Kerry, open mouth, insert foot.

[39mto39g]

Below is a quote from Kerry and a request from Snow.

Sen. Kerry while speaking to College students in California said.

"You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you can do well. If you don?t, you get stuck in Iraq.?


Kerry?s troop-bashing remarks belie the truth about the educational level of U.S. troops. According to figures readily available on the Internet, 99.9 percent of the enlisted forces have at least a high school education, 73.3 percent have some college, 16.2 percent have an associate?s degree or equivalent semester hours, and 4.7 have a bachelor?s degree.


What?s more, over 85 percent of field grade officers have advanced degrees ? 70.7 percent have master?s degrees, 12.1 percent have professional degrees and 2.5 percent have doctorate degrees.


"Senator Kerry not only owes an apology to those who are serving, but also to the families of those who?ve given their lives in this,? White House press secretary Tony Snow said regarding Kerry?s remarks.


Kerry, ah yes, the friend of the republican party.

Ron

[SuperScout]

This may be another one of those "the gift that keeps on giving," similar to Kerry's brilliant remark, "Actually, I voted for the bill before I voted against it." Keep slamming the military, dogbreath, and you just might cause da dims to lose another one!

American Legion to Kerry: Apologize Now

The National Commander of The American Legion called on Sen. John Kerry to apologize for suggesting that American troops in Iraq are uneducated. "As a constituent of Senator Kerry's I am disappointed. As leader of The American Legion, I am outraged," said National Commander Paul A. Morin.

The commander said the callous comments by Kerry ripped open wounds caused by previous comments made during the Vietnam War, when Kerry returned to the United States and accused U.S. military of unspeakable atrocities against civilians in southeast Asia. "A generation ago, Sen. Kerry slandered his comrades in Vietnam by saying that they were rapists and murderers. It wasn't true then and his warped view of today's heroes isn't true now."

While addressing a group of college students at a campaign rally in Pasadena, Calif., Monday, Kerry suggested that they receive an education or "if you don't, you'll get stuck in Iraq." Kerry's comments have been rightly criticized by the White House, several U.S. senators and congressmen, military heroes and families. Morin, in a prepared statement, defended the honor of the U.S. military in the face of Kerry's remarks.

"While The American Legion shares the senator's appreciation for education, the troops in Iraq represent the most sophisticated, technologically superior military that the world has ever seen," Morin said. "I think there is a thing or two that they could teach most college professors and campus elitists about the way the world works.

"And while we are on the topic of education, why doesn't the senator and his comrades in Congress improve the GI Bill so all of today's military members - reserves and guard included - can achieve the educational aspirations that the senator so highly values?" Morin said.

"The senator's false and outrageous attack was over-the-top and he should apologize now."

[WateringHole]

39.......With all these Officers in the military having masters, PhDs, Doctors, etc, I would like to ask if they got those degrees before they enlisted or if they got them while on active duty ? If they got them while on active, than it must have taken them many years to get it. From what I remember when I was in the Army, when a recruiter told some kid he could go to college while on active duty, what the recruiter meant in reality was after he was PP, he could go to a local community college off base and enroll in some night course. That is, as long as it didn't interfere with your military duties.

[39mto39g]

WH
You'll have to do your own research, I don't see what difference it makes.

Ron

[Advisor]

http://www.dod.mil/prhome/poprep2000...chapter4_8.htm
Easier to see on the link than here.

Table 4.13. FY 2000 Educational Attainment of Active Component Officer
Accessions and Officer Corps, by Service (Percent)


Educational Attainment

Army

Navy
Marine Corps*

Air Force*

DoD

ACTIVE COMPONENT OFFICER ACCESSIONS

Less than College Graduate
1.2
15.7
1.7
**
4.2

College Graduate (B.A., B.S., etc.)
82.4
65.9
95.2
82.7
79.8

Advanced Degree (M.A., Ph.D., etc.)
16.4
18.4
3.2
17.3
16.0

Total
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0

ACTIVE COMPONENT OFFICER CORPS

Less than College Graduate
0.3
7.8
5.4
0.8
2.7

College Graduate (B.A., B.S., etc.)
57.5
54.0
76.8
43.4
53.3

Advanced Degree (M.A., Ph.D., etc.)
42.1
38.1
17.9
55.8
44.0

Total
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0

Columns may not add to total due to rounding.
*Education credential information in the DMDC active and loss edit file is not always updated on a frequent basis. The Marine Corps and Air Force accession data were provided by the U.S. Marine Corps and Air Force, respectively, for more accurate information.
** Less than one-tenth of one percent.
Percentages do not include "Unknown" data.
Also see Appendix Table B-35 (Education by Service).

[darrels joy]

"Who Are the Recruits?? by Tim Kane, Ph.D., issued on October 26, states: "A pillar of conventional wisdom about the U.S. military is that the quality of volunteers has been degraded after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq . . .



"Some insist that minorities and the underprivileged are overrepresented in the military. Others accuse the U.S. Army of accepting unqualified enlistees in a futile attempt to meet its recruiting goals in the midst of an unpopular war.?


The conclusion of the in-depth study by Dr. Kane, Director of the Center for International Trade and Economics at the Heritage Foundation: "The current findings show that the demographic characteristics of volunteers have continued to show signs of higher, not lower, quality.?

The findings include:
The high school graduation rate of 2005 military recruits, 96.72, is higher than the rate for the general population, 79.8 percent.


The mean reading level of 2004 recruits is a full grade level higher than that of the comparable youth population.

The percent of recruits who scored in the top percentile of the Armed Forces Qualifying Test, the standardized test administered to determine eligibility for service, rose from 5.63 percent in 2003 to 6.43 percent in 2005.

In 2004, 92.1 percent of those who became active-duty officers held a baccalaureate degree or higher.

From 2000 to 2005, between 35 percent and 45 percent of active-duty officers held advanced degrees.

As for income levels of recruits, the percentage from the poorest U.S. neighborhoods, with one-fifth of the population, declined from 18 percent in 1999 to 13.7 in 2005.

The median household income of recruits in 2005 was higher than in 1999 and higher than the national median, indicating that more recent recruits "come from even wealthier areas than their peers? who enlisted in 1999, according to the study.

The percentage of 2005 recruits with household incomes between $52,071 and $200,000, 22.85 percent, is higher than for the U.S. population ages 18 to 24, 20.02 percent.

African-Americans comprised a smaller percentage of Army recruits in 2005 than their percentage of the overall U.S. population. The same was true for Hispanics.

Dr. Kane concludes: "With regard to income, education, race, and regional background, the all-volunteer force is representative of our nation and meets standards set by Congress and the Department of Defense.

"In contrast to the patronizing slanders of antiwar critics, recruit quality is increasing as the war in Iraq continues.?

[Jerry D]

On the subject of off duty education in todays military, It's been my experience that after a person makes Corporal or any other NCO type rank and Officers in general are highly encouraged to take off duty education to help raise their EPR/ Performance reports rating. Sort of like how states tie Teachers salaries to their continuing education. I had buddies in the Air Force that had double majors and PHDs some folks just liked going to correspondence school thru the education center. In todays Military if you don't continue your education you have a good chance of not making it to retirement @20 yrs. Me I was an old dinosaur from the before Sept 1980 enlistee and got grandfathered into the Old System. when I retired in 2000 there weren't many of us old timers left. By now all the Junior enlistees are some of the best educated (college degrees) there ever was in the service.

[WateringHole]

The recruits who are enlisting might be more educated and come from wealthier families, but it not happening in large volume. We still have serviceman who are forced to serve two and three TODs in Iraq

[SuperScout]

Good grief! Sequential tours of duty in either Iraq or in Afghanistan are not a function of one's educational achievement. It's called "the needs of the military." They are 'forced' to serve - we call it following orders - because they are volunteers, and that is what their job calls for. You really don't have a clue, do you W-Hole?