WAIVERS….The New York Times reports that the Army is turning over a lot of rocks to try to fill its recruitment quotas:
The number of waivers granted to Army recruits with criminal backgrounds has grown about 65 percent in the last three years….The sharpest increase was in waivers for serious misdemeanors, which make up the bulk of all the Army’s moral waivers. These include aggravated assault, burglary, robbery and vehicular homicide.
I assume this is a bad thing, but I guess you never know. In the past, it was actually fairly common for young offenders to be given a choice of going to jail or joining the military. A cousin of mine did something dumb in his teens (this was in the late 40s, I think) and ended up getting “sentenced” to serve in the Air Force. I guess it must have shaped him up pretty well, since he’s been a solid citizen ever since and went on to become a millionaire doing something or other. I guess we can hope that the same thing happens to some of these kids.
