Army morale low despite 6-year, $287M optimism program

[n2doc]

More than half of some 770,000 soldiers are pessimistic about their future in the military and nearly as many are unhappy in their jobs, despite a six-year, $287 million campaign to make troops more optimistic and resilient, findings obtained by USA TODAY show.

Twelve months of data through early 2015 show that 403,564 soldiers, or 52%, scored badly in the area of optimism, agreeing with statements such as "I rarely count on good things happening to me." Forty-eight percent have little satisfaction in or commitment to their jobs.

The results stem from resiliency assessments that soldiers are required to take every year. In 2014, for the first time, the Army pulled data from those assessments to help commanders gauge the psychological and physical health of their troops.

The effort produced startlingly negative results. In addition to low optimism and job satisfaction, more than half reported poor nutrition and sleep, and only 14% said they are eating right and getting enough rest.

more

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/04/16/army-survey-morale/24897455/

[upaloopa]

1. Well in a profession where you put your life on the

line when polititions decide that you are going to fight in some foreign land, you don't have that feeling that good things are going to happen.
At least when I went to Vietnam I knew I had one year then if lucky I would be sent home. Today you never know when your deployments will end.
I remember a line from "12 O'Clock High"
"Stop thinking about going home, stop making plans for the future, consider yourself already dead."

[B Calm]

2. Don't the army feed their soldiers? When I was in the Navy they gave us 3 meals a day.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

6. If you're living off-base with your family

then your family eats what you can buy.

Where were you stationed that they gave you three meals a day?

After training, at my "permanent" post, I had to buy my own meals. Except when we left the post and went into the field, then the mess hall was free.

[B Calm]

9. Most of my duty was onboard ship. The Navy did send me to an Army school in Virginia and I still

got 3 free meals a day. Maybe back in 1969 the military was more self reliant than it is today with all the outside contractors.

[kelliekat44]

3. What do you expect after listening to Limbaugh radio stuffed down their throats> nt

[bluedigger]

4. Traditionally, the time to start worrying about morale is when the troops stop complaining.

"It is well that war is so terrible — lest we should grow too fond of it." Robert E. Lee

[DefenseLawyer]

5. I have a long term plan. Won't cost $287M

Stop telling high school boys they are going to be jet pilots and electrical engineers but instead sending them off to face horror and death in a senseless never-ending war. Crazy idea, I know.

[Bigmack]

7. What you said....

Part of the problem is that young people...young men especially... are easy prey for military recruiters. If they show 'em some flashy hardware...tanks or choppers... it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

"Young and stupid" is perhaps a mite too strong, but it's certainly close.

The part about jet pilots and engineers is true, but don't underestimate the "gonna kill me some bad guys" appeal.

My Marine recruiter promised me I could be a Grunt if I really wanted it.

I was only too glad to sign on the dotted line.

Young and stupid.

[Octafish]

8. War is a racket.

Money trumps peace.

People in uniform aren't dumb. They know, instead of defending the nation, they're being used by the nation's elite to defend their looting of the planet's wealth.

And some wonder: What New Deal?

[DisgustipatedinCA]

10. Huh. Who would've guessed?

Maybe having troops fight nonstop wars for 14 years, much of it spent close to death and close to the bone can't be whisked under the rug with 300 million dollars worth of posters, pamphlets, and feel-good videos. Joseph Heller just twitched a little in his grave.