Thank you for your service.

[regexcellent]

Yes of course the army has ****ing fitreps. All of the branches do. Fitreps identify which officers have ****ed up the least, not which ones are the best.

The point I was making is that the good people get out when their service obligation is up and so the ones who remain get promoted. The Army has identified this, according to the article; instead of just asking for volunteers to get out early, they've noticed that it's their best people who try to leave early so they'll just be kicking people out who want to stay in instead.

[Patroklos]

I am curious why reg thinks he knows so much about the military...

[pchang]

Going to ROTC a few times would make all of us experts......

[Patroklos]

It feels like someone might have been kicked out of ROTC...

[regexcellent]

I left before contracting. I've never heard of anyone getting kicked out of ROTC except for bad grades (like really bad, like below a 2.5) or getting a DUI.

I freely admit all of my knowledge of the military is secondhand so if you'd like to correct me with your perspective feel free. What I described above was explained to me by a former submarine nuclear reactor technician and was a big factor in my decision to leave.

(a larger factor was that national guard service was a bigger time commitment than I realized and would interfere with my career)

[Sava]

So some guy told you something once. Awesome.

[Pax]

My point of view is that a lot of these people risked life and limb in defense of this country. Calling them deadweight is the height of ingratitude. When called upon they were there. I think they are owed more than two months too find a job.

[Sava]

My point of view is that a lot of these people risked life and limb in defense of this country. Calling them deadweight is the height of ingratitude. When called upon they were there. I think they are owed more than two months too find a job.

Not everyone in the military has risked "life and limb" for my freedom.

[rah]

Two months isn't that bad. In the private sector it is sometimes better but usually worse.
Granted in the private sector they haven't risked life and limb (unless they were doing dangerous work) but they have given something that can be considered just as important. TIME.
I guy puts in 20 years contributing to a successful company gets tossed aside when cuts are needed. I don't see this as being that much different.

[Sava]

That's called capitalism, you commie bastard.

[Al B. Sure!]

My point of view is that a lot of these people risked life and limb in defense of this country. Calling them deadweight is the height of ingratitude. When called upon they were there. I think they are owed more than two months too find a job.

If they can't hack it, they can't stay.

You know it's not about them as individuals. It's about the institution. Unless Army entry level training is different, they all learned that from day 1.

They're being removed because they don't meet the standards. The institution cannot survive and maintain itself at the level the American people expect if it retains them at the expense of the readiness and effectiveness of the institution. Adverse fitreps, low PFT scores, NJP's, being fat, etc. should all be factors in retention; they don't suddenly not matter because a soldier has a CAR. Combat awe should not prevent those officers and NCO's who affect personnel retention from an honest assessment of what a soldier brings to the institution going forward.

[regexcellent]

Well, the standards are rather elastic depending on the manpower needs of the army at the time. They met the "standards" such as they were in 2007--back then, you could commission from ROTC if you had a 2.5 GPA and a pulse. Unless you were going into the reserves, then I think it was a 2.0. Now you need around a 3.2 to get active duty, let alone your chosen branch assignment or a scholarship.

Prioritizing PT scores over experience is the kind of hilariously dumb thing I would be totally not shocked to see them doing. Who cares if you can do 80 push-ups in a minute? Half those scores are probably pencil whipped anyway, I know my buddies regularly "embellished" my situp score and that was in a training environment where people care about it a lot.

Actually, Albie, I'd like you to do a favor for me: check your platoon's PT scores and see how many people maxed the situps, or just barely passed, versus got one or two under. I'd put money down that nobody got just under the minimum or just under the maximum.

[Al B. Sure!]

Well, the standards are rather elastic depending on the manpower needs of the army at the time. They met the "standards" such as they were in 2007--back then, you could commission from ROTC if you had a 2.5 GPA and a pulse. Now you need around a 3.2 to get active duty, let alone your chosen branch assignment or a scholarship.

Prioritizing PT scores over experience is the kind of hilariously dumb thing I would be totally not shocked to see them doing. Who cares if you can do 80 push-ups in a minute? Half those scores are probably pencil whipped anyway, I know my buddies regularly "embellished" my situp score and that was in a training environment where people care about it a lot.

[AAAAAAAAH!]

Let's just disband the army... thomas jefferson thought standing armies were gay.

[regexcellent]

Alby are you telling me you wouldn't help a buddy out if you were counting for him and he was a couple pushups short of passing the PT test? Are you a buddy ****er?

Let's just disband the army... thomas jefferson thought standing armies were gay.

He was right.

but, impossible as it may seem, the Marine Corps is more gay; hence Alby is a part of it.