A friend of mine just got turned down for re-enlistment in the Army. Apparently, he had an old juvie record and it permanently disqualified him for service, despite having served seven years in Kosovo and Iraq. These records used to be considered sealed, which is how he got into the service in the first place, but the laws have recently changed so that background checks now include them.
His excellent service in those seven years doesn't change anything, either. The recruiter told him that right now, they have more enlistees than they need. There's no work, so everyone is enlisting.
I almost couldn't believe that. Weren't all the branches suffering just a year or so ago, and the people already enlisted were having tour after tour and burning out?
Surprise: Army Recruiter guy is right: Recruiting gains in Financial Year 2009. That's a Navy site, but it tells the tale. The weak economy and increased recruitment spending are cited as factors.
Army enlistment requirements: Criminal History
This was pretty interesting. The Army has a reputation, undeserved or no, of taking whoever comes in the door. During lean times, they probably do, to some extent, but right now, they're some people's best option, and they can afford to pick and choose who they want.
I really don't know why they turned down my friend, since he had already served. I wonder if there's something they're not telling him and they're just using a technicality as an excuse. I've seen that with employers before. They don't want someone, but they can't come out and say exactly why. Or they don't want to argue about it. So they focus on a technicality, a little blip in the rules that makes things impossible but doesn't humiliate anyone.
Never mind that 99 times out of a 100 they can ignore that technicality at will....
I don't know if things really happened as above; I wasn't there. I'm only going on hearsay. But I do see the potential for it in the links above.
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