Compulsory Military Service?

hey

the_13th_redneck said:
People with real disabilities are exempt anyways.
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I was told I was always "special".............special needs!! yet I still did my time, may of been a bit loopy and bonkers at times but i still got through lol
 
Charge_7 said:
I understand you more clearly, however, I still disagree with you. Like I told the 13th Redneck, I served in the "bolo" Army. I never EVER want to see that again! You don't know how lucky you are we put an end to that.
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What kind of stuff that US "bolo" army was? How it looked like and what kind of people were in? What was draftee's attitudes and motivation?
 
First of all "bolo" comes from the term used when you fail a test in the US military. If you "bolo" your marksmanship qualification for example it means you failed it. The term was applied to the US Army from about 1970 or so until about 1976 (give or take a couple years either way) by those who saw themselves as professionals in an Army populated with too many losers. Nobody was going to Vietnam anymore for the most part and certainly not at all after 1973 yet there were still people in who had been drafted. They no longer had any reason to do proper military work or learn anything as they had no real threat to getting their ass shot off in a rice paddy anymore. So things became lax, more lax and finally insufferably lax. Haircuts were unkempt, moustaches too long, uniforms looked like crap, orders were not obeyed or were done to the least possible level. This brought down the morale of even those who _wanted_ to be there. After the last of the draftees were gone it took some time before things shaped up considerably and it really didn't do so until President Reagan came into office. This is not to say the entire Army was like this. Elite units far from it. Mostly it was units like I saw stateside and some in Germany which wound up where alot of the draftees were placed.
 
That's a very interesting insight Charge_7. Let me get an opinion from you since those "bolos" whould probobly have the same temperment as modern guys forced into the army under my proposal.

Do you think that if they where relegated to "in the rear with the gear" work like logistics and mess duty that it would be a big detriment to the army? These "bolos" would be under the direct command of a volunteer NCO. Theoretically they would be seperated from the volunteers because the volunteers would be assigned to more demanding tasks.
 
You're underestimating the worth of those "in the rear with the gear", Whispering Death. There's an old maxim about the Army that probably goes back farther than Alexander. It is "there are three groups of people you never screw around with in the military; cooks because you won't get fed well, supply because you'll never have the proper equipment, and admin because you'll never get paid right or possibly even see your promotions come through the way they should". So I'll ask _you_ this:

Do you want to get fed by people who don't give a damn?

Do you want to get your equipment from people who don't give a damn?

Do you want to get paid by people who don't give a damn?
 
Charge_7 said:
I understand where you're going, but it would never fly in this country. Nothing compulsory ever does. h**l ask 03USMC how hard it is to get people to comply with _driving_ laws.
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For a percentage of the population it is impossible. Complusary service would be the same.
 
"Do you want to get fed by people who don't give a damn?

Do you want to get your equipment from people who don't give a damn?

Do you want to get paid by people who don't give a damn?"

Sounds bad. Why aren't those people booted out from the military or give them a good changes to quit easily when they ever want to? Boot all crap off the carts right at the begin.
 
Uh, you're confused. Read the whole post EuroSpike and the one I made before it. Those people are looonng gone. More than a quarter of a century now.
 
Charge_7 said:
Uh, you're confused. Read the whole post EuroSpike and the one I made before it. Those people are looonng gone. More than a quarter of a century now.
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I wonder about why those people weren't just booted out to get rid of them? That is the most usual way to handle crap here. About 25% of fresh grunts quit or are booted out from military during a couple of first weeks during basic training in regular national units. They are given change to just say if they don't like to stay and they get out asap. The best for all that they won't stay.

Later some are sent home by medical reasons, mostly legs or knees broken in training.

One way to handle rest of crap remaining during later training is to transfer them to places called like "E-Planet", "Drug and crime company", "Rogue three" and other carbage cans. One army mate of mine was very good man but one time he just got tired and lost his motivation. He was transferred as B-man to clothes storage to count socks as primary task.
 
I was refering to the draft era at the end of and immediately following Vietnam. Being drafted they had no choice but to stay until their time was done. The volunteer force was coming but hadn't happened yet. So they were kept in to keep the numbers up. It was after all the height of the Cold War. That's why nobody got rid of them much as they would've liked to.
 
"It was after all the height of the Cold War. That's why nobody got rid of them much as they would've liked to."

Oh, i forgot cold war. Now the answer for my question is clear.
 
Well, see Charge_7 that is the thing. You realize armies have been (and still are, I know amazing) run on a conscriptionary basis and they won quite frequently. In fact, I can't really think of an army in one major war that wasn't run on conscription. So, obviously, conscripts have to do a pretty good job. So for tasks that require less specialization I am unconvinced that the military would be unable to take trained conscripts and fill those roles sufficiently.
 
Basically if a war comes along, the war tends to sort them out. But of course they need proper training and equipment first.
 
Okay Whispering Death. Don't take the word of somebody who's _lived_ it. I really don't care. The fact remains that it doesn't work in the US except in time of grave national emergency (to the point of the country's existence being threatened). We are not other countries. Service to the state is not something we grow up with - thank God! And your arguement is moot anyway as it will never be brought back.
 
Yeah, whatever I think I'll take Charge_7's word for it.
In the Korean military usually you find the losers in these places:
1) The office
2) KATUSA (a few exceptions but by in large the rule's the rule)
The other places are mixes.
I'll find out in a few months what things are really like in there.
 
If you had had to suffer working with those retards, you'd take the very notion of having to do so again _quite_ personally yourself. I don't know any professional who shared that era with me that doesn't feel exactly the same way.
 
I didn't serve in that era but I had a couple cousins who did. The ones with RA seriel Numbers use to flaunt in in the faces of the one who had a US seriel number.
 
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