Due to the prolific nature of these forums, poster aggression is advised.
<snip>how does everyone feel about this, especially since i have realized we have some hardcore liberals in here i would like to know their opinions<snip>
Demo - Navy - NUCLEAR ENGINEER (or something such as that; not sure the exact MOS name)
I could go on, but I would urge you to check out the actual process (ASVAB for one; GED or diploma, as another) and requirements for persons enlisting in the US Military. It MAY have been the less educated waaaaay back in the 60's/70's/ and part of the 80's, but now; if you're a dumbass, you aint getting in.
Not only that, but you can be plenty smart and have one or two irresponsible moments and end up with that same aforementioned shit-end. I went through the Naval Nuclear Program with a lot of guys who had over 90 on their ASVAB tests that wound up failing a test or two and got stuck chipping paint at sub-E4 pay grades.
My error was saying "Fuck you" to a 9 year old black kid that had just called me a "Dumb white ass honkey mother fucker". What I should have done was killed the little fuck.
I think Kerry's an asshat too (along with most of our politicians), but I can't get away from how so many people say "there's a grain of truth to it." Remember when Bill Maher made the similar comment about "low-lying fruit"? Everyone was outraged, he lost his job, and yet because 9/11 was still fresh on our minds, we couldn't have a dialogue about what he said. Same thing here.The real war within our borders is the issue of class. Race continues to be used as the red herring to keep the middle and working classes distracted from the real fact of the matter: that the haves have more than ever, and the have-nots have even less. That fact runs across all racial and cultural spectrums. Oh, sure, the working class can now buy cell phones and Starbucks coffee, but it's a false sense of prosperity, in part because most of it is being paid for with credit cards that will never get paid back.
That's an extremely myopic view to take. I live in a small town where generations of families have farmed, logged, fished and mined. They don't leave unless there's a war to go to. The only "respectable" way to get out is to join the military. It's not at all easy to find the routes you speak of when you have no encouragement from your family or friends; even your school doesn't offer the tools you need, i.e. providing an education that can prepare you for college. The pressure to conform to tradition here is enormous.Certainly there are intelligent, college educated people who join the military. But by far the majority of people who enlist do so because they have no real economic alternatives, or at least the perception of such. Like the 20-year-old kid from our town who died in Iraq a couple of years ago. Talking to his sister, his story is the perfect example of this: his parents spend the majority of their free time at the tavern; he had no encouragement from them to take his studies seriously or pursue college. The military recruiters are so convincing when they came to visit the school; they had grand stories of seeing the world and getting money for college that he didn't have to pay back -- all he had to do was spend a little time "serving" his country, and what a noble thing that is.
It MAY have been the less educated waaaaay back in the 60's/70's/ and part of the 80's
My enlistment started in 1984. - fyi.
back in the 60's/70's/ and part of the 80's
When I first enlisted ('85) it was true; they didnt really press hard for smarts. They basically took who they could get
As a quick side note, I found this to be funny. A few months ago one of the branches of the military (I think it was the Army) was saying that they were way below their recruitment targets. As a result of this, they lowered the entrance standards. Within the last two weeks, I read an article about how the Army is all happy now because they've now met their recruitment targets for the year. Thought it was somewhat relevant to this particular discussion.
My condolences. Rest assured, however, that you are in excellent company. I served with a lot of good men who found similar fates.We started out with 45 people in my Nuclear Field A-School class. 5 of us ended up completing the Naval Nuclear Program a couple of years down the road. It has a really high attrition rate, and those that wash out end up with the aforementioned "shit-end of the stick", for the most part.
Pure oxygen? It's just regular AIR. There's no pure oxygen.
Rico - Army - Not sure what his civillian job is; but you know him as well as I; and I would hardly say he's "uneducated".
Total Members: 4961