All recruiters are meeting or exceeding their quotas and the Regular Army guys I have taught in Squad Designated Marksmen School do NOT want anyone next to them who is NOT a volunteer.
Forget the draft.
Posted by Robert at June 2, 2004 05:01 PMI agree that the draft ain't the way to go. The Army got behind the power curve on enlistments, training time, etc. If you send a person to Basic Training, then to AIT (where he learns his job) you are looking at a minimum four month time frame, and that if everything works right. If the trainee has to wait to join, then spend a week in the reception station getting records started, it might be six months before the Army turns a civilian into a soldier fit for a unit.
We've been through Stop Loss before. Everyone in uniform knows it happens, and this isn't the first time we have told people that their time was being extended. In WWII, the basic orders were for "the duration plus six months", which is pretty open-ended.
Even if we instituted the draft today, it would be six months before we could count the new draftees as soldiers.
Posted by Dennis at June 2, 2004 06:33 PMThey did this back in 90 as well when I was just getting out of the military. I had 90 days leave accrued and took 45 of them. Because I did this, I missed my "stop" by two weeks. Others who had gone through basic with me were stopped from ETSing.
I don't recall the media making a big deal of it back then.
Posted by Serenity at June 2, 2004 06:59 PMI think that the all volunteer army was working just fine until WJ Clinton decided to downsize. I have a son who will join the military in a couple of years if George W is re-elected. If J F'n Kerry is elected, he'll study engineering and become a conservative blogger.
I think that the guy at the TOP has a lot to do with the condition of the military. A lot of folks left during the Clinton years, and we're still trying to make up that loss.
Posted by Trooper John Smith at June 2, 2004 09:33 PMNo way, I had to deal with some of McNamara's 50,000 as well as the normal draftee. I don't want anyone having to re-live some drafted asshat trying to fit a BFR down the tube of a 105mm howitzer because he didn't like having to serve.
Posted by Jack at June 3, 2004 12:42 PMAs I remember it, once I raised my right hand and took the oath, my ass belonged to the US military. Course, that was in the early '60s.
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