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WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of blacks joining the military has plunged by more than one-third since the Afghanistan and Iraq wars began, as other job prospects soar and relatives of potential recruits increasingly discourage them from signing up.
According to data obtained by The Associated Press, the decline covers all four military services for active duty recruits, and the drop is even more dramatic when National Guard and Reserve recruiting is included.
The Army recruit marketing was based upon three items, economic incentive as compared to alternatives for non-college kids, training in high tech job fields transferable to private industry upon discharge and getting significant college funding.
This is now significantly overcome by the reality of daily Army activity/life in combat. The other military services are just getting the fallout impact, probably quite a bit unfairly.
Stop posting this news - the Army is doing just fine!! Really!! They will only push 15 month extensions out farther again "as a last resort", senior generals assure us. I'm going to stick my head back in the sand now.
Is it really surprising that all recruiting is becoming more difficult? During "peacetime" the military is a great gig for anyone that can take the discipline but when there is a "war" it becomes pretty obvious to the potential recruits that you could get badly injured or severely dead doing this job. After all you have to survive to use the skills and college credits after you get out.
Besides getting killed in an immoral and illegal war probably has some negative effect.
BTW - I spent my time in 'Nam and the GI college aid was barely worth it.
Most black folks are against the Iraq war so it's not at all surprising that they are not rushing to sign up. BTW this is coming from a black person.
On top of that the U.S. general population is made up of 13% black people, but the U.S. Military has seen an average higher than the U.S. average aa 16% black people enlisted in the U.S. Military in 2003.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/images/table3.gif (broken link)
The U.S. Military already had a higher percentage of blacks than the general U.S. population so it will now reflect more closely to the general U.S. population anyways.
But the QUALITY of all U.S. Military Recruits has actually gone up, including black recruits even if their total percentage has gone down.
Stop posting this news - the Army is doing just fine!! Really!! They will only push 15 month extensions out farther again "as a last resort", senior generals assure us. I'm going to stick my head back in the sand now.
I guess this shows how full of crap Charlie Rangel is then right?
The Army IS doing just fine and has never seen a higher quality ALL-VOLUNTEER force.
Also, anyone who signs up in the U.S. Military knows exactly what they are signing up for.
I read just the other day the army is now using air force and navy guys in nontraditional roles to fill in the gaps. This seems to be working very well. The services simply put the air force or navy guy through a six or eight week training course and then stick him into an already functioning army unit in the field.
This along with stop gap and extending the tours to 15 months has helped overall. We still have too many service men and women returning for repeated tours of duty however.
I guess this shows how full of crap Charlie Rangel is then right?
The Army IS doing just fine and has never seen a higher quality ALL-VOLUNTEER force.
Also, anyone who signs up in the U.S. Military knows exactly what they are signing up for.
Sounds good to me or would you prefer a Draft?
I would prefer that Bush stop ruining our army and putting our national security at risk. Of course the army is not doing fine. With no time for standdown, training, maintenance of equipment, with tour extensions going now to 15 months and perhaps longer, mental health issues growing for the veterans coming back - how do you suggest the army is doing fine. Pass me your doobie, sir.
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