Man....CAT IVs and VOLAR.....that brings back memories. At one time, all three Soldiers working in the Supply Room of my Troop had to have weekday afternoons off to go to Basic Skills Education Program (BSEP), which was basically a GED program to acquire a high school diploma equivalency. I think that only two of the Soldiers in my last platoon weren’t using drugs. They were an awful lot......undisciplined.....poorly educated......raggedy-looking.........and I loved almost all of them and miss them to this day.
“”Project 100,000 was initiated by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara in October 1966 during American involvement in the Vietnam War and ended in December 1971.[2] Considered part of Johnson’s Great Society by giving training and opportunity to the uneducated and poor, the recruited men were classified as “New Standards Men” (or pejoratively the Moron Corps) and had scored in Category IV of the Armed Forces Qualification Test, which placed them in the 10-30 percentile range.[3] The number of soldiers reportedly recruited through the program varies, from more than 320,000[3] to 354,000, which included both volunteers and conscripts (54% to 46%).[2] Although entrance requirements were loosened, all the Project 100,000 men were sent through the normal training processes with other recruits, and performance standards were thus the same for everyone.[4]
The men recruited or drafted under this program did not receive the same training as other recruits and draftees after Basic Training was completed. Mr. McNamara and his “Whiz Kids” insisted that these men had to be put into virtually all fields, and this was a disaster.””