I came along 1977 and generally saw mostly a success story with the volunteer deal. I could see the pluses and minuses via the officer and enlisted angles. I’d readily agree that a quarter of the officers were not that capable, but about every decade...they had some overage of people and purged them out.
Presently, I live in Germany, and the volunteer thing is in serious jeopardy. They are bending over backwards....doing a lot of things that you wouldn’t see in the US situation. It’s not helping. Even the Germans are bringing up the draft idea again. Within the public, I doubt if more than 30-percent would support this.
One of the reasons they want to crash the economy. Basically force people to join, if they want to eat.
There was a "street smartnees" to many of my soldiers, which I used to my advantage. It certainly wasn't my great leadership!
When a new soldier was placed in my platoon, I gave them all the same message: follow the orders of my squad leaders, do your job, and you will continue to enjoy your omelets made to order in the Air Force dining facility.
If you can't follow these instructions, I'll ship your ass to Mannheim, where the battalion is attached to the Big Red One. They spend 8 months out of the year training in the red mud at Grafenwoehr. It's your choice.
There's always one or two who thought I was lying to them. There was one who came back to visit, he let everybody know the LT was telling the truth.