Posted on 12/29/2022 1:21:26 PM PST by DFG
After revisiting its policy on which medical conditions bar applicants from joining services, the US military for the first time has permitted 700 recruits with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to enlist, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
In June, the military, which has been facing major recruiting challenges, said that those who had suffered from 38 different medical conditions could serve as long as they hadn’t demonstrated symptoms nor required medication for treatment for three, five and seven years, depending on the condition.
These conditions – which include congenital heart defects and tuberculosis – were previously automatic disqualifiers.
The Pentagon stated that it will evaluate the performance of its new programme in six months time so that it had a year’s worth of data to analyse.
“We want to be cautious,” the WSJ report quoted Army Secretary Christine Wormuth as saying about how the service admits those with mental-health challenges. “I think we have to constantly be refreshing our approach and looking at conditions in this society,” she added.
These changes come amid one of the Army’s worst years for recruiting and as military officials are debating ways to enlist qualified recruits who have been treated for mental-health conditions.
The service fell 15,000 recruits short of its fiscal 2022 goal and it cut its goal for total number of soldiers in fiscal year 2023 by an additional 15,000, suggesting that it sees a longer-term problem, added the report.
According to Army data, only 23 per cent of young Americans meet the physical fitness, health, and other requirements and less than 10 per cent of them are interested in joining the military.
(Excerpt) Read more at firstpost.com ...
Great. Just what our military needs. Some armed people to go postal.
Only 700?.......................
AND the last domino falls. Our once great institution that kept Americans feeling safe and protected, has been destroyed by the rat cancer that spreads its poison in every crook and cranny of our government. We are riped for the taking! I can almost hear Russia, China and the Middle East footsteps behind us. Call it a night Gracie we’re done.
They won’t necessarily be armed.
“Behavioral challenges” probably means gang members or long rap sheets as a minor who are agreeing to sign up rather than go to prison now that they can be charged as an adult. This should work out well.
Their firearms will not include firing pins.
I’m going with “congenital heart defects”. Sure. One of the things I’d want in a wingman. A couple extra clot shots should turn he/she/it into a real assssset?
They’ve taken these folks for generations. In the last 30 years or so, everyone gets diagnosed in school—so the schools can get more Special Ed funds. They get diagnosed, and it follows them.
My daughter was looking at the Navy. She was diagnosed by the best group working with ADD in the country. Once the Navy saw her ASVAB scores and her calculus scores….they told her they could get her a waiver.
The recruiters hounded that poor girl for more than a year. Lol.
A better way to think of it is you are in a foxhole with someone with ADHD being shot at. You have to keep reminding your buddy that someone is shooting at you, and you need to shoot back.
The Navy in San Diego (1967) had a ‘special’ boot camp company for misfits who had sneaked past the screening process.
The graduates of that process either reintegrated into the training cycle with a later company or got weeded out entirely.
NOBODY in his right mind wanted to get sent to Company 4050.
I, personally, want my wingman to have TB.
Val Kilmer was Doc Holliday and Iceman...boom!...
Seriously, we are declining rapidly as a nation.
The vast majority of service members were always white males.
Now they are trashed and vilified. I wouldn’t join now either.
No firing pins-—maybe. How about bayonets? Do you think they’d still let me teach HTH and Pugil stick? I’d sure enjoy the exercise and what a way to adjust attitudes. I could convince most that those neck tats are a BAD idea.
He'll always be Nick Rivers to me.
My daughter went USMC. She had taken medication for ADHD years before but hadn’t for quite a while. Her ASVAB scores were great. She’s doing quite well and is basically the teacher’s (sergeant’s) pet, crew leader, and is almost done with her MOS and will have her first assignment in a few weeks.
As far as I’m concerned, the military is a much better choice for ADHD than universities. The way these youngsters operate, it’s easier for them to focus on hands-on tasks than book assignments for hours on end.
I am much less concerned with a recruit who has had TB or ADHD than one who can’t take a look between their legs and determine their gender or, worse yet, a willing storm trooper for the Deep State.
Skeet Surfin’...
Ping.
“Killin’ Generals could get to be a habit with me.”
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