Fort Hood Shootings

[Desert Sapper]

I agree with you Machine. Softer targets are always preferrable. It's why car thieves check for open doors before they jimmy locks and why rapists look for women walking alone. Preferrable is preferrable, but it isn't a show stopper. Not for guys crazy enough to walk into a building full of Soldiers and start shooting.

That being said, I also agree that it is always better to be prepared than to not be prepared. Best case, somebody sees the dude drawing his weapons and puts him down early. That kind of situational awareness gets you in cool jobs like the Secret Service and ones that don't have mentionable names. Most ordinary joes react ex post facto. Just gotta hope the prick doesn't get lucky and hit the armed guy.

As to this lowered entrance requirement bit, it is worth mentioning that MAJ Psycho was neither a rapist nor a murderer, not a drug addict nor dealer, not a car thief nor an armed robber. He was a schmuck that was born in the states, had lived here his whole life, had never deployed, and attended Va Tech. If nothing else, we can draw that Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University now has a trend of producing gun-wielding mass murderers.

[Redleg]

Originally Posted by wukong

You are correct in that everyone that has experienced war are changed. However not everyone suffers a psychotic reaction. Some do and should be cared for. Some will prefer to share the experience repeatedly and remain perfectly sane. That being said, the Army is definitely understrength for its current tasking. If our citizenry wish to continue the current deployed force structure, the Army force structure needs to be expanded to match the need.

There never were any good old days.

Just an added personal opinion, and it's not completely about who is allowed to join the military but also the lack of current personnel discipline and control compared to 50-60 years ago.
Not only have the current military standards been relaxed but the past training and its included descipline has been lowered to accommodate present day affirmative action programs.
Perhaps this may not be a major setback of the general rank and file of our military, but retaining some personnel who cannot measure up to the standards of yesteryear in any respect is certainly a form of political correctness and could likely be root cause of the retainment of those who possess the ability to either harm themselves or others.

In the spirit of fairness, civilian corporations in the past do the same thing and continue to hire and employ and retain unqualified persons to avoid labor problems.

[SGM]

Just got back from 2 weeks vacation, so only just heard about this - thanks for the post so I could read about the situation.