Quote:
Originally Posted by rcooled
Yes, as a matter of fact...US Army, 82nd Airborne Division, '69-'71. This was back in the days of the military draft. We had quite a broad cross-section of society represented in the Army at that time...everyone from thugs given the choice of joining up or going to jail, to guys with advanced degrees who were drafted as soon as their student deferments ran out.
Military recruiters work under a quota system. They need to sign a certain number of new recruits each month to balance out the numbers who are concluding their term of service. They don't always have the luxury of taking only "the best of the best".
True that the Army might now require at least a HS diploma or GED to join. But given the state of the educational system in this country, that's not saying a whole lot. Granted, there are a lot of young people who are joining the military today who do make the most of it. They chose an MOS that provides training that can translate into a civilian career after their discharge, and they go on to live productive and responsible lives after leaving the service. These are not the people we're talking about here. If you have personal 'issues' before joining the military, and fail to make the right choices while there, you're not going to be well prepared for life on the outside...despite the fact that you have a HS diploma or GED. These are the people who slip thru the cracks and wind up on the street.
And as stated before, it's also very easy, and sometimes very convenient, to claim that you're a vet when you're really not. The public has no way of knowing one way or another.
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No disrespect meant, sir, but you do not know what you're talking about.
As a person who was an Army Recruiter for 4 years (within the past decade--not 60s-70s), I can attest that yes, we did have a "quota." However, we had to find high quality individuals (when I was a recruiter, the Army was not accepting individuals with a GED, unless they had at least 30 hours of college along with it) to fill that quota. If you had a criminal record, I could not recruit you. If you were a drugee, I could not recruit you. If you were fat, or had any medical problems, I could not recruit you. I can assure you, we have extremely high standards for who can be accepted into the Army, and the Air Force has even higher standards.