It got me wondering what the .mil is going to do when push comes to shove.
It's going to be pretty interesting because the next logical move is conscription which we have not had for half of a century. Needless to say, I can't see a politician advocating for a draft because it will mean he won't even be elected assistant dogcatcher in East Podunk, Nowhere for $6/hour. As a result I don't see that happening.
One of the positive sides of a return to conscription will be the epic screeching of the Karens out there that have sons and daughters of military age. It might (might) make a few of them open their eyes.
The rank and file, both officers and NCOs don't want conscription to happen, either.
I served with a few of the last of the draftees and many were pretty much worthless. I remember the long faces, the slow pace and knew they for the most part, were people that I just knew I didn't want to have back me up. Truthfully there were one or two exceptions as there always is but for the most part they shirked and felt sorry for themselves.
Some of these were college grads that had been deferred but they graduated and their deferment ran out. They just wanted to get out and start their careers.
We hear stories of draftees staying in and becoming Sergeant Majors and truthfully I had a doctor that was a draftee and retired as a colonel and an MD he was another exception. (Interesting story. He was a high school dropout.)
What we don't hear too often is the stories about the duds.
Still, a lot of them just plain sucked...at least in peacetime.
Officers and NCOs really don't like having people serve under them that don't want to be there and are not motivated. I can't say as I blame them. Nobody like to watch someone milk a job and take a full day to complete an hour's worth of work by someone who is just passing time.
Needless to say fifty years later a lot of draftees that loafed their way through pony straight up to the veteran's parking spaces etc. (Truthfully, some damned well deserve to... Some.)
I should carefully state here that quite a number of draftees got sent off overseas to places like Vietnam and Korea and made the best of a lousy situation, turned to and pitched in. These guys are OK--actually kinda special-- in my book.
Still, all in all I sure don't want to see conscription return.
The solution is simple. Drop the social experiments and return to the original mission.
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In the FWIW department, the military has a specific job which is to kill people and break things.
There is absolutely no room in it whatsoever for anything but an absolute meritocracy based on ability and skill to do those two things period. If you can do the job and do it well, you got it.
There should be just one standard that applies to everybody...period.
And yes. Everybody means everybody.
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