America's youth can't hack it in the military.

[killercupcake]

My own title, but the basic gist of the article. I was also surprised to see that the Marine Corps has the lowest rate of attrition. 


phasezero.gawker.com/american-kids-too-weak-for-war-cost-taxpayers-1-7-bi-1717452534

[ilovecandy]

I am not surprised about the army. We live on a tradoc base. The jobs they train here for only those with a high gt? (Not exactly sure what is called but a general knowledge test or something) scores. The stories I hear from the people that have to deal with the training soldiers. Yeah not good. Hell even the newer younger soldiers my husband has are the ones that give him the most grief and problems 90 percent of the time. This weekend is the first weekend in MONTHS he hasn't been called from one of them because of an issue.

Eta I only mentioned the gt scores because even the supposedly really "smart" ones do/say the stupidest shit.

[amaristella]

Is it bad that I was expecting the starting number to be much less than 1/3 that are eligible to start with?

On the other hand my grandfather washed out of Army basic way back in the....I don't know. It was a long time ago. The one time that he talked to me about it I could tell that it was a source of lifelong shame for him.

I'd like to see this from a historical perspective how things have changed over the years. Obviously draft years are going to skew numbers in all kinds of interesting ways but it would still be interesting to see.

[Dory1988]

Maybe they shouldn't give them I-pads a boot camp. If training were an actual challenge they might actually teach these kids something other than how to run in circles and how to put on a uniform.

ETA: Some discipline would be nice. Aaannndddd I personally escorted one of our people that washed out for malingering. Then I think we had another 4-5 after that because they either couldn't swim or couldn't pass the PRT. One girl got micro fractures in both her tibia. She only joined the Navy because her ex told her she couldn't do it anyway.

[meltoine]

I'm sure this is related to the spate of articles that bemoan the over-parenting of millenials as the reason they can't hack it in college or the workforce either.

[killercupcake]

Jul 14, 2015 8:02:50 GMT -5 Dory1988 said:

Maybe they shouldn't give them I-pads a boot camp. If training were an actual challenge they might actually teach these kids something other than how to run in circles and how to put on a uniform.

ETA: Some discipline would be nice. Aaannndddd I personally escorted one of our people that washed out for malingering. Then I think we had another 4-5 after that because they either couldn't swim or couldn't pass the PRT. One girl got micro fractures in both her tibia. She only joined the Navy because her ex told her she couldn't do it anyway.

Who gives recruits ipads in bootcamp?

[Dory1988]

Jul 14, 2015 21:40:30 GMT -5 Stan said:

Jul 14, 2015 8:02:50 GMT -5 Dory1988 said:

Maybe they shouldn't give them I-pads a boot camp. If training were an actual challenge they might actually teach these kids something other than how to run in circles and how to put on a uniform.

ETA: Some discipline would be nice. Aaannndddd I personally escorted one of our people that washed out for malingering. Then I think we had another 4-5 after that because they either couldn't swim or couldn't pass the PRT. One girl got micro fractures in both her tibia. She only joined the Navy because her ex told her she couldn't do it anyway.

All of my training has been challenging, physically and emotionally, and mentally. I demand to hear about this iPad thing, because whaaaa?

They're not actually iPads they're tablets...
www.navytimes.com/story/military/tech/2015/02/11/navy-mcpon-tablet-esailor-ipad-bluejacket/23227655/
I compared our training to summer camp. Physically it was tailored for fat bodies to go from not passing a PRT to passing without killing them in the process. Mentally the hardest thing was tolerating a bunch of 18 year old know it alls that argued about everything instead of trying to work as a team for 8 weeks. Maybe I was expecting too much...idk.

[killercupcake]

The tablet thing is nuts. I mean, I can see why in an effort to curb costs of books and documents, but unless they're giving them the tablets, what's the point? Even then, that doesn't seem cost effective in the least.

[Dory1988]

Jul 15, 2015 21:15:46 GMT -5 Stan said:

Jul 15, 2015 11:12:37 GMT -5 Dory1988 said:

They're not actually iPads they're tablets...
www.navytimes.com/story/military/tech/2015/02/11/navy-mcpon-tablet-esailor-ipad-bluejacket/23227655/
I compared our training to summer camp. Physically it was tailored for fat bodies to go from not passing a PRT to passing without killing them in the process. Mentally the hardest thing was tolerating a bunch of 18 year old know it alls that argued about everything instead of trying to work as a team for 8 weeks. Maybe I was expecting too much...idk.

Join the Army! Lol.

I've thought about it. Lol their medics have my specialty too.