Army opens prep school for recruited dropouts

[michreject]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26420664/

FORT JACKSON, S.C. - Austin Swarner left high school to care for his mother while she fought a losing battle with cancer. Tony Brown wanted to begin supporting himself and left two classes shy of a diploma. Haelee Holden got tired of trying to make it through school while flipping burgers until 1 a.m.

But the U.S. Army, eager to fill its ranks amid wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, doesn't see them as dropouts. They are recruits who only need a GED before they're ready to begin basic training.

And so, the Army formally opens its first prep school Wednesday.

Continued at link

This is a great opportunity for someone to turn their life around and get direction in their life.

{flame suit on} I know 1st hand. Joining the Army save my life. I got out in the early 70's. Used my GI bill to go to school and retired at 55.:)

[thunder rising]

1. In 1973 I was a high school drop out stuck in southern Alabama with no future.

Put 4 years in the Army (peace time) and used about every cent of the old GI Bill benefits.

It is not the quantity of education that makes a good recruit. It is the quality of the person. The problem is that high school drop outs tend to be in trouble and hence not high quality applicants. But every once in a while some person uses that "last chance" to rejoin society and makes good.

I'm dissertation shy of my Ph.D, live on the water in Florida, and a proud activist for democracy.

[michreject]

4. Great story

:yourock:

[atreides1]

2. More Cannon Fodder

If this was something that had been in place before the Army became desperate for bodies, I would agree with you, but it's nothing but another way to entice recruits to fill up uniforms and send them off to war.

You got lucky, it worked out for you, what makes you think that it will work out for them.

Did you go to Vietnam? Just curious.

[michreject]

5. Yes I did

This war will be over soon. Thsi is a great chance for those cruits.

[atreides1]

14. This war may be over soon

But, there is always another on the horizon.

This is only a great chance if they don't come back in a box!


Well I was in Desert Storm myself, welcome back brother.

[tazkcmo]

3. I'm cool with it, mostly

Hello fellow Army vet! 85-90 here. Wouldn't bother me if we accepted these citizens in peace time but in this case it's just so we can feed em to the Monster. They keep lowering their standards any faster our junior high dropouts will be "prepped".

[Avalux]

6. It's also a great way to institute a backdoor draft.

Destroy the middle class; make college unaffordable and bingo! Young people have nowhere to turn except the military.

There was a time when I would have agreed with you about it being an opportunity to turn one's life around. That would have been about 10 years ago. I know first hand how fractured our mililtary has become and my SO retired because he couldn't stand it anymore.

[michreject]

11. Hopefully this war will be over in 09

Depends on the outcome of the election.

[elocs]

7. My 19 year old godson is in the mountains of Afghanistan.

Maybe the Army will save his life if he does not lose it first by being blown up by an IED. Currently he is on a 2 week patrol in the mountains of Afghanistan. When his contract is up in a year from now he wants out and does not want to have anything more to do with the Army. He, too, will have the GI Bill for school, but that doesn't do him much good if he is dead.

He quit high school when he was 16 and went to one of those National Guard challenge camps and got is GED. While his senior high school class was starting their last year he was in boot camp and enlisted 2 years ago. I warned him that war is not a video game and that when you die you are dead forever and do not get another life, but he was determined to sign up. I am betting now that he wished he had listened because he is scared by the reality of war and seeing his buddies get blown up. He can never say that no one ever warned him though.

Military service is different for everyone. I was of draft age when I was in college during the Vietnam war, so enlisting seemed incredibly stupid. I was in the second draft lottery and my number was 358 out of 366, so there was no way I would be drafted. The irony is that I went to college on the GI Bill since my father was a 100% disabled veteran.

[tuckessee]

8. Just because the Army saved your life doesn't mean Jack Shit.

Being born again as a religious zealot saves many lives as well. I personally know many people who would probably be dead had they not become religious nuts.

Would you favor a Christ boot camp for losers?

Just out of curiousity, while the Army was saving your life was it taking the lives of others (like millions of Vietnamese, Central Americans, etc.)?

[michreject]

10. These people volunteer

Or is that an alien concept to you.

[tuckessee]

12. They all volunteer.

In this nation, no one forces any adult to embrace religious or philospohical concepts.

The only non-volunteers are the piles of broken civilian bodies left in the wake of American military operations.

[michreject]

16. I am sorry that you were rejected for service

and have this hatred. {wink-wink}

I spy on a board that has a Tucker from Tennessee. Similar hatred.

[tuckessee]

18. LOL! Did you suffer a serious head injury in the Army? n/t

[atreides1]

17. Not an Alien concept

But it has been used as a Republican talking point in the past. So, don't go to the "but they volunteered" line, please

By the way they didn't volunteer to be used as pawns in a war based on lies and innuendos! Afghanistan was legitimate, Iraq was nothing more then Bush beating his chest, ands over 4100 US military personnel have paid for it with their lives along with an unknown number of Iraqis.

[tularetom]

9. Me too

I was a community college dropout in 1960 when I got drafted and I more or less hated every minute of the time I spent (or wasted) in uniform. But I paid for my education and was able to buy my first home with no money down. Looking back on it, it benefited me far more than it hurt me.

[countingbluecars]

13. The dropout rate has risen

since NCLB. Mission accomplished.

[Captain Hilts]

15. That's actually an EXCELLENT idea. nt