As Obama might say "Stay in school kids, the military is hiring"

A bad economy is not a problem for the military, it is an opportunity.

That high school diploma is getting more important if a kid wants to add 'killer' to his resume.












The Washington Post has the highlights.....

A Historic Success In Military Recruiting

In Midst of Downturn, All Targets Are Met

{excerpts}
For the first time in more than 35 years, the U.S. military has met all of its annual recruiting goals, as hundreds of thousands of young people have enlisted despite the near-certainty that they will go to war.

The Pentagon, which made the announcement Tuesday, said the economic downturn and rising joblessness, as well as bonuses and other factors, had led more qualified youths to enlist.

The military has not seen such across-the-board successes since the all-volunteer force was established in 1973, after Congress ended the draft following the Vietnam War. In recent years, the military has often fallen short of some of its recruiting targets. The Army, in particular, has struggled to fill its ranks, admitting more high school dropouts, overweight youths and even felons.

Yet during the current budget year, which ended Sept. 30, recruiters met their targets in both numbers and quality for all components of active-duty and reserve forces.

"We delivered beyond anything the framers of the all-volunteer force would have anticipated," Bill Carr, deputy undersecretary of defense for military personnel policy, said at a Pentagon news conference.

As lengthy, multiple combat tours place U.S. forces under enormous stress, the willingness of young people to enlist has surprised even military leaders, experts said.

The quality of recruits also improved, with about 95 percent reporting that they had received high school diplomas; last year, 83 percent of the Army's active-duty recruits had diplomas, short of the goal of 90 percent. The active-duty Army this year admitted only 1.5 percent of recruits who scored in the lowest acceptable category on the standard qualification test; in recent years, that figure had reached nearly 4 percent.

Historically, there has been a strong correlation between rising unemployment and increases in "high quality" enlistments, according to Curt Gilroy, the Pentagon's director of accession policy.

Carr said the Defense Department spent about $10,000 on advertising, marketing, recruiters and other budget items per recruit, with the Army spending more than double that, at $22,000.

"The unemployment . . . left us with more dollars per recruit than proved to be minimally necessary," he said.

Carr also credited hefty enlistment bonuses for the military's success, saying 40 percent of recruits received an average bonus of $14,000, compared with $12,000 on average in 2008. The size of the bonus varied by service, with the Army, which has the toughest mission, offering more.

Given the success this year, the Pentagon is cutting its $5 billion recruiting budget by 11 percent for next year. {more}

Also see the DOD bragging rights.

The young ladies who wish to have a military 'experience' had better think twice.

Military Rape Awareness Week Starts At Time Sq. Recruiting Station

To kick-off a weeklong list of nationwide events aimed at educating the public about recent reports that one in three women in the military are raped, Veterans for Peace, the sponsor of this campaign, along with activists from local New York city area groups descended upon the Times Square Recruiting Station in Manhattan. A press conference was conducted by retired US Army Col. Ann Wright, where media attention on this topic was quite impressive. The cameras and reporters swarmed Col. Wright as she began to make her statements. She said, "It is a responsibility of us as veterans to warn young women that according to Veterans Administration studies, one in three women are sexually assaulted or raped while they are in the military."

VFP chapters will have actions during the entire week from October 13th to the 16th at Armed Forces recruiting stations around the Country to demand that military recruiters alert women who are thinking about joining the military about the high possibility they will be raped while in the controlled, highly disciplined military environment. Sexual assault and rape of women and men in the US military increased so dramatically during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that in 2005 then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld formed a task force on sexual assault; however, the task force did not meet until 2008. Nearly one-third of a nationwide sample of women veterans who sought health care through the Veterans Administration said they experience rape or attempted rape during their service. Of that group, 37 percent said they were raped multiple times and 14 percent reported they were gang-raped. The Department of Defense has been reluctant to release statistics on sexual assault of men in the military, but anecdotal evidence indicates that the statistics are alarmingly high. Over the past 10 years, more than 700 US Army Recruiters have been accused of sexual misconduct or rape. Sixty years of US military studies and task forces since women began entering the military in larger numbers have not lessened the incidents of assault and rape. {more - Elaine Brower}

I know a former army recruiter who worked in Detroit at the beginning of the Iraq War. They were having a hard time getting bodies and he freely admitted working with the court system to remove criminal records if the kids joined up. It looks like that is not needed as much anymore.

So stay in school kids, keep those criminal activities to a minimum and when the recruiters come calling for possibly the only job you can get besides flipping big macs...you'll be ready.