Posted on 09/26/2009 11:23:07 PM PDT by Saije
I have just returned from giving a talk on the benefits of Army education to new recruits at the Army Training Centre at Pirbright, Surrey. A red-brick facility with its own parade ground, it delivers the 14-week training course undertaken by all adult recruits when they first join the Army.
On completion of the Common Military Syllabus, these Soldiers Under Training (SUTs) go on to learn their chosen trade, which covers a host of military professions ranging from anti-aircraft radar operator and artillery gunner to Army musician. Pirbright trains more than 4,000 men and women a year, and as such is a good melting pot for almost every kind of soldier.
But chatting to the SUTs at Pirbright that afternoon, one thing became very clear: there is a lot of anger in the air. It has nothing to do with Army pay, conditions, or even the war in Afghanistan; rather, their anger stems from the way they feel they are perceived by "pencilnecks", one of the nicer terms the Army uses to describe civilians.
I hear the same complaint time and time again when I talk with soldiers. What angers these young men and women – and me – greatly, is the belief held by some that recruits only join the Army because they are too thick to do anything else; that soldiers are somehow little lost souls to be pitied; the dregs of society too hopeless to help themselves.
Certainly, there is plenty of evidence to back up their anger. At last year's National Union of Teachers' annual conference, for instance, troops were described as "cannon-fodder for the profits of oil companies", the implication being that soldiers are led like sheep to the slaughter, rather than soldiering being the profession they have chosen for themselves.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Years ago I worked for a finance office for a large university. One of my jobs involved fund raising with other students, most of whom felt that the Marines were, shall we say, not the brightest bulbs out of all the services. I dont know how this ridiculous rumor got started. Maybe they are the most envied? Every Marine I’ve ever met has been sharp (or sharper) than 90% of students I grew up with.
I ONLY hire former servicemen an women with honorable discharges.
Never had to fire one of em.
... is the belief held by some that recruits only join the Army because they are too thick to do anything else; that soldiers are somehow little lost souls to be pitied; the dregs of society too hopeless to help themselves.
Didn't Hanoi John Kerry say the same thing?
I like. That said, any trouble from the “equal opportunity” types?
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