Page 84 - A Soldiers Exposition

You might ask: How in the world would the military ever be able to ensure all this happens? The
answers are simple: Leadership!

The soldier’s college education would start in Basic Training.

Basic college-level English will be completed as part of a soldier’s Basic Training. Basic college-level
math will be completed during a soldier’s Advanced Individual Training (AIT).

Extend Basic Training and AIT one month each if necessary.

Idol time equals idol minds which equal trouble.

We hear it all the time: “I’m joining to get an education”.

The military now has a soldier that understands English and math. This is a soldier with a “Head-Start”
and expectation of improving every month.

Right about now you are asking:

How do we pay for such a program?

My response: We already are paying. I suggest that when these young, not highly skilled soldiers, re-
enter society after serving three or four years, most have not taken a single college course and a very
high percentage will not have learned a skill that is in demand in our nation.

Government aid programs will be their only lifeline, and as things look today “life-line” seems to be an
appropriate title. So, I ask you: What will it cost to keep this soldier, his spouse, and on average three
kids on government subsidies for two, five, seven, ten, or more years?

Remember the Fram Oil filter commercials: “You can pay me now or you can pay me later”.
Here is a little food for thought: (Underlining and italics added for emphasis.)

“Unemployment among post-9/11 Veterans stood at 11.7 percent in January, 3.8 percentage points
above the rate for the civilian population.

WASHINGTON — Military Veterans who have been deployed overseas for prolonged periods struggle to
find work because of the traumas of war, as well as training that does not readily translate into the civilian
world, according to research by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

High joblessness could not be explained by the business cycle and by demographic differences between
new Veterans and civilians, two Fed economists said in a paper published on Monday.

"Individuals who return from wartime service may suffer from a variety of issues when returning home that
can affect their employment prospects," senior economist R. Jason Faberman and senior associate
economist Taft Foster wrote in the paper.

Unemployment among post 9/11 military Veterans stood at 11.7 percent in January, 3.8 percentage
points above the rate for the civilian population. About a quarter of a million former servicemen and
women were out of work in January.

Joblessness among this group is set to worsen as the war in Afghanistan winds down. More than 1 million
service members are projected to leave the military by 2016.

The Obama administration and Congress have pushed forward an array of measures, including tax
credits for companies employing Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.