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Super. Three Quarters Of Young Americans Couldn’t Join The Military If They Wanted To
Hotair ^ | 02/25/2018 | Jazz Shaw

Posted on 02/25/2018 7:30:23 PM PST by SeekAndFind

With all that’s going on in this report from the Free Beacon, it’s amazing that our military is still hitting all of its recruiting goals. But somehow they are.

They don’t have all that many people to pick from, however. Just as the military is entering into a period of renewed expansion, there are fewer qualified candidates and even fewer expressing an interest. According to the Pentagon, if every person in the country age 18 to 24 showed up to apply, roughly three out of four would have to be turned away because they simply couldn’t qualify.

Nearly three-quarters of young Americans are ineligible to serve in the United States military due to obesity, criminal record, or lack of education, according to a new report by the Heritage Foundation.

The contracted pool of Americans aged 17 to 24 who are fit to enlist in the armed services poses an “alarming” threat to national security and risks derailing the Trump administration’s path to rebuilding a depleted military, the report found, citing Pentagon data.

The Pentagon estimates that 24 million of the 34 million Americans between 17 and 24 years old, or 71 percent, are unable to serve.

Health problems are the greatest obstacle to military service, with more than half of the young people who are ineligible for service suffering from a health issue.

This is particularly bad news at the moment because the Army is getting ready to recruit up to 80,000 new soldiers in the coming two years. The Navy isn’t quite as hard up, but they’re going to need 30,000 more sailors. All of this recruiting will be required to expand the service in line with the plans put in place by President Trump.

So what is disqualifying so many of them? For the majority, it’s health issues. Of those, more than half are too obese to be accepted. (The Army is saying they’ll take you if you’re “a little chubby” but if you’re seriously obese there won’t be time in basic training to whip you into shape.) Others are showing up with joint problems, respiratory ailments and related issues. Others failed to graduate high school or get an equivalent degree and are refused entry until they can meet the educational standards.

Other people hoping to enlist have criminal records. If it’s a couple of minor items you can sometimes get a waiver, but if you’ve run up any sort of serious criminal background they have to reject you. (As they should.) This is a big change from the bad old days of the Vietnam War when it was still not all that uncommon for a judge at sentencing to offer a defendant a choice of jail or boot camp.

The other problem the military is facing is a rather ironic one. Unemployment is nearing historic lows at the moment and that’s traditionally when fewer people turn to the military for a career. If better paying (and, frankly, less dangerous) jobs are plentiful, fewer young people are looking to the armed services as a better and more secure alternative to stocking shelves at Walmart. But with luck, enough of the truly dedicated and patriotic ones will keep their noses clean, work themselves into shape and volunteer to serve their nation.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: alwayswas; fatherlessness; homosexuality; justlikevietnam; marijuana; military; notnews; obesity; sameasalways; tattoos; youngamericans
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To: SeekAndFind

After observation I asked my lunch buddies this:
Q: What’s the biggest difference between college girls today and college girls when we went to college (1970s)?
A: About 30 lbs.


41 posted on 02/25/2018 8:57:48 PM PST by libertylover (Kurt Schlicter: "They wonder why they got Trump. They are why they got Trump")
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To: Regulator

maybe not choir boys but I’m afraid we have too many sissies....


42 posted on 02/25/2018 9:01:46 PM PST by cherry
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To: Trumpet 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P701paKEMXs

One of my favorite videos.....

43 posted on 02/25/2018 9:04:45 PM PST by Osage Orange (Watch your six.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The “Dirty Dozen” returns...


44 posted on 02/25/2018 9:06:08 PM PST by OrangeHoof (Donald Trump: Doing the work American politicians just won't do.)
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To: SeekAndFind

That’s what happens when you have a nation of pajama boys


45 posted on 02/25/2018 9:10:14 PM PST by kaehurowing
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To: Chode

Smoking dope kills off men’s testosterone and feminizes them.


46 posted on 02/25/2018 9:10:54 PM PST by kaehurowing
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To: Trumpet 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P701paKEMXs

One of my favorite videos.....

47 posted on 02/25/2018 9:11:26 PM PST by Osage Orange (Watch your six.)
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To: dead
Our government arrests and imprisons too many people.

Care to elaborate? Where do you see the greatest problems?

48 posted on 02/25/2018 9:12:02 PM PST by libertylover (Kurt Schlicter: "They wonder why they got Trump. They are why they got Trump")
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To: SeekAndFind

I know it can’t replace fit young men, but some of us old fogies could help out - if permitted. Just saying, it could release some young bucks from filing or kP duty


49 posted on 02/25/2018 9:14:53 PM PST by faithhopecharity ("Politicans aren't born, they're excreted." -Marcus Tillius Cicero (3 BCE))
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To: SeekAndFind


"Noooo! Noooo!"
50 posted on 02/25/2018 9:16:37 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: Wu
Time to reinstitute the draft.

. . . along with shaming fat kids and reinstutionalizing basic physical education requirements in order to get a high school diploma.

You’re out of shape, you don’t graduate - fatty

51 posted on 02/25/2018 9:18:37 PM PST by atc23 (The Confederacy was the single greatest conservative resistance to federal authority ever)
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To: SeekAndFind

Alvin York and Audie Murphy didn’t finish high school.

Their weight problem was too many medals on their chest.


52 posted on 02/25/2018 9:28:39 PM PST by oldbill
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To: SeekAndFind

There are 800,000-1,800,000 DACA kids.
All of them are valedictorians and hard workers, so we are told.

Put them in uniform and problem solved.


53 posted on 02/25/2018 9:31:32 PM PST by oldbill
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To: SeekAndFind

Three quarters of college age young people wouldn’t even consider signing up today...they’re too busy being led by Obama and his activist cohorts ‘at war’ with this administration.

Reeber what Obama just said to the students when they recently went in the streets to protest against guns?.....Quote.....”We’ve been waiting for you!

Who’s the ‘we’ Obama’s speaking as the leader of???? People really need to be aware of what the Obama’s are doing because it’s truly bad.


54 posted on 02/25/2018 9:35:19 PM PST by caww
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To: SeekAndFind

No worries, they’ll just revise the standards to allow snowflake phone-addicted slackers in. The military will be like working at McDonald’s by the time they’re through.


55 posted on 02/25/2018 9:44:36 PM PST by bluejean (The lunatics are running the asylum)
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To: SeekAndFind

And godly patriotic men don’t want to serve under or with flaming homosexuals.


56 posted on 02/25/2018 9:58:25 PM PST by Persevero (Democrats haven't been this nutty since we freed their slaves.)
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To: Kickass Conservative

“What’s more dangerous, a Millenial with a Rifle or a Millenial with a Voter Registration Form?”

A Millennial who remembers when and where and to vote...


57 posted on 02/25/2018 10:19:51 PM PST by PLMerite ("They say that we were Cold Warriors. Yes, and a bloody good show, too." - Robert Conquest)
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To: Regulator

The military made a lot of kids grow up. It doesn’t have to be filled with choir boys.

No but they will take choir girl/boys!


58 posted on 02/25/2018 10:24:38 PM PST by Davy Crocket
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To: TXnMA

I was UNDERWEIGHT when I went in (had to get a waiver)..

We only had 3 minutes to eat each meal (so we crammed our face with rolls + the mandatory 8 ounces of water)...

I finished Boot weighing 40 lbs heavier. :^D


59 posted on 02/25/2018 10:34:21 PM PST by Bikkuri
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To: Persevero

Can you blame them? Normal people do not flaunt their sexual lives, however, some join military to be a distraction, and they are!


60 posted on 02/25/2018 10:53:38 PM PST by Ambrosia
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