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U.S. Army Now Taking Applicants With Histories Of Mental Illness, Drug Abuse And Self-Mutilation (1 Viewer)

Max Power

Footballguy
https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-army-now-taking-applicants-214510530.html
 

People with a history of mental illness, drug abuse and self-mutilation can now apply to serve in the U.S. Army, according to a report on Sunday, which emerged as a former Air Force recruit’s mass shooting at a Texas church continues raising questions about the military’s handling of mental health problems.

The Army signed off on the change of policy in August but never announced it, USA Today reported. The decision comes while the Army struggles to meet its goal of recruiting 80,000 new soldiers by September 2018, as President Donald Trump ramps up the years-long battle against terror groups.

Under the new policy, applicants with mental health issues that previously would have barred them from service can ask for waivers allowing them to sign up. This ends an eight-year ban on the waivers that started after a spike in suicides among American fighters. It is unclear how many waivers will be available.

Army spokesman Lt. Col. Randy Taylor told USA Today there is now “increased availability of medical records,” which gave officials more confidence they can properly vet medical histories. Potential recruits will have to provide records along with a detailed statement and photos, and also undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

During America's 16-year War On Terror, the military has often struggled to handle mental health problems among fighters after rises in suicides and violence against innocent civilians. More than 200 active-duty servicemembers have died by suicide every year since 2008, according to Pentagon data. A study published this year by JAMA Psychiatry found that suicide attempts in the military are often infectious and help push even more recruits to try taking their own lives. 
I'm pretty disturbed reading this.  I think there have to be better ways to get people to enlist than to constantly drop the standards. 

 
But there's still a formal ban on transgenders?
I think they will eventually.  When it was looking like it was going to happen I had to attend a training session on the topic.  It was very confusing and these individuals get put into a "non-deployable" status during their gender transition.  Then they follow up with the transition can take 2-5 years, it doesn't do the military much good to bring them on board.  Trying to be respectful to transitioning process is what is keeping them out. 

 
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And I, I walked over to the, to the bench there, and there is, Group W's where they put you if you may not be moral enough to join the army after committin' your special crime, and there was all kinds of mean nasty ugly looking people on the bench there. Mother rapers. Father stabbers. Father rapers! Father rapers sitting right there on the bench next to me! And they was mean and nasty and ugly and horrible crime-type guys sitting on the bench next to me. And the meanest, ugliest, nastiest one, the meanest father raper of them all, was coming over to me and he was mean 'n' ugly 'n' nasty 'n' horrible and all kind of things and he sat down next to me and said, "Kid, whad'ya get?" I said, "I didn't get nothing, I had to pay $50 and pick up the garbage." He said, "What were you arrested for, kid?" And I said, "Litterin'." And they all moved away from me on the bench there, and the hairy eyeball and all kinds of mean nasty things, till I said, "And creating a nuisance." And they all came back, shook my hand, and we had a great time on the bench, talkin' about crime, mother stabbing, father raping, all kinds of groovy things that we was talking about on the bench. And everything was fine, we was smoking cigarettes and all kinds of things, until the Sargent came over, had some paper in his hand, held it up and said.

"Kids, this-piece-of-paper's-got-47-words-37-sentences-58-words-we-wanna-know-details-of-the-crime-time-of-the-crime-and-any-other-kind-of-thing-you-gotta-say-pertaining-to-and-about-the-crime-I-want-to-know-arresting-officer's-name-and-any-other-kind-of-thing-you-gotta-say", and talked for forty-five minutes and nobody understood a word that he said, but we had fun filling out the forms and playing with the pencils on the bench there, and I filled out the massacre with the four part harmony, and wrote it down there, just like it was, and everything was fine and I put down the pencil, and I turned over the piece of paper, and there, there on the other side, in the middle of the other side, away from everything else on the other side, in parentheses, capital letters, quotated, read the following words:

("Kid, have you rehabilitated yourself?")

I went over to the Sargent, said, "Sargent, you got a lot a damn gall to ask me if I've rehabilitated myself, I mean, I mean, I mean that just, I'm sittin' here on the bench, I mean I'm sittin' here on the Group W bench, 'cause you want to know if I'm moral enough join the army, burn women, kids, houses and villages after bein' a litterbug." He looked at me and said, "Kid, we don't like your kind, and we're gonna send you fingerprints off to Washington."
 

 

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