Military age young people

[Sunray]

"...growing up fatherless..." Ditto. My pop died when I was 6. I was Commissioned in 1982.
"...if we had had officers such as..." You did. So did we and every other military.
Abrams was a LTC eleven days before his 28th birthday during W.W.II. The 37th Tank Battalion, which Abrams commanded, spearheaded 3rd Army. Westmoreland was no slouch either. Their issues came from White House interference.

[barretcreek]

David Pergrin took command of the 291st Enr. at 25. His book is a worthwhile read.
In the period up until the '80s there were church run schools which provided real choice vs. the public 'education' system. Still have Catholic schools in some parts of the country and somehow students whose parents are barely getting by are admitted and graduate. One of the campaign promises 'Rats make is 'NO MORE CHARTER SCHOOLS!' because the alternative to the indoctrination system has a lot of support in less affluent communities and the NEA and AFT can't stand having competition.

[blackhawknj]

In WWII bright young competent leaders rose rapidly, while George C. Marshall told Eisenhower to be ruthless in relieving incompetents. In Vietnam "too many brigade and battalion commanders were simply trying to punch their tickets" to quote an Army general while another noted that the failure to mobilize the reserves resulted in Regular Army OCS standards falling to the "Calley-Medina level" to quote another general.

[Vern Humphrey]

David Pergrin took command of the 291st Enr. at 25. His book is a worthwhile read.
In the period up until the '80s there were church run schools which provided real choice vs. the public 'education' system. Still have Catholic schools in some parts of the country and somehow students whose parents are barely getting by are admitted and graduate. One of the campaign promises 'Rats make is 'NO MORE CHARTER SCHOOLS!' because the alternative to the indoctrination system has a lot of support in less affluent communities and the NEA and AFT can't stand having competition.

You've got that right -- the Public School system has collapsed and turned into an indoctrination system.

[EO1]

The numbers are misleading. If true, the reference is to the population as a whole, not recruits. It's the recruiters job to make sure the recruits will pass because he does not want too many DQs on his record.
I transport recruits to MEPS and there are many more now than during the O years, thanks to our man Trump. So many more that the Denver MEPS cant handle the numbers and they are being sent to Albq and SLC. With nary a one getting DQd. And these kids range from 17 to 25+ in age, some even married. And they are much smarter than I was at that age.
So you guys can get your knickers untwisted, we're in very good hands.

[Clark Howard]

"Nobody loves the soldier until the enemy is at the gate". These days, the most dangerous enemy is the dems in our own ranks.

[Former Cav]

I went in on Jun 14th (flag day and the US Army's birthday) 1965.
We had a ton of draftees, I got my draft notice but then I enlisted for a "choice" which I DID NOT get of course! I went to So Korea and Vietnam. Did everything, infantry, recon, tanker but with my MOS being 11 echo dumb assed tanker I did NOT get a CIB even though I got a PH doing infantry squad leader, another PH as a recon man, and the last PH as a tank commander.
We had Damned GREAT soldiers......draftees and enlistees alike. Biggest losers I ever saw was when I was at Ft. Cartoon (carson) CO in 67 when we had macnamara's (SPIT) 100,000 LOSERS/cannonfodder. In 68 in my Armored Cav unit (3/4 Cav 25th ID) we didn't have all these racial problems, dopers etc. And we were a lean clean fighting machine and had LOTS of REAL HEROS, a lot of them totally unrecognized. "hey, it was our job" was their attitude!
I didn't run into xxxx to save so and so so that I could get a bronze star with V device, I went to SAVE HIS ASS!!
never thought of the damned medals until AFTER I got out and had been out for over 20 years.!
In basic at Ft. Knox, and AIT Armor, we had it pretty tough and the DI would give you a physical lesson if you were a screw off. No "stress cards" back then. NO queers (if they were, they stayed in the closet or got a DD), NO trannys, etc. There was only ONE color.... OD GREEN!!
(at Ft. Cartoon...............their was color and you are a racist bullchit) In So. Korea I worked with two of the finest NCO's in the US Army and they were black, SSG Wilson and Church....GOD bless them! They pulled no punches and were not into the racist chit. If and when someone tried it, they learned real quick that these two SSG's saw right through them.
One thing I can tell you. YOu do NOT want a CANDY ASS (weak male) or God Forbid a FEMALE on a tank crew. BUSTING track takes STRENGTH, especially if you have to do it while under sniper fire or in an other then favorable (read motor pool) POSITION.
The politicians, and lot of generals NEED to learn that the JOB of the MILITARY is to KILL the enemy and WIN!!
DO IT FAST!! It is not for you to re-engineer society and change sexes etc...
To the politicans...and generals.... If you are NOT WILLING to KILL everything that is in your way (man, woman, child) you have NO DA*NED business leading our youth into HARMS WAY!
I hope macnamarra is getting cor* holed by satan himself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[blackhawknj]

Regarding McNamara's 100,000, at the time it was repeatedly urged that they be formed into a permanent detail force-let Delbert Dumbdumb and Dopey Dimwit perform the guard duty, KP, janitorial duties and all the scutwork and busywork that took the place of training. Yes, they were channeled to the infantry were they had significantly higher casualties, but it was also SOP that troublemakers and disciplinary problems were transferred to the infantry.
In 1969 at Fort Bragg I saw a poster that showed a gorilla wearing a beret. The caption read; "The ideal combat engineer is a size 54 jacket-and a size 5 hat !"

[togor]

What blows my mind even today is the guys who went into those tunnels with only a .45 looking for VC. That takes balls beyond belief.

[lyman]

What blows my mind even today is the guys who went into those tunnels with only a .45 looking for VC. That takes balls beyond belief.

I know one,,

tall(Ish) skinny guy,

no fear, of anything, maybe 135lb soaking wet,


and one of the nicest guys I know

[Dolt]

I have a friend who is an instructor for one of the clandestine services. He said one of the biggest problems they had was with their people being deployed to the middle east and other parts of the third world. Many of them had never slept on the ground, camped, learned how to use a slit trench or many of the other tasks us old guys learned growing up. They had to develop a special camp for them before deployment just so they could be successful when they got over to their AO.