Loyal Americans
 

...step forward and offer your services to the country. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs said today that all branches of the military...and the National Guard are meeting their enlistment quotas...but the Reserve is not.

Step up and be counted. BTW...I believe I understood him to say the the enlistment age for the Reserves is being raised from 34 to 40.

I saw him on Meet The Press this morning, Russert said volunteer enlistment was only 75% of the set quotas in ALL branches (for the first time in years they were not above 100%) and the CJF said he was correct.

I may be mistaken, I'm just going by memory, but I thought he said all branches.

no thanks. i consider myself more of an intellectual dissenter than a hired killer.

hm.. is there a draft in the works?

Blame Canada :mad:

Well one of us is mistaken as I too saw the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs on Tim Russert's show this morning. I understood him to say that all active duty branches and the National Guard (barely with the National Guard) were meeting their quotas but the Reserve was not. I thought I also understood him to say that they were also growing the end force levels of the Army without any enlistment problems at this point.

Did you understand him to say that they were going to raise...or have raised the enlistment age for the Reserves from 34 to 40?

No, I wasn't paying attention that well later into the interview, wife was serving breakfast and I was paying more attention to food by then. :winkwink:

I had read a couple weeks ago that the air force and navy are doing really well recruitment wise but the army and marines were not because people want to serve, they just don't want to go to Iraq so they figure the navy and airforce are the most safe.

I will repeat...all active duty branches have been and still are meeting their quotas and if I understood the General correctly this morning they are growing the end force levels of the Army without problem.

I will repeat...all active duty branches have been and still are meeting their quotas and if I understood the General correctly this morning they are growing the end force levels of the Army without problem.

yes, the jails are emptying quickly :)

The military does not take anyone with a felony conviction...and some of the branches will not take anyone with a misdemenor...and some will take those with certain misdemeanors...but not other misdeamnors...and all branches have a zero tolerance for drug convictions and/or use.

In that case it's gonna be a hard time recruiting.

You know the number of US folks who have some "rap sheet" or other in their lives???

More than any other nation - they sure like locking folks up!

The active duty qoutas are being met via "stop loss" and a good portion of those on active duty are reservists. I've got a friend over there on his 3rd tour, and while he still remains loyal to his core beliefs, he's not very happy with how certain things are being handled. Stop loss being one of them.

So long as no other hotspots arise, they can hand out all the rose colored glasses they want, and nobody will be the wiser. At least for the time being, but it's having a hell of a negative effect on morale. How would you like to be told at the end of your enlistment period that only "time in country" will count towards your enlistment period?

Thomas

If I remember correctly...the last number I know of...was about twenty million Americans have some type of arrest record...juvenile or adult. Hmm...that is roughly 6-7% if my math is correct. Leaves alot of wiggle room and recruiters do not have access to juvenile arrest records...so leaves even more wiggle room.

Stop loss has been military policy since the Korean Conflict and I suspect always will be so. I believe that 40% are Reservists/National Guard. This is because the Congress during President Bush Senior's term ordered an end force reduction and base closings that were continued through out President Clinton's terms in office. Because of the end force reductions...the Pentagon had to re-organize and re-align forces...and it became necessary to place heavy dependence upon integration of the Reserves and National Guard during a crisis. Blame the Congress...President Bush Senior and President Clinton for going along with Congress.

FYI...it was not until the Korean Conflict that the military developed a rotation policy. During the Second World War...your enlistment was duration without rotation.

For what it's worth - as at 2003 the govt stats are 1 in 37 U.S. adults have "prison experience", forgetting "juvenile arrest records".

The figures for 2002 produced a "lock up rate" of 702 people per 100,000, this being 5 - 8 times higher than other industrialised countries - not bad for just one year. Get the cumulative figure on the and it's gonna end up stupid.

So that "lock up rate" would be roughly 0,7% of the population?

Damn.. I was hoping it would be 50 LOL

Hmm...1 in 37 is roughly 3 per hundred...3%...add juvenile arrests records and it would mean about 6-7%...but since juvenile arrest records are not accessible to recruiters...only about 3% are not allowed the previlige of serving their country.

JOIN ARMY TODAY, AND YOU MIGHT NOT MISS YOUR CHANCE TO KILL SOME CHILDREN!
http://www.leftturn.org/Articles/Spe...ren%20dead.jpg

My point is not to apportion blame for stop loss or argue about it's precedent or validity, but rather to suggest that it's being used to cook the books. Clearly a draft is not something anyone wants to even mention, but it would be foolhardy to think that it's not actively considered.

Thomas

I do not have anyway of knowing if stop loss is being used to "cook" the books...and I do not believe that you do either. FYI...stop loss is not used across the broad range of MOS's but is used in selective MOS's if it appears that a shortage is going to arise within that MOS.

Long before a draft is ever reinstituted there will be several other options... from a list of options...implemented...but of course if a draft ever becomes neccessary it will not be a big problem as currently...by law...all eighteen year olds have to register for the draft and this has been law since the military went to an all voluntary force.

Mmmm.. not exactly! :-)

There are a couple of variables... one being that this is only for one year. If you want to get an estimate of adult convictions or rap sheets during a lifetime or as the DOJ expresses it "adults with prison experience", this is going to be a lot more.

Simplified version... one year is .7% - ten years is 7% and, say the average "crime active" years of a human is 30 years, - that brings it up to 21%. But... there are also plenty repeat offenders and "overlapping years", so it's going to be less than 21%.

But it's still a high figure in relation to other industrialised countries - even Canada is dramatically less at around - can't remember the exact figure, but around 117 per 100,000 per annum in relation to just above 700 per 100,000 in the US population.

Hell no.

No, you're correct, I do not know officially whether or not it is being used to cook the books, I do however know that as a matter of course, keeping up appearances is very important to the present administration. It's a constant game of spin, deflection and changing the subject.

If President Bush really wants to see more people serve, perhaps he should finish out his own term of enlistment, since as we all know, leading by example is the best course.

Thomas

I'm sure all the right wingers will rush out to sign up :1orglaugh

Don't you mean stupid Americans?

You'd have to be a moron to be cannon fodder for Bush's worthless war machine.

Dying for nothing isn't honourable.. it's just fucking stupid.

:1orglaugh

All those in support of the war in Iraq, please register here for military service.

:1orglaugh

The silence is deafening.

Poor kids. :(

Join the army, travel the world, make new friends.... Then blow them up

http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-d...8676-2005Mar18

FRESH MEAT!

:1orglaugh