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Ive heard many stories of people that used to get into trouble with the law when they were young and the Judge gave them a choice of jail / reform school, etc or military.
with todays strict military enlistment standards, can they even do that these days?
I read that actor and former USMC DI LEE R Ermey joined the Marines at age 17 because the judge gave him a choice of Jail or military.
No, there are specific regulations that prohibit this these days. After 15 years recruiting for the Navy I can tell you that judges don't even offer this anymore as they know the services can't take them.
Ive heard many stories of people that used to get into trouble with the law when they were young and the Judge gave them a choice of jail / reform school, etc or military.
with todays strict military enlistment standards, can they even do that these days?
I read that actor and former USMC DI LEE R Ermey joined the Marines at age 17 because the judge gave him a choice of Jail or military.
Yes, that used to happen. Here's an except from something I posted in the History forum:
Quote:
Originally Posted by nightlysparrow
In the mid-60's a guy I knew was arrested for drug possession. The judge gave him 3 choices: prison, the Army (and potentially a trip to Vietnam), or the state mental hospital. He chose the hospital, which was at that time home to patients who had lived there for decades. Almost all of them were floridly psychotic, some potentially violent, so he pretended to believe all their ravings and go along with the program. He even let one of them do a tattoo on his leg of an alien who this wild patient believed took him up to the spaceship every night. My friend was there for 6 months. He was 17 at the time.
I have heard stories about it. But during my career [1976 to 2001] I ever saw it.
What I saw was the opposite. A DUI causes a sailor to lose his security clearances, which led to him being processed out of the Navy.
Too much debt? Your out. Drugs? your gone. non-PC tattoo? bye bye. A girl says you patted her butt, no witnesses, no trial, no evidence or hearings, your history.
I have heard stories about it. But during my career [1976 to 2001] I ever saw it.
What I saw was the opposite. A DUI causes a sailor to lose his security clearances, which led to him being processed out of the Navy.
Too much debt? Your out. Drugs? your gone. non-PC tattoo? bye bye. A girl says you patted her butt, no witnesses, no trial, no evidence or hearings, your history.
I had a troop get a DUI in 1997. My colonel and I had to argue the HQ squadron commander long and hard to keep him from pulling her clearances.
Bad thing was...she had just that day gotten notice of a long-awaited promotion and went out that night to celebrate. Of course, she lost that promotion, and we had another long and hard argument for her to keep the stripes she had.
The military moved out of wanting trouble makers long ago. The modern soldier isn't the same as even 20 years ago. The military in Vietnam found themselves with some real people problems on the Vietnam battle field. In this much more technical battle field with many fewer people there is just not room for such people even more so than in civilian life. There is a matter of life and death with such a weak spot. They are not looking for people to go over the wall as in WWI; to put in lightly.
Ive heard many stories of people that used to get into trouble with the law when they were young and the Judge gave them a choice of jail / reform school, etc or military.
with todays strict military enlistment standards, can they even do that these days?
I read that actor and former USMC DI LEE R Ermey joined the Marines at age 17 because the judge gave him a choice of Jail or military.
Well young man, today's military only wants the brightest and best blue chip recruits out there, because of the economy and the cut backs, the military can be very choosey which contract they want to select. The day's of judges being recruiters are long gone.
It's a win win situation, where only the best need apply.
I've always found it ironic that the military wants only the healthiest, best, brightest young people...to be willing to sacrifice their lives
It would make more sense to send broken people out to war rather than sacrificing the best & brightest.
Most people in the military will never face any more danger than the average person working in an office or industrial type environment.
Intelligence is needed for many positions, more so today than ever before, operating and maintaining equipment requires intelligent capabilities, especially when given worst case scenarios. Even ground troops, the stereotypical "no need for intelligence to apply", need to be smart enough to maintain and operate the wide array of gear they use, do this under a stressful environment, lead people, and the ability to resort to their own common sense and intelligence when their training does not quite exactly fit the scenario, which probably happens frequently.
The days of grabbing anyone who can stand and hold a gun in a line and shoot it when someone says "fire" are over.
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