'Less Than 30% of Young Men and Women' Qualified to Join Military

[acptulsa]

So you are crowing because he was using information that was less than 2 years out of date? it wasn't fiction, it was just old info. and you used Gunny's experience to "prove" it? from what I can tell, childhood asthma WAS disqualifying when Gunny signed up, so his story doesn't disprove Dannno's statement.

I'm not crowing. This sort of thing happens all the time.

I wouldn't consider it worthy of comment at all if the poster in question didn't have upward of ten thousand posts on this board which all say something to the effect of, 'Trust me, I know better than you what the people in charge are thinking, you don't know what's going on, maybe you would if you had an IQ of 137 like me and a superhuman grasp of factoids and details.'

I've been watching him spew that for a decade, and I claim a right to call him on it. Yes, he has proven completely impervious to such treatment for a very long time. But one never knows for certain that one more straw on the back of the camel won't be that straw.

[specsaregood]

I'm not crowing. This sort of thing happens all the time.

I wouldn't consider it worthy of comment at all if the poster in question didn't have upward of ten thousand posts on this board which all say something to the effect of, 'Trust me, I know better than you what the people in charge are thinking, you don't know what's going on, maybe you would if you had an IQ of 137 like me and a superhuman grasp of factoids and details.'

I've been watching him spew that for a decade, and I claim a right to call him on it. Yes, he has proven completely impervious to such treatment for a very long time. But one never knows for certain that one more straw on the back of the camel won't be that straw.

You have the right to do whatever you want, if you want to come off as a childish prick just to out do him on the childish prick front, so be it. I can't think of a more stupid thing to argue about. I wish all young men and women were disqualified from the meat grinder.

[acptulsa]

You have the right to do whatever you want, if you want to come off as a childish prick just to out do him on the childish prick front, so be it.

Sometimes it's the childish impetus which causes a child to finally grow up. Or maybe he's impervious, and I'm wasting my effort.

I wish all young men and women were disqualified from the meat grinder.

From your keyboard to God's ear...

[Superfluous Man]

it's a strategic issue that less than 30 percent of the young men and women of our nation are qualified just to join the military, either because of physical, mental or moral issues.

So they have a problem finding as many people as they used to who are immoral enough to be Marines? I wouldn't have guessed it. But I'm glad.

[r3volution 3.0]

So they have a problem finding as many people as they used to who are immoral enough to be Marines? I wouldn't have guessed it. But I'm glad.

I don't think it's a matter of morality, in most cases.

In order to be morally responsible for one's behavior, one must have some idea of what one's doing.

The average enlistee, in my experience, does not (have any idea of what he's doing).

...of course, some are actively seeking to "kill hajis," live out their video game fantasies, etc, but most are doing this for lack of a better idea.

That doesn't earn my sympathy, but it also doesn't earn my hatred: more like pity.

[oyarde]

So they have a problem finding as many people as they used to who are immoral enough to be Marines? I wouldn't have guessed it. But I'm glad.

No they can still find them , they are just too defective .

[specsaregood]

Is there a list of what makes one morally disqualified? I'd like to make sure my son hits all the bullet points.

[r3volution 3.0]

Is there a list of what makes one morally disqualified? I'd like to make sure my son hits all the bullet points.

There's no draft, so just don't enlist.

But if you're concerned about a future draft, screaming about anarchism might do the trick.

[Ender]

From your keyboard to God's ear...

^^^THIS^^^

[Superfluous Man]

I don't think it's a matter of morality, in most cases.

You're probably right. But morality was one of the criteria listed in the quote I was replying to.

[GunnyFreedom]

meh, doesn't sound like he is wrong according to others. and he did say they "often look the other way"
https://www.thebalance.com/new-asthm...policy-3353970

I joined in 1992, had a medical record of asthma. All the way up to the week before I enlisted. Wrote it on my enlistment forms. Never received (or requested) a waiver. Went to PI on a guaranteed Infantry job (halfway through Boot Camp, a cluster-fk of officers asked me to go into intelligence) Shipped to Parris Island on schedule. Recruiters just said, "as long as you don't need an emergency inhaler you should be fine." I hadn't needed an inhaler since I was 15, and I was fine.

[Zippyjuan]

I'm sure it is a lower percentage than in the late 1970s, despite the fact that they will take some now they wouldn't take then--like open homosexuals. But that's only partly because the media is filling mothers with irrational fear of letting their children go out in the sunshine and get exercise.

Another factor is that they have been sending the suitable ones into combat and getting them killed, wounded and traumatized with PTSD for fifteen years now, defending the Federal Reserve's Petrodollar, ExxonMobil's oil holdings and Pfizer's opium fields. That tends to thin the field somewhat after a decade and a half.