Posted on 08/28/2022 3:00:15 PM PDT by DFG
Chaz Andrews has wanted to join the Army since he was 19, but he has failed the service's academic test more than 10 times over the past decade.
Now, at age 29, Andrews thinks he has a real shot to pass, thanks to a new Army program that gives lower-performing recruits up to 90 days of academic or fitness instruction to help them meet military standards.
“I didn’t want to give up on it,” he said during a recent break in his classroom schedule at Fort Jackson, where he is one of more than 300 recruits who have been allowed to enlist in the new Army prep course. And if Andrews, who is from Brooklyn, New York, is able to raise his test score, he will be allowed to continue on to basic training.
The program, which began in early August, is one way the Army is hoping to fill the ranks as it struggles with recruiting efforts that are expected to fall dramatically short of the goals this year. Army officials have described the situation as dire, with some predicting the service may fall 10,000 to 15,000 soldiers short of its recruiting target on Oct. 1 , or as much as 18% to 25%.
Military officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the totals are preliminary and could change, said the initial recruiting goal was as much as 60,000 this year, but more realistic expectations later put it at about 55,000. With one month to go, officials are predicting they will come in about 45,000, though it could get better if there is a surge at the end.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Did the govt bill her estate for the damages?
Say what?
Back during Vietnam a local problem child finally crossed the line and, as a 17 year old, committed a crime worthy of adult sentencing. The judge looked at the guys date of birth, estimated the days before he could finish basic and offered the guy seven or eight years in state prison or one term of enlistment in the USMC.
Being a wiseass who was accustomed to working the system he took the one term enlistment.
Someway he broke his leg during basic, probably intentionally, in a bid to game the system. Imagine his surprise when he was told that since he had reportedly been a slacker from the beginning he would have to start basic from scratch. He ended up with trainers who made his original trainers look like the Waltons.
Such are the plans of mice and men.
With full VA benefits?
For generations, with a much smaller population, America ran a military in the millions,
In 1958 for instance we had 2,700,000 in the military, with no active wars.
Now we can’t find enough males out of this massive population to man a tiny military? It is obvious the left is destroying our ability to hold our own in the world and protect ourselves.
Also, DOD went woke. They chose poorly.
Holy Mary! Ten times? Maybe he’d make a great sand bag.
The peak was 4.3 million births a year. Now it's 3.6 million.
Sorry, I was only kidding. Your posts seem to contain post h.s. content and a more than public education knowledge and use of English grammar.
Kara Hultgreen was a naval aviator. Nothing to do with the USAF.
There was a DRAFT then. Either you enlisted or were drafted. There were few exemptions.
I didn’t get that, how did the birthrate come in?
I was talking pure population numbers, like 132 million in 1940 203 million in 1970, and even in 1980 when Reagan took office it was 227 and we were losing over 2,000 dead troops a year in peacetime.
Today we exceed 335 million people and we can’t find the men.
And all the rich boys bought their way out of it. Been doing that since the Civil War.
The population was healthier back then and we were going through a baby boom. Yes. We have over 300 million people today. But how many millions are in that 18-25 age group? Plus they all play fortnite (video games) so they are not as fit as they were 20, 40 or 60 years ago.
I don’t understand your nitpicking which doesn’t explain much of anything, or why you are trying it.
With Polio, tuberculosis, and all of the old diseases, malnutrition, rickets, and all that used to exist we could put together millions of effective troops.
I did say that “It is obvious the left is destroying our ability to hold our own in the world and protect ourselves.”
That meant in all ways, as they break down our families, our culture, our education system, and our military, it is all part of the mix of why we can’t find enough men out of 335 million people, not to fill a WWII military or a Civil War military, but a small military largely made up of people sitting at desks and holding clipboards.
People had to fight to survive back then. Troops had diseases but they were not sedentary. For most part, they were farm boys.
If we were to have a draft today, our conscripts would be like Gomer Pyle in Full Metal Jacket.
If we had a draft we could find the relatively few men we needed out of 335 million people, it isn’t like the entire male population quit being male and doing physical work and activities.
Yep. But it shouldn't have to come to this. With the woke agenda alienating the good 'ole boys in the South, there's not much to recruit. No one is going to call for a draft at this time. So we are going to have to downsize the military.
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