Interesting conversation

[85Sooner]

This weekend I had a customer that is a recruiting officer for the U.S. Army


We chatted about the state of recruiting and he told me sopme interesting information.
1. Young people don't seem to be interested in serving the country in the military.

2. They have just raised the age of allowable enlistment to 42 yrs old in order to meet recruiting goals. Which they did meet. Evidently, older more mature Americans are seeing a need and value to serving the country.

3rd and this blew my mind, we were speaking of the changes in basic training and he revealed that they now have or have had a new "stress card "that the soldiers carry with them. When the DS starts giving them he!! and they get too stressed they are allowed to pull out the card and the DS must leave them alone for 15 minutes. ( i hope that little card works on the enemy)

Lastly, he confirmed that there has been more and more talk by his superiors that there may be a need to reinstitute the draft. Specifically if things with Iran keep going the way they are.

Nice Guy. Gave him a big discount!!! God Bless our service men and women!

[yermom]

Tuba will not be pleased

[jk the sooner fan]

they've had that stress card for years.....thats not new, they had that at Fort Knox when i was there from 95-97.......can you imagine, the place where we train young men to go into battle driving a tank, and they're given a stress card

[Pricetag]

Does anyone actually use it? I've never had my *** chewed by a drill instructor, but I don't see how it could possibly be worse than looking like a bitch in front of my colleagues, possibly gaining a rep that could hang with me for my entire service.

[OklahomaTuba]

Tuba will not be pleased
Why would anyone be pleased that we might need a draft?

[OklahomaTuba]

A stress card. Thats crazy.

If they have done it this long though, it as hell hasn't affected how well our troops are doing. They have done a fantastic job in the war IMO.

And I sure as hell hope they don't resort to a draft. This type of war needs the 100% types, not the guys who just have to be there. We need more spec ops types than GI Joes methinks.

[soonerscuba]

I know quite a few servicemen, as do most people. Surely, the stress card is to address liability issues. Judging by the little military culture I know, using this card is basically burning any respect that your fellow soldiers have for you. Unless some DI is beating the **** out of you or something rare and crazy.

[yermom]

Why would anyone be pleased that we might need a draft?

i thought there weren't any problems getting new kids to sign up? no problems meeting quotas, etc...

[Sooner in Tampa]

i thought there weren't any problems getting new kids to sign up? no problems meeting quotas, etc...The Marine Corps is doing just fine meeting their quotas. They have made quota 65 out of the last 67 months.

[usmc-sooner]

The Marine Corps is doing just fine meeting their quotas. They have made quota 65 out of the last 67 months.

and we aint go no stinkin stress cards

[KABOOKIE]

Due to the fact the Marines is a force of well under 200,000 they can be selective and their quotas aren't nearly as high as the other services.

Heh, on a side note I was surprised to learn that Army Special Forces recieve the same training a regular USMC infantryman recieves out of basic.

[jk the sooner fan]

the army is going to make their quota for 2006

[Eddie Money]

I have heard rumors of a stress card in both the Army and Marine Corps for 10 years and no one I know has ever seen such a thing, although I doubt anyone would admit to that if they did have such a thing. Even if there were such a thing, no one would ever use them. According to snopes.com, this is not true.

http://www.snopes.com/military/stress.htm

Ever since there was a military, people have tried to show how much harder they had it in boot camp that people before them. I remember as a young Lance Coolie referring to Privates as "boots". Times change, and they may not beat the crap out of recruits anymore, but the new kids are trained just as well and I have seen kids 6 months out of boot camp over here that could hang with the crustiest tough old guys around.

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

Does anyone actually use it? I've never had my *** chewed by a drill instructor, but I don't see how it could possibly be worse than looking like a bitch in front of my colleagues, possibly gaining a rep that could hang with me for my entire service.Perhaps the creators and initiators of the "Stress card" foresaw(is this a word?) the scenario you describe here.

[KABOOKIE]

Ever since there was a military, people have tried to show how much harder they had it in boot camp that people before them.

Yeah, that’s like those boots out of Paris Is. that complain how much tougher boot camp is there than California. Ok Paris Is. has the bugs and California has the hills. But, those hills don’t disappear in the winter. :D

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

Why would anyone be pleased that we might need a draft?The dims would be VERY PLEASED. They would use that as fodder to keep the "Bush is bad" drumbeat going.(witness the gleeful posts from some of our "progressives" on this very thread)

[Sooner in Tampa]

Due to the fact the Marines is a force of well under 200,000 they can be selective and their quotas aren't nearly as high as the other services.

Heh, on a side note I was surprised to learn that Army Special Forces recieve the same training a regular USMC infantryman recieves out of basic.I agree about the Marine Corps being smaller...but I just find it ironic that the service who is currently doing the bulk of the "combat" in Iraq is still making quota.

[Okla-homey]

Speaking only as a retired professional military officer, I'd rather go in short than take draftees...modern warfare has become too complex to have to drag along conscripts. In fact, I foresee a draft if it ever resumed which is highly unlikely, would be hugely problematic...not to mention the gender inequity inherent in only drafting males.

I say, if a draft did come, no exemptions, no nothing. If you're 18 or older and able to fog a mirror, your name goes in the hopper and I don't care if you're Adrian Peterson, Paris Hilton or a married father of three with a farm. If called up and you pass the physical inspection, you're in for 5 years, mainly b/c it could take two years to bring a draftee up to speed ... none of this 1 or 2 year crap with a bunch of exemptions that helped hose us in VN.

Now, that said, if we could contract out some more support services, we'd free-up a lot of potential trigger-pullers who are already in.

[jk the sooner fan]

i heard of the stress card from a former drill sergeant, but personally never saw one either.....and jk2 just went thru infantry training at fort benning and i can assure you he wasnt given a stress card

[OklahomaTuba]

i thought there weren't any problems getting new kids to sign up? no problems meeting quotas, etc...

I do not think that is the case.

Even after 5 years of a global war, its still seems as strong as ever according to all the stats I have seen.

People re-upping is also very strong. I think that alone is a good indicator that our troops moral is high and that they believe the job they are doing is good.

[usmc-sooner]

I have heard rumors of a stress card in both the Army and Marine Corps for 10 years and no one I know has ever seen such a thing, although I doubt anyone would admit to that if they did have such a thing. Even if there were such a thing, no one would ever use them. According to snopes.com, this is not true.

http://www.snopes.com/military/stress.htm

Ever since there was a military, people have tried to show how much harder they had it in boot camp that people before them. I remember as a young Lance Coolie referring to Privates as "boots". Times change, and they may not beat the crap out of recruits anymore, but the new kids are trained just as well and I have seen kids 6 months out of boot camp over here that could hang with the crustiest tough old guys around.


I never saw a stress card, I sure pity the kid who would actually pull one. DI's got little tricks they use to make sure the Platoon police their own.

[jk the sooner fan]

dude, DONT order the code red.....