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Monday, June 30, 2014

Soldiers

A few weeks ago, Brittany Crippen said she tried to enlist in the Army, only to learn that a tattoo of a fish on the back of her neck disqualified her. Determined to join, the 19-year-old college student visited a second recruiting center in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and was rejected again.  -  Recruits' Ineligibility Tests the Military - Wall Street Journal

I don't really understand why people get tattoos, and ear gauges are totally alien. Of course, I don't understand why people wear jewelry either. I mean, I guess people have reasons for doing these things, I've just never had the slightest interest.

There was some discussion on an internet forum, and then I come across a post from LineDoggie that had a couple of interesting observations:

... when the 1940 Draft was started very large numbers of potential soldiers were turned away as physically unfit, in most cases having suffered from years of malnutrition during the depression.

 ... if Audie Murphy were an 18 year old today he could not enlist due to only a 4th grade education.

2 comments:

Ole Phat Stu said...

Hows many Taliban do you think have at least a fourth grade education?

Chuck Pergiel said...

Whose scale are we using? Our scale, where we try and teach them the 3 R's and some modicum of courtesy and mental discipline, or the Jihadist's scale, which near as I can make out consists of how many times you can holler 'Allah Akbar' before you manage to push the button on your suicide vest. I don't think any of them make it to the fifth grade.