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Military opens door to more dropouts

ANNVILLE, Pa. - Brittany Vojta survived boot camp. It was high school she couldn't make it through. Now, however, she has benefited from a program the National Guard started this year in Pennsylvania for privates who drop out of high school after signing up.


In an old barracks at Fort Indiantown Gap, the 18-year-old Cleveland woman and other dropouts spent three intensive weeks in class this summer to help them pass their GEDs — so they would meet the minimal educational requirement for staying in the Guard.

Straining to fill its ranks with the Iraq war in its fifth year, the military is taking on an ever bigger role providing basic education to new recruits. The strategy is potentially risky for the military as it strives to maintain the quality of its force, but it's giving dropouts like Vojta a second chance.

"Something happened in that soldier's life that was bad. ... We have the ability to stop another bad action from happening — them getting discharged from the military," said Sgt. 1st Class John Walton, 32, who started the Pennsylvania program. He says it is not about filling quotas but helping the troops.

While that program is aimed at keeping recruits in uniform, the Army and Army National Guard also reach out to past dropouts — some of them already years out of school — with a promise of helping them get their GEDs if they enlist. More than 13,000 recruits have earned GEDs through the program, known as Education Plus, which started in 2005.

Pennsylvania's GED program is aimed at soldiers who enlisted in high school while in good academic standing, then failed to graduate. The military allows people as young as 17 to join, if they have permission from a parent.

The three-week course, also open to recruits from other states, is not your typical high school environment: The teacher may be civilian or military, but a drill sergeant is also present in the classroom. Recruits spend nine hours in classes and have study hall in the evening, but it's still boot camp and they have get up at 4:45 a.m. daily for physical training.

Class sizes are typically about 23 students.

"I never understood math ... for four years in high school I couldn't do it," said Vojta, a private first class with the Ohio National Guard who passed her GED test and hopes next to become a military police officer. "Come here for a couple of weeks and I got it down because they've actually taken the time to explain it."

The program evolved from a tutoring effort in Pittsburgh staffed by a guardsman's wife, a teacher who volunteered to help 17- and 18-year-old recruits struggling in high school classes. Since it started in March, more than 85 of the 120 privates who participated have gone on to pass the GED, about the same success rate for all GED test-takers nationwide.

One teacher Carissa Krzak, 29, of Camp Hill, said she has received thank-you letters from her students.

"They are given a second chance and they really want to take advantage of that, make the best of the situation," she said.

Defense analyst Cindy Williams at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said the military could be hurting itself over the long term by recruiting dropouts. The Department of Defense's own studies over 40 years have shown that soldiers with regular high school diplomas are more likely than those with an equivalent degree to finish an enlistment term.

Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., a former Navy vice admiral, said some troops with only GEDs have gone on to make great soldiers, but he is still worried about the recruitment trends.

"What we have here is an erosion, a downward trend, in recruitment quality," he said.

In 2006, the number of traditional high school graduates recruited by the Army dropped to 73 percent, from 84 percent a year earlier, according to National Priorities Project, a research group that analyzes federal data. The goal is 90 percent high school graduates — a benchmark last met in 2004.

The military has taken a number of other steps to keep up its ranks, including some viewed as a lowering of its standards. It has increased the number of waivers it issues for people who wouldn't otherwise qualify because of medical reasons or because of criminal convictions, and it has raised the enlistment age to 42.

The military has also gotten very agressive of their recruitment of high school seniors. Down here all seniors get individual packets and recruiters are now visiting all the classrooms- I assume this trend is nationwide but I'm not sure.

Some parents have gotten upset that recruiters talked to their children without their permission but apparently the school gives them the right to do so.

as i said before
this is the new strategy to destroy this country's youth

it has always been the policy of the power elites to have the poor
and disenfranchised to fight their wars for them...I find the "glossy"
ads on tv promoting "todays army" very offensive and nothing more
than propaganda...we are a warring society....

TLW, this thread is awfully close to mine, "beyond the Iraq War." Mine gives a real life example of the desperation of the military to fill their ranks with fresh cannon fodder, however.

They will do anything they can to avoid instituting a draft. In their eyes the draft would mean policy suicide. It is much easier to con the poor with temptations of lavish gifts, than to face the protests and rejections that come when every American must sacrifice their children to the "Great American Cause." 45,000 dollar enlistment bonuses are nothing as long as they can continue to say, "These men and women are all Volunteers."
Just go look at the thread about the draft titled,"Bush War Adviser Says Draft Worth a Look," You will see what I am talking about. Faced with the real prospect that their children may be drafted, many are ready to become illegal immigrants in another country, and fugitives from law!
If it wasn't such a serious issue it would really be kinda hilarious! Unfortunately it is a very serious isse. If the military's renewed efforts dont work to gather more cannon fodder, and the war in Iraq doesnt stop, they will have no choice but to reenstate the draft!

A new strategy to distroy this country's youth? Gee taking dropouts and helping them get a GED which can help them get a better job in civilian life perhaps go on to college. Yes very sisister indeed. I guess it is better to be an unemployed dropout with no hope of a decent job living of government handouts in your utopian socialistic state than to actually be able to do something to better yourself. It seems like anytime the government tries to do anything but give away money for nothing someone sees it as a new conspriacy theory. Remember they volunteered for military service.

if they live thru it

Thanks 'garden',

My God, I got it!!!

I had it wrong all along!!!

Waging war is GOOD!!!

And recruiting drop-outs, poor, desperate and disenfranchised young people as token 'disposables', to wage such WARS, is doing those young ones the ultimate favor a nation can do towards its youth.

A nation's selfless and unbiased generosity, IS THE angle to look at this otherwise sinister subject!!!

Its a fine line, forge, but either way it is not for nothing that these young men recieve money. It is not free! I respect your opinion, but I think this form of volunteerism is closer to coercion!

co·erce

To force to act or think in a certain way by use of pressure, threats, or intimidation; compel.

vol·un·tar·y

Acting or done willingly and without constraint or expectation of reward: a voluntary hostage; voluntary community work; voluntary military service.

In Germany young men get drafted, it's a fact. Difference is, Germany by law can't fight an offensive war. So parents don't have to worry. And only recruits that sign up for longer can be sent on peace keeping duties. For that they can go to university or choose any line of education they want.

yes..I remember a guy..withstood three days of water torture, 4 days of sleep deprivation and still didn't sign up...they had to let him go....now he lives in a cardboard box under the freeway over-pass

serching, I do not think that this is a laughing matter

socialistic utopian state?
what the heck does that suppose to mean gardenforge?
how did you come up with all those complicated words by yourself?

oh boy here we go.

I was college educated before I joined and I am still enrolled. My life has not been destroyed? Im not sure I get this? everyone hates us till they need us, just like cops. there would be a lot more crime and a lot less college educated people in this country if it wasnt for the military. They dont force anyone to join.

Warhead,

College educated and 20 years old makes you one of the exceptions and not necessarily the rule!
Go check out the thread in this forum (current News and Events) and read some of that!

It should send alarm bells ringing through your head, and revulsion through your guts. As an active member of our fine military men and women it could do nothing less! To know what the standards have been lowered to, might make you look differently at the man you will be required to entrust your life to!

I dont know your MOS, but mine was 11B and it would have worried me immensley!

Actually at the time I served the ranks were filled with HS dropouts and court ordered troops. It was not long after the Vietnam war and the military was expieriencing similar recruiting woes!

While my GT score was 127, we had many serving at the time with scores as low as 65!
With the country's morale at a low from the Vietnam war and watergate they could not find anyone to serve!
Jimmy Carter was President, but luckily the Big three went through massive layoffs and the recruit's standards went up!

When Iran took our hostages, our company in the 1/10 Inf, 4th Inf div had 16 M113A1's. 4 would start on their own, 4 more you could jump start, the rest didnt move unless you towed them.

The reason, stupid things like altenators and batteries. Most had been back ordered for 2 years never arriving and marked DLF (Due to lack of Funds). Sad, then think we were in the middle of a cold-war with the USSR, smaller conflicts like Panama, the Falklands, Granada, and the tradgedy in Lebanon, not to mention the fear of combat in Iran.

Now consider today, Respect for you guys is very high. Back then you had none, you would be called Army-boy and numerous other names. Body armor, vehicle armor, what the hell was that!
Jeeps didnt have doors or roofs, M113A1's were 2" of alumunim. They wouldnt even stop a M60 round.

Bullet proof vests,,, Yea, they called them that, but weighing in at about 40 lbs, made of rectangular peices of lead with gaps in between the rectangles, you were better off without it so you could run faster! Thank God, I was never in combat! 2 1/2 years in Germany was the closest I got!

You guys get a lot of respect, and nobody is knocking you. When you hear us argue and fight for an end to the war in Iraq, we do it for you, not against! Please do not take it that way, Otherwise you are going to get your feelings hurt regularly.
There are many vets on this site, some for the war and others dead against it, but none against the brave men and women fighting and dying in it!

Is that better Davy????

what's up amigo?

How are you pardner?
Good to see ya!

i'm always around to see what is going on
checking out who is against me

I think you ran them off!

I did mention Bush's new immigration laws a couple times though if thats what you mean!!