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Recruits' Ineligibility Tests the Military
WSJ ^ | June 27, 2014 | Mariam Jordan

Posted on 06/28/2014 9:11:18 PM PDT by QT3.14

More than two-thirds of America's youth would fail to qualify for military service because of physical, behavioral or educational shortcomings, posing challenges to building the next generation of soldiers even as the U.S. draws down troops from conflict zones.

The military deems many youngsters ineligible due to obesity, lack of a high-school diploma, felony convictions and prescription-drug use for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. But others are now also running afoul of standards for appearance amid the growing popularity of large-scale tattoos and devices called ear gauges that create large holes in earlobes.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: airforce; army; coastguard; marines; military; militaryrecruiting; navy
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To: Mark17

I never forgave that dang peanut farmer for that.


I haven’t ever forgiven him, either.

The US military is no longer being used as it was intended or used legitimately in the past. Now it is basically an instrument to protect special interests.

I heard, and don’t doubt it, that ISIS has been trained by the CIA. The head of the CIA is a muzzie, I think.


21 posted on 06/28/2014 10:22:33 PM PDT by laplata (Liberals don't get it .... their minds are diseased.)
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To: laplata
I heard, and don’t doubt it, that ISIS has been trained by the CIA. The head of the CIA is a muzzie, I think.

Well, the CIC is a Muzzie, so why not the head of the CIA.

My son wants to be an Air Force JAG, so I don't know what to think. One of the reasons I stayed in the USAF, is because I thought we might have a civil war in the 70s. It has not happened yet, but I think each day brings it closer.

22 posted on 06/28/2014 10:39:16 PM PDT by Mark17 (Rats and RINOs, who are destroying America, may you be smacked by the fly swatter of realit)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I was a Selective Service board member during Desert Storm and on into the 90’s. You don’t want that.


Ummm.... Everyone in Desert Storm (pretty much everyone from the 70s on) were volunteers. The “true” draft ended during the 1970s.

We had no “draftees” during Desert Storm.


23 posted on 06/28/2014 10:44:45 PM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: Rides_A_Red_Horse
The “true” draft ended during the 1970s.

"There was one?"

24 posted on 06/28/2014 10:46:07 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Mark17

Best wishes to your son. We need good people in those positions.

One of my brothers retired from the USAF and will start receiving retirement pay in Nov. He told me his last Col. was so politically correct it was sickening. The guy wanted his first star and that was the most important thing for him. The good of the service was not his main concern.


25 posted on 06/28/2014 10:48:11 PM PDT by laplata (Liberals don't get it .... their minds are diseased.)
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To: Rides_A_Red_Horse

Um, we still had draft boards and still do today:

https://www.sss.gov/FSlocal.htm


26 posted on 06/28/2014 11:14:11 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Well good for you! How many draftees served during desert storm?


27 posted on 06/28/2014 11:15:23 PM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: Rides_A_Red_Horse

The ones who were drafted back in the day and stayed in past their first enlistment. Did you know at the beginning of that war we were getting ready to draft doctors, nurses and other medical specialists and were called off at the last minute? They didn’t go to the newspapers with it, so very few people heard about it. We already had lists to draw from. They’ll bring it back some day, it’s inevitable.


28 posted on 06/28/2014 11:36:23 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself.)
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To: headstamp 2

Can you imagine what those lobes will look like at age 60 and beyond? (gag) Giant, wobbly skin boogers or loogies. (Not knowing how to spit, though 54, I do not have any idea how to spell the gob-stuff boys seem to hurl out of their mouths.)


29 posted on 06/28/2014 11:37:21 PM PDT by hearthwench (Debbi - Mom, NaNa, and always ornery)
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To: laplata
He told me his last Col. was so politically correct it was sickening. The guy wanted his first star and that was the most important thing for him. The good of the service was not his main concern.

I think the majority (not all) of these high ranking officers are now very politically correct. Thanks Obungler. The rest retire.

30 posted on 06/28/2014 11:50:03 PM PDT by Mark17 (Rats and RINOs, who are destroying America, may you be screwed by the fickle finger of fate)
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To: Rides_A_Red_Horse
Well good for you! How many draftees served during desert storm?

Zero. Some may have been drafted at the beginning of their career, but but after their obligation ended and they reenlisted voluntarily they were no longer draftees. Within a few years there will no longer be any person serving that started out as a draftee. As it is, anyone still serving that started out as a draftee would be in the Guard or Reserves.

31 posted on 06/29/2014 12:06:19 AM PDT by AlaskaErik (I served and protected my country for 31 years. Progressives spent that time trying to destroy it.)
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To: Tzimisce

“was”


32 posted on 06/29/2014 12:21:12 AM PDT by Dapper 26
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To: lurk

Hell i’m 63 and i doubt i would have a problem getting through boot camp. It would be a government paid get in better shape program


33 posted on 06/29/2014 12:40:37 AM PDT by bravo whiskey (we shouldn't fear the government. the government should fear us.)
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To: headstamp 2

“I could imagine a draft in this day and age.”

I couldn’t see this ever happening; when libs pushed the concept that government couldn’t tell you what to do (in any area), they gave up any possibility of forcing anyone to show up to kill or be killed in some nonsensical war half a world away.

As a father of sons, I’d love to see how they try to draft men but not women in this age of “equality”; I would just tell them my sons “identify as women”.

This country has seen its last draft already. A friend’s son is being discharged because he is too heavy (he gained weight because he couldn’t work out after a car accident); the same friend has a daughter in danger of being cut because she can’t pass some other kind of test. Our military is overstaffed now (as people flock to it as an employer of last resort); whereas ten years ago they were overlooking felonies to send troops to Iraq & Afghanistan, there is simply no role (or funds) for so many people so they can be picky now.


34 posted on 06/29/2014 2:24:22 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: laplata

“He told me his last Col. was so politically correct it was sickening. The guy wanted his first star and that was the most important thing for him. The good of the service was not his main concern.”

For many in the military it is just a job; remember the squealing when people who had been on the payroll for years started getting mobilized after 9/11? Serving their country wasn’t on their agenda.


35 posted on 06/29/2014 2:28:48 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: hearthwench

“Can you imagine what those lobes will look like at age 60 and beyond? (gag) Giant, wobbly skin boogers or loogies.”

It happens much more quickly than that; they have to constantly insert slightly larger ones.


36 posted on 06/29/2014 2:30:16 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: laplata; Mark17

His grandson is the Dem candidate for governor here in GA. I’m starting to have to look at him on TV ads spouting typical Dem inanities. I don’t like it much at all.


37 posted on 06/29/2014 2:34:54 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: QT3.14
I scored so high on the ASVAB that the Navy badgered me for a year, trying to get me to join their nuclear program.

Went to college instead, and ended up joining the Marine Corps. Go figure. The Marines still have a few standards, but they took me. I actually did have to get a waiver, because I got in a little trouble when I was 15.

38 posted on 06/29/2014 2:41:20 AM PDT by real saxophonist (Shiny!)
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To: kearnyirish2
when libs pushed the concept that government couldn’t tell you what to do (in any area), they gave up any possibility of forcing anyone to show up to kill or be killed in some nonsensical war half a world away.

Kinda blew that all to Hell with the forced purchase of abortion coverage in Obamacare, didn't they? But then, hypocrisy always was their strong suit.

Liberals really have no problem with killing, and they definitely have no problem with telling others what to do, so when they run the government--look out.

39 posted on 06/29/2014 2:53:38 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: FreedomPoster
GA native here. Just yesterday I said I was thinking about moving from Colorado back to Georgia, because of the governorship here. Now, maybe not so much.

I actually met Jimmy Carter when he was president. I lived in Americus, and Americus High School was 'President Jimmy Carter's Home Representative Band'. We went up to Plains a couple of times, when Sadat and Begin came to visit. Begin liked our 'Fight Song', so we played the damn thing something like 24 times.

40 posted on 06/29/2014 2:56:56 AM PDT by real saxophonist (Shiny!)
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