’d do better to have pre-enlistment motivation platoons.


37 posted on 07/03/2014 9:11:19 AM PDT by Safetgiver ( Islam makes barbarism look genteel.)
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To: KeyLargo

I regard tattoos as a pretty good visual indicator of mental health.


38 posted on 07/03/2014 9:34:11 AM PDT by TexasRepublic (Socialism is the gospel of envy and the religion of thieves)
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To: RipSawyer

I have been a specialty distributor for over 20 years, family business with my FIL and BIL.

There obviously are companies that hire employees in my business, but the turnover is horrible because the profit structure is such that it’s just not worth the cost and trouble to have employees when you are a small distributor, even as contract ones. You end up working more and making less.

Often, they hire these 21-25 cute girls to go out and sell and it is a cutthroat business to get started in, all commission, usually no draw even at the beginning. They go door to door to retail businesses selling 250 key tags and 500 30¢ pen orders. It’s brutal. Usually last a couple of months. I have clients that like to tell me about the parade of cute little (empty headed) hotties constantly coming through trying to sell them. And it takes years to really get to know the business.


39 posted on 07/03/2014 11:26:57 AM PDT by ChildOfThe60s ((If you can remember the 60s.....you weren't really there)
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To: sickoflibs; Impy; NFHale; Clintonfatigued; BillyBoy; fieldmarshaldj; KC_Lion

TATTOOS ARE A MAJOR COMPONENT OF FILTHY WHORE “CULTURE”!!!


40 posted on 07/03/2014 12:26:25 PM PDT by GOPsterinMA (I'm with Steve McQueen: I live my life for myself and answer to nobody.)
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