Manditory Elistment Good or Bad

[Alphaonethree]

I was wondering what everones thoughts are on a Manditory 2 year enlistment for ALL children at the age of 18. Just wondering what the good and bad points are, and who better to ask that the Marines.

[sparkie]

France did that,,only younger, and what did it get them? A great education.

[Chumley]

I'm generally for it. Maturity and independance are traits quickly developed once mom isn't cooking for us anymore. The bad side is that the bad attitudes would be significantly worse. Remember the Marines who b1thced about everything - They were / are VOLUNTEERS. Imagine mandatory enlistments - there would be much more of that and it would be worse.

Overall I think that after generations pass, it all would improve the average Joe Public you run into, and it would be good for society as a whole. Even sh1tbirds would end up much better off. Course they would be screened and sent to the Army, right???

[Haffner]

I don't want most of my generation to serve with me. America's youth is too spoiled, emo, and unpatriotic to make any good of it.

I'm only 20 so I have the right to say that. I'm very social and was very active in school and had quite anumber of friends and acquaintances -- that is all I'd see.

Nowadays students fight for 9/11 off for school as another excuse to get off for a day and smoke some weed or chill or go to Six Flags. Do you think they're going to spend the day reflecting on that event, thinking of all the lives it touched and ended? Maybe a couple of minutes. That's about it.

Again, like I said, it's reasons like that why I wouldn't like to see that 2 year mandatory enlistment -- at least not at this point of American history.

[hrscowboy]

well gents thats where the UCMJ comes in you ***** or whine your out with a dishonorable. thats the way it was back in the late 60s and thats the way it should be now.. You told a NCO to go fuk himself and your sorry arse was in the brig for 90 days and i am talkin a red line brig. The Military has gone too soft and trust me i am sorry to say that My Beloved Marine Corps has too..

[Haffner]

I'm not going to disagree with you. Got former Marines in the family; they tell me about what it was like for them to pussyfoot around and show their ass.

I still stand by my point though, but it made me think of another.

You know how when Marines get to the fleet, there are those 10% that are really welcoming to taking them in, trust them quicker and get buddy buddy with em faster, but aren't very model Marines? Where as the rest, you kind've have to earn your trust and what have you, ya know, they wanna see what you're bringing to the table before they really take you in (the good ones). Just imagine, you got poolee A, who's WANTS to be a Marine; would've enlisted even if it were still just voluntary, but his four closest friends, poolee B,C,D and E all make it through bootcamp with him.

They don't want to be there. In their time they don't do anything bad, per say, other than minor things, but they never really put out 100%. They do just enough to get by; not quite enough to get constantly reprimanded and no serious punishment. Friends rub off on their friends. Who do you think poolee A will most likely end up emulating? Sure, he woulda joined regardless, but even Marines are susceptible to peer pressure and take on the habits of others.

I just think overall proficiency would not be up to par. NJPS and page 11's would be through the roof, causing more work (and much stress!) for the SNCOs. In turn, the NCOs would have to take on more work, and would be even ****tier towards the junior enlisted. At that point even the ones who truly woulda became good ol' Devil Dogs regardless of mandatory service just aren't diggin' the Corps.

Retention rates would go down too, in my opinion. I know that all seems kind've like a "worst case scenario," but hell, we don't plan for sunshine and surrenders, do we? :-p

[hrscowboy]

Back in my day the NCOs ran most of the daily routine anyway, Lord help your arse if you had to go see the SGT and give your arse to GOD if you had to see the Staff NCO. back then NCOs where not allowed to fratenize with Pvts PFCs and L/CPL . Cpls and Sgts where segregated from lower inlisted at that time and the UCMJ was something you thought about all the time because it was so strict. All in All i wouldnt have changed anything but as time has went on i guess they thought they needed too.

[Chumley]

Haffner,

I agree with you. Although I stated that I like the idea, I don't think the practical reality would work. I would not want to ruin our USMC by making every Joe-Schmo pass through our barracks. Where I was going was, I look at a county like China, who forces everyone to be a reserve and trains them, and I realize that we the USA are not as prepared for the worst case scenario as we could be. Using China as a comparison here, their younger society seems more mature that ours. Also, they have a 100 million in their army, and the whole country is reserves. So I meant my statement based upon a grand scheme. Like I said, I agree that the day to day stuff would be severly agititated, and I would hope that the USMC would remain a smaller specialized branch if this ever really happened.

hrscowboy is also right. The USMC is different than it used to be. Even in '89 when I went through the DI's weren't supposed to beat you, but they certainly found other ways to train you and stress levels were appropriately high. We need to be hardened and trained as much as possible to survive war and that should only continue.

What scares me is when I heard they had such a thing as a no-stress chit in boot camp!!!! WTF!!! Can anybody out there confirm that is a real thing, a "no-stress chit" and if so how it's used? I heard about them in the mid-90's.

SFi
C

[DWG]

Gotta agree with Haffner; a lot of what the Corps would get is a bunch of bad attitude that would tend to lower the overall morale and performance of everyone they come into contact with.

Perhaps a two year public service obligation with a voluntary option of the military?

[Chumley]

" Perhaps a two year public service obligation with a voluntary option of the military. "

That's a GOOD Idea!

[maverickmarine]

I have always said that our youth should have to join right after high school and I used to say just go through Marine Boot to get some perspective. However, how about you must join the Military and those that have what it takes have the option of enlisting in the Marine Corps and possibly earning the title.

[hrscowboy]

I think a manditory 2 year right out of highschool would be fine.. I vote for it..

[brian barr]

I agree that young people should serve at least two years. I remember how it affected me at age 17 back in 1975. I quit school and had no idea what I was doing. My uncle convinced me to try the military. I looked up to him so I did what he suggested. Best damm thing I ever did. 30 years later I am married with two chrildren and one grandchild. Thank GOD for the Corps.

[Haffner]

2 year mandatory public service with military optino -- genius!

Stress cards in USMC bootcamp Fvck no! Hasn't happened, won't happen (unless BGen. Angie Salinas gets her way...Chesty will roll in his grave!)

[sparkie]

Stress,,,,, stress is a 7.62 short whistling buy your head.