Hey fatso! Uncle Sam doesn't want you!
March 13, 2006 05:08 AM /
FUBAR
.
Uncle Sam wants YOU, that famous Army recruiting poster says. But does he really? Not if you're a Ritalin-taking, overweight, Generation Y couch potato -- or some combination of the above.
As for that fashionable "body art" that the military still calls a tattoo, having one is grounds for rejection, too.
With U.S. casualties rising in wars overseas and more opportunities in the civilian work force from an improved U.S. economy, many young people are shunning a career in the armed forces. But recruiting is still a two-way street _ and the military, too, doesn't want most people in this prime recruiting age group of 17 to 24.
Of some 32 million Americans now in this group, the Army deems the vast majority too obese, too uneducated, too flawed in some way, according to its estimates for the current budget year.
"As you look at overall population and you start factoring out people, many are not eligible in the first place to apply," said Doug Smith, spokesman for the Army Recruiting Command.
Some experts are skeptical.
Previous Defense Department studies have found that 75 percent of young people are ineligible for military service, noted Charles Moskos of Northwestern University. While the professor emeritus who specializes in military sociology says it is "a baloney number," he acknowledges he has no figures to counter it.
"Recruiters are looking for reasons other than themselves," said David R. Segal, director of the Center for Research on Military Organization at the University of Maryland. "So they blame the pool."
The military's figures are estimates, based partly on census numbers. They are part of an elaborate analysis the military does as it struggles each year to compete with colleges and companies for the nation's best and brightest, plan for future needs and maintain diversity.
The Census Bureau estimates that the overall pool of people who would be in the military's prime target age has shrunk as American society ages. There were 1 million fewer 18- to 24-year olds in 2004 than in 2000, the agency says.
The pool shrinks to 13.6 million when only high school graduates and those who score in the upper half on a military service aptitude test are considered. The 30 percent who are high school dropouts are not the top choice of today's professional, all-volunteer and increasingly high-tech military force.
Other factors include:
_the rising rate of obesity; some 30 percent of U.S. adults are now considered obese.
_a decline in physical fitness; one-third of teenagers are now believed to be incapable of passing a treadmill test.
_a near-epidemic rise in the use of Ritalin and other stimulants to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Potential recruits are ineligible for military service if they have taken such a drug in the previous year.
Doctors prescribe these drugs to about 2 million children and 1 million adults a month, according to a federal survey. Many more are believed to be using such stimulants recreationally and to stay awake longer to boost academic and physical performance.
Other potential recruits are rejected because they have criminal histories and too many dependents. Subtract 4.4 million from the pool for these people and for the overweight.
Others can be rejected for medical problems, from blindness to asthma. The Army estimate has subtracted 2.6 million for this group.
That leaves 4.3 million fully qualified potential recruits and an estimated 2.3 million more who might qualify if given waivers on some of their problems.
The bottom line: a total 6.6 million potential recruits from all men and women in the 32 million-person age group.
In the budget year that ended last September, 15 percent of recruits required a waiver in order to be accepted for active duty services _ or about 11,000 people of some 73,000 recruited.
Most waivers were for medical problems. Some were for misdemeanors such as public drunkenness, resisting arrest or misdemeanor assault _ prompting criticism that the Army is lowering its standards.
This year the Army is trying to recruit 80,000 people; all the services are recruiting about 180,000.
And about the tattoos: They are not supposed to be on your neck, refer to gang membership, be offensive, or in any way conflict with military standards on integrity, respect and team work. The military is increasingly giving waivers for some types of tattoos, officials said.
___
On the Net:
Defense Department career and aptitude exploration site: http://www.asvabprogram.com
© 2006 The Associated Press
© Copyright
2006 by Capitol Hill Blue
Comments
This is something I never understood. If corporations had the same restrictions on hiring as the military does, could we live with the unemployment rate? I think not.
It seems that having asthma shouldn't stop someone from typing requisitions or warehousing uniforms. Even someone confined to a wheelchair could shuffle papers. I think of Pat Tillman. Would it have made sense for him to have worked signing in vehicles at a motor pool? All jobs don't require combat level physical ability.
Posted by
spiiderweb at March 13, 2006 07:19 AM
I would not worry too much over this because at the killing rate that Bush has the military will soon take those with prostetic limbs, prostitutes, pimps, those with criminal records, hell if he wants soldiers to fight for him, he should recruit out of the increased number of prisons that are being built and leave our sons and daughters who are in high schools and colleges alone so we can prepare one of them to be the next president who actually care about AMERICA, since that rat bastard does not. I say there should be a law, Bush, Cheney, Rumpshit, Rice, Gonzalez, Snow and all the shit talkers must perform a tour of duty in IRAQ along with their wife and children...he is sending entire families there now so why not lead by example. That is what the military do, lead by example Mr. Commander In Chief, but you would not know anything about that since your ass always came up from behind............oh, brownie you are doing a heck of a job should apply to bush........bushie you are doing a killer job on the American family.
Posted by Manuel at March 13, 2006 09:08 AM
Interestingly enough, my son-in-law recently went through a year long effort to join the Air Force. He is college educated, a hard worker, a dedicated family man and sharp as a tack. He's one of those geeks who can field strip a computer, set up a network out of almost nothing, is a terror on the ice hockey rink and Super-Dad who helps coach his girls in hockey, helps with homework, cooks, cleans, and spends the vast majority of his non-work time with his wife and kids.
He and his wife and kids are very patriotic liberals and he saw a career in the AF as a good way to do a lot of things, including provide for his little family as well as give him training that would compliment his college education and possibly springboard him into a post military career (assuming he survived that long).
In the end, after sending him through three increasingly more stringent physical exams (he was OCS material) they rejected him for having an imperfect optic nerve in one eye - or so THEY said.
If it were not for the present debacle and the fact our government tends to get us into debacle after debacle I might have found it a better idea. As it is, I'm thankful he is NOT in the AF and that a less than perfect optic nerve is grounds for being grounded from flight school.
I've always wondered if it was not the Celtic tattoos on his back or the fact his wife is disabled that mattered more than whether this guy was actually "Top Gun" material.
However, this sort of thing has gone on for a long time. I attempted to volunteer for the AF when I was just out of high school back in the late 60's and was rejected because I had a hearing impairment. I figured that being a woman I'd go to a nursing school and be tending to some poor solider who got shot. I never really saw the need to have the hearing that could hear a bug poop at 2 miles as necessary to that sort of work.
Posted by Slithy at March 13, 2006 02:56 PM
UNCLE SAM ALSO DOESN'T WANT YOU IF YOU ARE OPENLY GAY OR LESBIAN. THOUSANDS ARE DISCHARGED WHO ARE CRITICAL TO THE WAR EFFORT INCLUDING ALL OF THE ARAB TRANSLATORS...AND NOW YOU HEAR HOW DESPARATELY THEY NEED TRANSLATORS AND INTERPRETERS, NOT TO MENTION THE MONEY AND SECURITY THEY SQUANDER TO KEEP THE "NO GAYS IN THE MILITARY" ALIVE. THERE HAVE AND ALWAYS WILL BE GAYS IN THE MILITARY.....THEY JUST NEED TO BE ALLOWED RECOGNITION FOR WHO AND WHAT THEY ARE TO GET THE SAME RESPECT AS EVERYONE ELSE DESERVES. UNCLE SAME NEEDS TO END THIS HOMOPHOBIA.
Posted by rambro2@cfl.rr.com at March 13, 2006 04:53 PM
Tina Turner had a line in "Beyond Thunderdome" - it was "You can shovel shit, can't you?" (In response to Mel Gibson's character asking what kind of job could he get.)
When things hit the fan I suspect that the Selective Service will go downmarket and use the Grade C Beef to shovel shit. They won't escape.
And women will be drafted in the next draft, they just won't get every job.
Posted by SET at March 15, 2006 12:32 PM
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