Reply #12: There is screening throughout the recruitment process [View All]

[MADem]

Though, admittedly, it isn't the sort of thing where one sits down with the shrink and gets the full monte. The recruiter asks about psychiatric history as part of the initial screen. At every physical, they give you a questionnaire that asks all sorts of ordinary questions, including a few odd ones (ever see things that aren't there? for example). They also toss a bunch of these into the ASVAB, and ask them more than once in different ways throughout. Then, those who are doing the training, including the instructors, have some guidance in looking for problematic recruits, and the boot camp process itself is designed to put max stress on people, so they'll either get with the program or drop by the wayside.

People do slip past, but for the most part, they are just kids looking for a paycheck and maybe a bit of adventure. They don't realize until they are well into it that it ain't a video game and they can't turn the computer off. I feel for them. They don't deserve this treatment, when all they were doing was responding to a patriotic call in volunteering for service. They aren't very political, for the most part, but they think the USA is a good place, with good people, and democratic values. They were raised to believe that we are always the Good Guys. They bought the Saddam equals Osama horseshit, just like an appalling majority of this nation did (to the chagrin, later, of some).

They just didn't know when they signed up that they were being used. They're kids. Scared, fucked-up kids...