Not Behind the Plow
Good news from Army Times for all you high school dropouts : "Army recruiters now have a wider pool to find future soldiers in. The Army is reaching out to a slice of America’s youth long ineligible to serve: non-high school graduates who don’t have a General Equivalency Diploma." You too can join and the Army will pay for tutoring to get that good enough diploma (GED).
If an individual has been out of high school for at least six months, can pass a physical exam and the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, he or she may be eligible for help getting a GED.
My grandfather served in WWI. That's a picture of him (left) and his brother as young men in their 20s in some fairly shabby uniforms, and his dog tags. He was self-educated, more or less, with a "formal" 6th grade education. Grampa was a busy family man; producing sons who served in 3 wars, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. When I was 6 my grampa proudly taught me to sing "you're in the army now, you're not behind the plow, you'll never get rich you son of a bitch, you're in the army now." I sang it often and loud as he gave me permission to use the SOB dirty word.
Grampa (and his sons) also told me for each of their wars to wear the uniform all you needed to pass the physical was breathe. The ASVAB testing began in the 1960s and we know how many functionally illiterate still managed to sneak through and serve in Vietnam. But before the ASVAB, in WWI, the military used the Army Alpha test which was 212 multiple choice, true/false questions. When the Army learned many couldn't read and write they developed the Army Beta test, which used only pictures. So don't worry about being illiterate or IQ challenged; when in need of cannon fodder the powers that be are very accommodating. Some believe our military is now so high tech that only smart men and boys can serve, but our leaders understand it doesn't take a genius to carry an M16. And if they don't teach you to at least write your name, you may still be eligible : just scratch an X on the line the man points to.
5 comments:
hello KateA,
I see that as usual you are tuned into the Zeitgeist.
Yesterday's article in the NYTimes "Many Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path to Motherhood" was very interesting indeed.
I'm happy that the edecated folks, men and women, can find or produce all that free time - keep living it up while the living is good. The children of all these folks may manage to avoid military duty and enjoy their summer homes on cape cod, and such.
And intriguing this desire to continue increasing the population - for those in the ever growing crowd wondering where in hell all of this is going. How are we supposed to keep kool in the increasing heat?
The well heeled will invariably kill us off, or send us off to be killed to save their asses. Those with means will manage to clear out of town in time and forgive themselves for it. They are very good at that.
I would post a comment but I'm stuck in "Duct"
golly, you are stuck in there!!!
oh, stop talking with yourself.
The recruiters now teach them how to pass all of those pesky tests including the drug one. You know buy that kit on the internet and have a clean friend pee in the container for you.
There's been a few cases recently of 17/18 y/o offenders in our county being offered the choice of military or jail time, for repeat nonviolent offenses, i.e. burglary, alcohol, brawling, some weed, etc.
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