All branches of Active Duty met their quota last year,
with reserves meeting 140% in some fields.
2010's numbers are rumored to be astronomical but have yet to be released.
some statistics
More notable is the rise of high school grads enlisting,
and can you blame them?
With teen unemployment at its lowest level since 1951,
1.64 million between the age of 16-19
and millions more to plummet once summer jobs and census work end.
Whats worse is half of the college grads under 25 are working for minimum wage at jobs that don't require college degrees.
Unemployment among people under 25 is at its highest level since they began tracking statistics in 1948.
It's no wonder more people are listening to the recruitment pitch.
That specific pitch has become all the more aggressive and is currently taking heat.
When Dekalb County, Georgia announced the Marine Corps proposed a military high school funded by their recruitment budget... red flags went up.
This schools sole purpose would obviously be to serve as a military pipeline.
The No Child Left Behind Act states
schools must disclose juniors and seniors school records including those under 17 to military recruiters or risk losing federal aid.
Many teachers insist students take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery,
sometimes requiring whole classes participate, even 16 year olds.
It's not uncommon for recruiters to show up on the doorsteps of those who took the test.
The true hypocrisy here resides in the case of
Associate Justice for the Supreme Court - Elena Kagan
who as the dean of Harvard Law School barred military recruiters from its career counseling office.
Berkeley has chosen the same route
A prime example in regards to the upper echolon,
whats good for the goose is the efforts of the subservient gander.
You can't blame the recruiters, the U.S. military has a lot of ground to cover,
in 2004 U.S. troops were stationed in 135 countries
There's only 192 countries globally, which means we have troops in 70% of the world.
the top 25 as of 2008
I digress...
With the current economic slump and prospect that wallets shall only get slimmer,
anticipated sign-on bonuses and education benefits may seem like the only option for some.
In 2008 alone enlisted personnel used military tuition assistance to enroll in
-more than 700k undergraduate programs
&
-more than 96k graduate courses
these active students then face the very real possibility that they may be deployed at any time
even if it means in the middle of a semester.
Obviously base pay is another benefit for those that enlist.
All things considered, record numbers of recruits do not reflect all is peachy for the soldiers of today or tomorrow.
The U.S. military is experiencing a record number of suicides,
in June alone 32 soldiers are believed to have committed suicide, 21 on active duty.
2009 saw a record breaking 245 soldiers commit the act,
74 being intentional overdoses.
Perhaps more worrying is the fact that 1,713 attempted suicide during this period.
2010 seems on track to surpass that with the 1st half of the year seeing 145 accounts
This number doesn't include veterans, whose numbers surged 26% from 2005-2007.
Of the 30k suicides nationwide each year, 20% are veterans,
meaning an average of 18 veterans kill themselves every day,
five of those 18 being under the care of the VA.
I wonder how many of these casualties of war can be attributed to the Stop Loss policy.
Another factor is AWOL's, obviously these numbers are kept very secret.
But rumors flourish that 2009 broke records.
Doubling more than 234% over the last 5 years.
By 2005 Pentagon estimated that 5,500 soldiers discharged themselves since the conflict in Iraq,
that was only 2 years deep & excluded the war in Afghanistan.
Imagine how astronomical that number must be now as 5 years have passed
and well over 2 thousand additional U.S. troops have been killed.
a calendar of the deceased as of June, 2006
Afghan soldiers commonly train with the U.S. military,
and occasionally they too go AWOL on U.S. soil - 46 to date.
Sometimes they escape in packs, and still continue to have "all access" to U.S. military facilities.
More than a few incidents have arose where a soldier goes AWOL then commits heinous acts:
-AWOL soldier wanted in kidnapping, rapes
-AWOL soldier pleads guilty in mothers murder
there's many cases, I challenge you to Google some and witness some of the atrocities.
These atrocities can't be blamed on the individual, but rather the institution.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder plagues 35% of the troops
Of veterans those exposed to traumatic combat related situations suffer worst:
-attacked or ambushed = 92%
-seeing dead bodies = 94.5%
-being shot at = 95%
-and/or knowing someone seriously injured or killed = 86.5%
Due to the agony of war 106,000 Soldiers are prescribed some form of pain, depression or anxiety medications.
One in 50 combat veterans test positive for painkillers, mostly Oxycontin.
From 2004-2006 1.8 million veterans met criteria for a past year substance use disorder.
It also certainly doesn't help that 53% of Americans believe the war is a failure
and nearly 6 out of 10 Americans oppose the war.
A few more numbers:
-In 2009 soldiers committed over 50,000 misdemeanor offenses
-64,022 felony and death investigations 2001-2009 (72% drug related)
-sexual offenses quadrupled since 2003
-177% increase those who committed spousal or child abuse
Army vice chief recently conducted an in-depth report on suicide and mental health risks
Fear not, "war is hell" is not always correct,
for those dedicated war-machines out there, the military age limit was raised from 35 to 42.
with reserves meeting 140% in some fields.
2010's numbers are rumored to be astronomical but have yet to be released.
some statistics
More notable is the rise of high school grads enlisting,
and can you blame them?
With teen unemployment at its lowest level since 1951,
1.64 million between the age of 16-19
and millions more to plummet once summer jobs and census work end.
Whats worse is half of the college grads under 25 are working for minimum wage at jobs that don't require college degrees.
Unemployment among people under 25 is at its highest level since they began tracking statistics in 1948.
It's no wonder more people are listening to the recruitment pitch.
That specific pitch has become all the more aggressive and is currently taking heat.
When Dekalb County, Georgia announced the Marine Corps proposed a military high school funded by their recruitment budget... red flags went up.
This schools sole purpose would obviously be to serve as a military pipeline.
The No Child Left Behind Act states
schools must disclose juniors and seniors school records including those under 17 to military recruiters or risk losing federal aid.
Many teachers insist students take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery,
sometimes requiring whole classes participate, even 16 year olds.
It's not uncommon for recruiters to show up on the doorsteps of those who took the test.
The true hypocrisy here resides in the case of
Associate Justice for the Supreme Court - Elena Kagan
who as the dean of Harvard Law School barred military recruiters from its career counseling office.
Berkeley has chosen the same route
A prime example in regards to the upper echolon,
whats good for the goose is the efforts of the subservient gander.
You can't blame the recruiters, the U.S. military has a lot of ground to cover,
in 2004 U.S. troops were stationed in 135 countries
There's only 192 countries globally, which means we have troops in 70% of the world.
the top 25 as of 2008
I digress...
With the current economic slump and prospect that wallets shall only get slimmer,
anticipated sign-on bonuses and education benefits may seem like the only option for some.
In 2008 alone enlisted personnel used military tuition assistance to enroll in
-more than 700k undergraduate programs
&
-more than 96k graduate courses
these active students then face the very real possibility that they may be deployed at any time
even if it means in the middle of a semester.
Obviously base pay is another benefit for those that enlist.
All things considered, record numbers of recruits do not reflect all is peachy for the soldiers of today or tomorrow.
The U.S. military is experiencing a record number of suicides,
in June alone 32 soldiers are believed to have committed suicide, 21 on active duty.
2009 saw a record breaking 245 soldiers commit the act,
74 being intentional overdoses.
Perhaps more worrying is the fact that 1,713 attempted suicide during this period.
2010 seems on track to surpass that with the 1st half of the year seeing 145 accounts
This number doesn't include veterans, whose numbers surged 26% from 2005-2007.
Of the 30k suicides nationwide each year, 20% are veterans,
meaning an average of 18 veterans kill themselves every day,
five of those 18 being under the care of the VA.
I wonder how many of these casualties of war can be attributed to the Stop Loss policy.
Another factor is AWOL's, obviously these numbers are kept very secret.
But rumors flourish that 2009 broke records.
Doubling more than 234% over the last 5 years.
By 2005 Pentagon estimated that 5,500 soldiers discharged themselves since the conflict in Iraq,
that was only 2 years deep & excluded the war in Afghanistan.
Imagine how astronomical that number must be now as 5 years have passed
and well over 2 thousand additional U.S. troops have been killed.
a calendar of the deceased as of June, 2006
Afghan soldiers commonly train with the U.S. military,
and occasionally they too go AWOL on U.S. soil - 46 to date.
Sometimes they escape in packs, and still continue to have "all access" to U.S. military facilities.
More than a few incidents have arose where a soldier goes AWOL then commits heinous acts:
-AWOL soldier wanted in kidnapping, rapes
-AWOL soldier pleads guilty in mothers murder
there's many cases, I challenge you to Google some and witness some of the atrocities.
These atrocities can't be blamed on the individual, but rather the institution.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder plagues 35% of the troops
Of veterans those exposed to traumatic combat related situations suffer worst:
-attacked or ambushed = 92%
-seeing dead bodies = 94.5%
-being shot at = 95%
-and/or knowing someone seriously injured or killed = 86.5%
Due to the agony of war 106,000 Soldiers are prescribed some form of pain, depression or anxiety medications.
One in 50 combat veterans test positive for painkillers, mostly Oxycontin.
From 2004-2006 1.8 million veterans met criteria for a past year substance use disorder.
It also certainly doesn't help that 53% of Americans believe the war is a failure
and nearly 6 out of 10 Americans oppose the war.
A few more numbers:
-In 2009 soldiers committed over 50,000 misdemeanor offenses
-64,022 felony and death investigations 2001-2009 (72% drug related)
-sexual offenses quadrupled since 2003
-177% increase those who committed spousal or child abuse
Army vice chief recently conducted an in-depth report on suicide and mental health risks
Fear not, "war is hell" is not always correct,
for those dedicated war-machines out there, the military age limit was raised from 35 to 42.
No comments:
Post a Comment