Posted on 03/03/2005 10:31:20 AM PST by Righty_McRight
Lower the age restriction....you would have more than enough "old farts" to make up for it.
This will be a lib talking point for the next year. It is sad that they have to be so jubilant about anything that looks bad for the US.
Conscripts...
18-65
This will give libs something to cheer about. From my perspective, I think this is a temporary problem -- there are a number of ways to deal with it. So while I hate to take away some good cheer from our friends on the left, I really don't think it's a big deal.
This should please them immensely.
I agree.
The stop-loss orders have hurt. A lot of young people want to serve - but no one wants to make an open-ended committment.
USA Today could have noted a flip side to this news -- for young people with patriotism and spirit, there's never been a better time to join up. They can get some good bonuses, good job choices, and some great promotion opportunities right now.
The Navy and Air Force were supposed to give up 40,000 billets to the Marines and Army. Has this taken affect and spiked recruiting goals higher?
The CIA Factbook reports that over 2.1 million Americans reach 18 ("military age") annually.
The idea that less than 4% of them will become soldiers is distressing.
I agree with that. And the political aspect of this is so sensitive that there are something like 5,500 AWOL cases in the U.S. military that aren't even being pursued.
Conscripts.. Absolutely not. If we can't get enough volunteers to fill the ranks of the military then we deserve to go the way of the French...
The French have recruiting problems?
If you need bodies, and they are not volunteering...what do you do?
Isn't military retirement after 20 years? Seems like they could at least bump it up to 45. They go up to age 65, I know a lot of able-bodied vets that would re-up for Iraq/Afghanistan/WOT.
It would be easy to raise the recruiting numbers by relaxing those standards a little.
From a military point of view, I don't know that it's a great idea -- for the War on Terrorism, I'd rather have few people of the highest possible caliber.
Might be time for us Freepers to do what we can. Let's make it a point to talk to any high school seniors or college students that we know and see if we can get them to at least consider meeting with a recruiter.
The minimum about of service for retirement is 20 years. But the military allows (and desires) a lot of people to serve past that point, especially SF soldiers.
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