Posted on Oct 1, 2022
Army Drops Requirement for High School Diploma or GED: But There's a Catch
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https://sofrep.com/news/army-drops-requirement-for-high-school-diploma-or-ged-but-theres-a-catch/#:~:text=Last%20week%2C%20the%20US%20Army,recruiting%20changes%20in%20recent%20years.
The US Army no longer is going to require even a GED for enlistment. I understand that there is a shortage of qualified applicants given the high number of kids on prescription meds, those who would not want to enlist and those that are a taco chip away from a coronary, However, I remember McNamara's 10,000 who were individuals that were only slightly above illiterate that were brought in to fill the ranks with warm breathing bodies. I served under the remnants of those people. They constantly reffered to "Mens" "Feets" and could string one or two words together that grammer check would not red line. I remember getting an NCO Quarterly Counseling that said "You am done good dis monf" direct quote and that is how it was spelled. I still have a copy and I refused to allow it to go up.
I think this is the worst idea in the history of bad ideas. I say to stop the Social experimentation with the Army and Train Soldiers to be Soldiers and not all the crap that permeates training today. I work with High School Cadets and the ones that are NOT enlisting are not enlisting for a reason, they do not want to be exposed to the Woke agenda (This is a quote from one of my Cadets that turned down a ROTC scholarship and paid his own way because of changes in the Army he did not like.
What say you all?
The US Army no longer is going to require even a GED for enlistment. I understand that there is a shortage of qualified applicants given the high number of kids on prescription meds, those who would not want to enlist and those that are a taco chip away from a coronary, However, I remember McNamara's 10,000 who were individuals that were only slightly above illiterate that were brought in to fill the ranks with warm breathing bodies. I served under the remnants of those people. They constantly reffered to "Mens" "Feets" and could string one or two words together that grammer check would not red line. I remember getting an NCO Quarterly Counseling that said "You am done good dis monf" direct quote and that is how it was spelled. I still have a copy and I refused to allow it to go up.
I think this is the worst idea in the history of bad ideas. I say to stop the Social experimentation with the Army and Train Soldiers to be Soldiers and not all the crap that permeates training today. I work with High School Cadets and the ones that are NOT enlisting are not enlisting for a reason, they do not want to be exposed to the Woke agenda (This is a quote from one of my Cadets that turned down a ROTC scholarship and paid his own way because of changes in the Army he did not like.
What say you all?
Army Drops Requirement for High School Diploma or GED: But There's a Catch
Posted from sofrep.com
Army ROTC
Recruiter
Posted 2 y ago
Responses: 2
The Army quickly turned around and changed that. They back peddled from this COA
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SSG Roger Ayscue
Good Call. Do you think that looking to increasing Educational Benefits package especially in the Reserve Components would help? My son enlisted in the National Guard and is in BCT right now. The thing that pushed the Guard to the forefront is the state educational program our state offers. I have been bringing the Guard Recruiters in to see my Cadets because of this Awesome Educational Benefit package that it seems only the Guard offers.
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MSG (Join to see)
SSG Roger Ayscue - I'm not sure that educational benefits will be the only thing to save recruitment. If one looks at the whole body concept, as it were, there are more issues other than lack of education. All of the socioeconomics, societal pressures, and physical inabilities are also at play. I'm certainly not saying that these issues weren't present when we were young and dumb, just that the kids of today are bombarded with these issues on a more constant in your face presence. It's going to take a lot of work and a long time to fix these issues. I just don't see one thing or the other being the be all catch all fix for recruitment.
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I too remember McNamara's 100,000 -- some turned out to be adequate soldiers, most were one-hitch cannon fodder. Even so, they weren't particularly worse than much of what the draft was dragging in at the same time. Plenty of draftees who spoke little or no English at all - examining stations just assumed everyone was faking, but a lot of them weren't.
Unfortunately a High School Diploma today doesn't guarantee much better, nor do the services' efforts at remedial education. SSG Roger Ayscue mentioned a badly misspelled quarterly counseling from his senior NCO. Yes, we absolutely had a few illiterate NCOs back in the 1970s and 1980s. The Army had the Basic Skills Education Program to try to provide remedial education, but the program wasn't always what it was supposed to be...
About 1980 or 1981 I had a soldier who was attending BSEP. He was excused from duty to attend classes three afternoons each week. One of the program requirements was that the BSEP instructors had to provide a written progress report each month. The soldiers had to turn in these progress reports so the chain of command knew they were attending class and hopefully making progress. Some teachers wrote the progress reports as addressed to the unit, most wrote the progress reports as addressed to the student -- either way the teacher would give the soldier the progress report each month and the soldier would pass it to his supervisor.
I still remember one of the progress reports that I received from a soldier in my platoon. The report was just a note addressed to the soldier. It said: "Your doing fairly well." and was signed by the teacher. Yes, that was the exact spelling of the note written by the teacher -- and, yes, the class was Remedial English!
I confirmed that the note really had been written by the teacher and I went up the chain of command about it. Bottom line, the BSEP teachers were contracted from the DoD school system and nothing could be done about an English teacher who didn't know the difference between your and you're.
The problems were not limited to junior enlisted and a few old-time senior NCOs. I'm sure many here are familiar with the practice where a junior officer writes a letter to the commander of his first assignment, introducing himself. While I was Operations NCO for a company in the Berlin Brigade our commander got one of those letters. It was written in pencil on the lined stationary typically sold at the PX. The spelling and grammar were all correct, but the letter was printed (not written in cursive). Both the appearance and the content were about what you would expect from a child in the second or third grade of elementary school. That letter was from a senior at West Point about to be commissioned as a 2LT who had just received his initial assignment to our unit. I don't know anything about his performance because he never arrived -- our commander immediately called the branch assignment manager and convinced them so send him elsewhere.
Unfortunately a High School Diploma today doesn't guarantee much better, nor do the services' efforts at remedial education. SSG Roger Ayscue mentioned a badly misspelled quarterly counseling from his senior NCO. Yes, we absolutely had a few illiterate NCOs back in the 1970s and 1980s. The Army had the Basic Skills Education Program to try to provide remedial education, but the program wasn't always what it was supposed to be...
About 1980 or 1981 I had a soldier who was attending BSEP. He was excused from duty to attend classes three afternoons each week. One of the program requirements was that the BSEP instructors had to provide a written progress report each month. The soldiers had to turn in these progress reports so the chain of command knew they were attending class and hopefully making progress. Some teachers wrote the progress reports as addressed to the unit, most wrote the progress reports as addressed to the student -- either way the teacher would give the soldier the progress report each month and the soldier would pass it to his supervisor.
I still remember one of the progress reports that I received from a soldier in my platoon. The report was just a note addressed to the soldier. It said: "Your doing fairly well." and was signed by the teacher. Yes, that was the exact spelling of the note written by the teacher -- and, yes, the class was Remedial English!
I confirmed that the note really had been written by the teacher and I went up the chain of command about it. Bottom line, the BSEP teachers were contracted from the DoD school system and nothing could be done about an English teacher who didn't know the difference between your and you're.
The problems were not limited to junior enlisted and a few old-time senior NCOs. I'm sure many here are familiar with the practice where a junior officer writes a letter to the commander of his first assignment, introducing himself. While I was Operations NCO for a company in the Berlin Brigade our commander got one of those letters. It was written in pencil on the lined stationary typically sold at the PX. The spelling and grammar were all correct, but the letter was printed (not written in cursive). Both the appearance and the content were about what you would expect from a child in the second or third grade of elementary school. That letter was from a senior at West Point about to be commissioned as a 2LT who had just received his initial assignment to our unit. I don't know anything about his performance because he never arrived -- our commander immediately called the branch assignment manager and convinced them so send him elsewhere.
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