Army Recruiters
Today's New York Times had an article about malfeasance in the Army recruitment process. According to the article, criminal and educational backgrounds aren't being checked, and recruiters are even helping new recruits cheat on the aptitude examination, and one recruiter told a recruit "how to create a diploma from a nonexistent school." Niiiice. I immediately thought of this older article, by the same author, actually, which describes the mental stress and depression recruiters are experiencing due to intense pressure to meet quotas, which are down from pre-Iraq years. Enlistment is down from pre-Iraq years. I assume the quotas are the same...
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Recruiters Lie, Lie, Lie
I think just about every enlisted soldier I knew had a good story about a recruiter lying -- I know mine told me some huge lies that, in retrospect, I'm kinda embarassed I believed. So it's not surprising to hear that they lie not only to the soldiers they're recruiting, but also about the soldiers they're recruiting. In some ways, this makes me want to support a national service, whereby everybody -- at the age of 18 -- would do a couple years in the enlisted corps (or opt out for community service, peace corps, or what-have-you); those who enjoyed it and found they were good at it could volunteer to stay in and move up into the NCO and officer corps. It's be a lot less elitist than our current system, both inside and outside the military. And you wouldn't have to worry about all those recruiters hanging from a telephone wire with their pants on fire. It's always embarassing when you drive by a military base and see that. :-)
Mike
Sexual orientation
It goes without saying, I think, that there's something wrong if the army is more concerned about who you're having sex with than whether you have a basic education.