Want a $20,000 Bonus?

[Jacko]

Originally Posted by sctx

but he's got a very cool avatar

That just makes it worse...I get very thirsty for some reason whenever I "talk" with him....

[Jacko]

Originally Posted by Anejo ny1

I'll be happy to break the seal with anybody on that bottle.

Thanks, but I notice the seal is already broken...

[woodman]

Originally Posted by Anejo ny1

I'll be happy to break the seal with anybody on that bottle.

I'm there,hell i'll drink with anybody

[Babaloo]

Originally Posted by woodman

I'm there,hell i'll drink with anybody

hell..me too
oh...wait
i won't drink with DanD

[woodman]

Originally Posted by Babaloo

hell..me too
oh...wait
i won't drink with DanD

Speak on it

[sctx]

Originally Posted by Babaloo

hell..me too
oh...wait
i won't drink with DanD

if you drink w/ me again, you'd better keep your damn shorts on!!!

[Just Lucky]

The article quoted with this headline:

Military Remains Choosy in Selecting Recruits, Shunning Many Who Are Overweight, Uneducated

ran March 13,2006 in the Seattle times. I think we should realise many things have changed since then.For instance the "surge". In fact I've been reading articles for months suggesting the Army is indeed lowering recruitment standards.

Here's what one high school journalist discovered:

David McSwane had seen the military recruiters around town. He had seen them at the high school. And he knew that with recruitment rates down due to the Iraq war, they were working hard to attract new cadets. And it gave him an idea.

"I wanted to see how far they'd go to get another soldier," says McSwane, a reporter for the Westwind at Arvada West High School in Arvada, Colo. So he set up a sting investigation, posing as a high school dropout with a marijuana habit and went down to his local Colorado Army recruitment station to enlist. It would lead to a national shutdown of such recruitment and fame for him in The New York Times and other national news outlets.

McSwane, 17, knew he would have to document his conversations with the recruiters, so he taped the telephone conversations, enlisted his sister to pose as a proud sibling so she could photograph parts of the process, and asked a friend to operate a video camera across from a local head shop.

But how did McSwane get an recruiter to visit a head shop with him? Simple. The honor student, pretending to have a ganja habit he couldn't kick, went there to score a detoxifying kit the Army office claimed had helped two previous recruits pass drug tests, according to a taped phone conversation broadcast on local TV. McSwane told his recruiter he didn't know what the detox formula looked like, so the man agreed to go to the store with him.

Aside from his drug problem, McSwane said he had no high school diploma — which at that time was true, as he graduated about two months later — and that he had dropped out of high school. No problem, the recruiters told him. There are Web sites where anyone can order a diploma from a school they make up. "It can be like Faith Hill Baptist School or whatever you choose," one recruiter can be heard saying on one of the taped exchanges.

Editor of Paper in Controversy Over Anti-Bush Curse Led Army Recruitment 'Sting' Two Years Ago


Here is another article about some of reasons for the need for more recruits:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday he's inclined to approve an Army proposal to spend nearly $3 billion extra to accelerate the expansion of its active-duty force.
Army Secretary Pete Geren said speeding up the growth of the force, stretched thin by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, would mean recruiting faster and increasing the number of soldiers who re-enlist.
``I'm probably going to recommend they go ahead and give it a try,'' Gates told reporters at a Pentagon news conference when asked what he would do.
The defense secretary cautioned, however, that he would not accept any quick expansion plan that would require the Army to lower its standards for recruiting soldiers, including levels of education required.
``I'm inclined to approve it,'' Gates said. ``My questions have focused principally on whether they can do it in terms of recruitment, and whether they can do so without lowering standards.''
Geren, in an earlier interview with a group of reporters, also said it was possible that even while five Army combat brigades are withdrawn from Iraq between December and July, the number of non-combat troops there could stay the same or even increase. He stressed that he was not predicting any particular level of support forces in Iraq in 2008 but also was not assuming the number would be lower by then. It has generally been assumed that the number of support troops in Iraq would decline next year as part of the plan announced by President Bush earlier this month to withdraw five combat brigades by July.

Gates Considers Army's Expansion Plan | World Latest | Guardian Unlimited

Here's a link to an article in USA Today 10-09-06 about lowering standards:USATODAY.com - Lower standards help Army meet recruiting goal

[Susie Q Roo]

Originally Posted by sctx

if you drink w/ me again, you'd better keep your damn shorts on!!!

Yeah, I have that same problem with him when he drinks.

[James A.]

I don't have a problem with the military paying bonuses. The military, in general, and war in particular, is a funny animal. Standard social norms go right out the window.

I think that enlistees pretty much understand what they are getting into right now. War.

When I enlisted, I chose 13B (field artillery) because it has one of the largest signing bonuses, BTW.

[Jacko]

Hi James A.!

When I enlisted (all those years ago)..I chose Electronics-Telecommunications...because it had the longest technical training school,(1 year)..Later, I used that training and experience in a 21 year career with MCI Telecom.

After technical training in beautiful Biloxi, Mississippi, I then requested to be sent to Spain because I heard they had the prettiest women....they did.....and I am still married to that pretty Señora today!

I never got a dollar bonus for signing up and I never took them up on the reenlistment bonus...but I still feel pretty fortunate for the experience...

[Daddy B]

Originally Posted by Jacko

Hi James A.!

When I enlisted (all those years ago)..I chose Electronics-Telecommunications...because it had the longest technical training school,(1 year)..Later, I used that training and experience in a 21 year career with MCI Telecom.

After technical training in beautiful Biloxi, Mississippi, I then requested to be sent to Spain because I heard they had the prettiest women....they did.....and I am still married to that pretty Señora today!

I never got a dollar bonus for signing up and I never took them up on the reenlistment bonus...but I still feel pretty fortunate for the experience...

Were other Spanish señoritas impressed by your longest technical training?

[Jacko]

Originally Posted by Daddy B

Were other Spanish señoritas impressed by your longest technical training?

I believe there were other things.....

[Anejo ny1]

When I enlisted I went 0352 Tow missile gunner. I didn't get squat for a bonus nor was I looking for one. I did get to go to the Persian Gulf War though. What a bonus that was.

[ryberg]

Originally Posted by Susie Q Roo

Yeah, I have that same problem with him when he drinks.

Nice one.

Steve

[kirbyfan]

Originally Posted by Tommygurl

No no draft please...
We don't want your draft dodgers slinking over our border paying no taxes, using our medical system & forging new careers in "horticulture"......

Wait nevermind......Yes we do come on up!!

I'm too old for the draft but I cant imagine that were I young enough to think about having to dodge it, I would ever think of going somewhere COLDER than Minnesota!!!

Dodge south not North!