[Publib] U.S. Army Pursues Homeless Youth

[Backwage at aol.com]

Back in the Seventies when I joined the navy, quite a few of my boot camp  
company were kids who had been forced to join because of the recession.   There 
were no jobs and some of these guys had kids already.  One guy I knew  was 
sleeping in an all-night theater when a recruiter woke him up, gave him a  meal 
and some pocket cash, then recruited him.  Others decided to join  based on the 
counsel of some friendly judge or magistrate who suggested that a  sentencing 
could be held off indefinitely if a young feller should, say,  disappear into 
the military.  
 
Me, I just had no money.  Dad had croaked, nobody thought I was  
college-worthy and gasoline had gone up to over a dollar a gallon.  The  navy paid me 
$326.00 per month, gave us meals that would sustain life and, by  the way, some 
very excellent job training.  I knew a lot of kids who barely  graduated high 
school who ended up chief mechanics; also many clerks, welders  and pipefitters. 
  American public schools had abandoned even the  pretense of vocational 
training, but the services kept on going.  They  still do.  
 
In the absence of training or anything like a real public works policy, the  
service is still a good deal for that large segment of society that the  
college-educated folk have left behind.  If you don't want the government  to have 
a big cadre of cannon fodder for the next war, then get the feds to do  the 
same thing without the rifle training.
 
M. McGrorty
--and they taught me to type 50 wpm including  errrers.



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