Pentagon Alerted to Trouble in Ranks

[thedrifter]

Pentagon Alerted to Trouble in Ranks <br />
<br />
Reports over a decade have warned of recruits with criminal pasts and of the violent behavior of some active-duty service members. <br />
<br />
By Ken Silverstein,...

[digger]

If memory serves me right, I believe that in the vietnam era that many judges would suggest enlistment as an alternate to jail time or to keep things off your record.

[cjwright90]

I heard that in 1985...

[thedrifter]

digger


You are correct....I few of my friends went into the Corps, because they did something dumb one evening....Judge said, Corps or jail time.....

Ellie

[Namvet67]

Digger..you are correct. I served with many Marines that were given the choice of jail time or the Corps. They were pretty good Marines and did their job.

[WillManning]

This is an excerpt from "Making the Corps" by Thomas E. Ricks, which I thought about while reading the article.

Chapter 8 "In the Marines" page 265

"Within the Corps there is some worry about the type of person they are recruiting-not that he is too tough, but that he isn't tough enough. 'We're almost getting to the point where we're believing our own bullsh*t,' worries the DI School's Major Davis. He thinks the Corps may lose something by insisting on taking only high school graduates with relatively trouble-free backgrounds. 'There's a lot to be said for taking the tough kids. You need to provide forty thousand graduates a year with great characters who don;t abuse alcohol or women, who aren't racists-yet are able to turn on the fury of a trained killer whe the Marine Corps calls on them. Do you want all-star high school atheletes who went to Sunday school? Maybe you want a percentage. But what happens with them on the battlefield? What happens to the others when you lose five? I dont know.'

One of those tough kids is Armando Cordova, the feisty Corporal in Somalia with the can-do, gung-ho attitude. In 1996, he isn't permitted to reenlist, so is forced out of the Corps after ten years' service, including in the Gulf War. His troubles begin when he gets home from Somalia. He is promoted to Sergeant and moved out of his rifle company to become an instructor at Camp Pendleton's School of Infantry. He finds the officious atmosphere there stifling. 'If you not kick-a**, you're f**ked,' he says. 'It's not like the grunts, where it works on merit.'

'It's time to get out,' he says on hot Californian morning just before he leaves the Corps. 'The Marine Corps is changing too much. There is too much thinking about careers, and not enough about just doing your job.'

He believes that once again the 'warrior' types are being pushed aside by the peacetime Marines, who look better on the parade ground than the battleground. His solution? 'They should just keep us under glass, keep our record books, and call us in case of war.'

End of excerp.

Now if Os could draw something for the last line, that would be great.

[HardJedi]

The absolute best First Sergeant I ever met was brought to the Marines in Handcuffs, Straight from the County lockup. After he did his 20 years, could it be said that the Corps would have been better off not having him? Just becuase he had a past? Hell, only reason I had no criminal record before joining was, becuase I was never unlucky enouh to get caught at some of the stupid stunts I pulled as a kid.