Posted on 02/03/2014 7:10:20 AM PST by Timber Rattler
Chief Petty Officer Tori Novo says she finds herself saying "no" to young people who want to ship out to sea with the Navy more often than she used to.
A recruiter for seven years, Novo says she has seen the standards for enlisting in the Navy become tougher. And that means more young people who desperately want to join the Navy -- for a career with a steady paycheck, for educational opportunities, for a chance to serve their country -- don't make the cut.
Many of those applicants -- the ones "who would beg on their hands and knees to get in" -- might make excellent sailors, Novo says. But there's no room for them in today's smaller, more selective military.
(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...
Explains those frequent radio messages from the “Ad Council”
that encourage kids to stay in school ... “sponsored by the U. S. Army”.
And Urban ‘Black youths’ are going to adversely effected because of their culture of ‘being black’ and not ‘acting white’ by learning how to tread and write well enough to graduate and go on to college.
So how long before they start getting waivers, eh?
tread and write = read and write.
I need to proofread closer...
A recruiter for 7 years. I wonder how many ships she served on? And she denies men to serve in the Navy. What are the standards now? Do they have a HS diploma? Are they fit? Just how exactly is she saying no to people who want to serve? This sounds to me like so much BS.
Don't blame yourself. The word was probably changed by a playful NSA agent who was reading your post.
My experience has been they have been getting waivers since 1972.
The main problem with most urban youth is drug use. Marijuana use, in particular, is very common. I do expect obummer to waive drug testing for recreational drugs in the future.
I Remember in Boot Camp back in 1973 that there was a special ‘squad’ that was segregated and given up to six weeks of special reading and mathematics remedial lessons. If they could pass at the end of that time they could go on to regular boot camp. Of course the Viet Nam conflict was still ongoing and a body was a body back then.
Here is the scoop on joining the military today (ENLISTED):
You must be in excellent health and physically fit. You will take a physical fitness test at the recruiter.
You must have a HS diploma. A GED will not cut it.
You must have not ONE ISSUE with the law. Period. Your background will be researched.
You will be tested (SAT type test) before being allowed to take the oath. Score too low and no enlistment
Bottom line: If you came from a failing school, never played sports, had one stupid run in with the law or have one minor issue medically - you are not getting in.
The sad part is that the kids that really need the military will now not have the chance...
The broader part of that scenario is myth. I knew a couple of kids from high school (city of 80,000) who were given that choice and I served with a number of guys who were also given that choice. A couple went on to complete college and receive commissions; I had a number of them in my units. It was not that widespread and definitely not for violent or felony-level crimes. These were guys who might have stolen a car on a lark with no damage done, an accessory to a minor crime or a repeat shoplifter but never the case that I saw any hardened criminal or serious crime. The military still had standards even back then. The judges who did this were giving kids who had exhibited bad judgement or lack of discipline the opportunity to clean up and get their heads on straight. They guys I knew who took that option during VN came out of boot camp changed and with a purpose in life. Some made a successful career out of the military and the chance the judge gave them.
Today, too many believe that judges pushed all manner of criminals into the military and that just isn’t true. The hard criminals and druggies were not accepted into service because the judges couldn’t mandate who the military would take or not take. Today, it would probably be different but back then there were not that many who were given that choice out of the millions who served.
That was the tail-end of project 200,000 which began around 1969-70. I went through infantry training with some of them in 1970 and I was stationed with some of them. Most were nice enough and tried, but could barely walk and talk at the same time. Most did not end up in combat arms because they could not make it through the training and nobody wanted to have their lives dependent on someone with the intellect of a stump.
The current negative press about the status of our ICBM forces partially got it's genesis there.
I only knew one stoner who was given the “choice”. He went through processing with me and he thought for sure that he would either get out (he tried to fake an injury) or that he would be taken into the army and get a fluff job; like that was going to happen in 1969.
When they lined them all up, the stoner with the draftees, an army sergeant told them to count off by twos and then told all of the ones “welcome to the U.S. Army”; a moment later the Marine NCO who was processing us walked out and told the twos “Welcome to the U.S. Marine Corps scumbags”. The stoner was a number two and nearly collapsed from the shock. He did successfully make it through boot camp and I believe he won a stripe for his performance.
In Iowa, like S.D. and Nebraska, selling true ditchweed should be looked at as a drug adversion method. I had a number of friends in HS who tried that crap and became violently ill. Wild hemp is not the same as smokeable weed. Never tried any of it myself because I couldn’t stand smoking.
The worse ones were Johnson's 100 Thousand, they were a danger to themselves and the rest of the unit.
I know a kid that went in last year with only a GED and had spent time in juvnile detention.
I thing it really depends on your MOS.
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