[Vision2020] If you didn't make it to Seafair in Seattle...

[Tom Hansen]

Exactly, Sunil.

Military enlistments generally increase during recessions and other times
of effed-up economies.

A person can initially enlist as late as his/her 42nd birthday.  And with
drastically reduced standards introduced during the Bush administration, a
potential enlistee can have a "not so clean" record, tatoos, and a
multitude of character flaws that were previously unwaiverable.

Just where can military recruiters find males/females, between the ages of
18 and 42, no more than a one- or two-page police record, a fair amount of
body tatoos, and some visible character flaws, that are loking for a
guaranteed paycheck every month?  Gangs in downtown Los Angeles are loaded
with them.

So, I really don't see the Navy's Blue Angels or the Army's Golden Knights
being that effective of a recruiting tool.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho


>
> Without commenting on the efficacy of such teams as recruitment tools, I'd
> simply like to note that I think a bad economy is likely the most
> effective 'recruitment' tool.  When the Iraq war was going poorly in '05
> (or thereabouts) I recall news stories of the military allowing in people
> it had formerly rejected.
>
> Now that the economy is in poor shape, standards are back up. Last time I
> checked on behalf of a client with a checkered past, he was s.o.l.
>
> Sunil