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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
In a 2017 report that went widely unnoticed, a female captain in the Australian Army recommended a novel solution to combat stress: sex. More specifically, she wondered whether making sexual options, potentially including prostitution, available to soldiers in combat would help troops deal with downrange stress. You can read the report yourself here.
My understanding is that the original source of the article was in the Australian Army's official blog, but was pulled after it became, for reasons that are clear if you read the piece, extremely controversial.
Here's the thing: the author is not wrong. Well, not entirely, anyway.
As the article states, science shows that "sex helps satisfy personal, social and physical needs, reduces stress and is inextricably linked to physical and mental wellbeing." The thing is, the military brass doesn't see it that way.
Capitalism, is there anything it can't solve?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Spook brat on Thursday July 05 2018, @03:44PM (5 children)
I've met soldiers who were given ASVAB waivers to allow their recruitment, some of them even in specialties categorized as "intelligence".
My favorite? field phone wiring installer. The job description is basically, "grab this 50lbs spool of wire, then walk backwards through contested territory so someone past the front line can call back to base and make reports". That takes a special kind of stupid, one that almost completely lacks self-preservation.
There are jobs that someone that dumb can do, and they're hard to fill - smart people don't want them. The waiver process is there for a reason.
I totally agree with everything else you said, though; stoned and otherwise slow-thinking soldiers are discipline and training challenges at the best of times. I'm not sure I'd want one holding a firearm next to me on the battlefield.
Travel the galaxy! Meet fascinating life forms... And kill them [schlockmercenary.com]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday July 05 2018, @04:31PM (4 children)
That's true but generally only done when they score particularly high in one category and shit the entire bed in the others. Pegging coding speed for instance would make sense to give a waiver for intelligence work, regardless of your other scores.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Spook brat on Thursday July 05 2018, @06:11PM (3 children)
Coding speed isn't one of the abilities measured on the test, [goarmy.com] but I get the gist of what you're saying. If a recruit misses the composite score cutoff but still qualifies as fit for a needed job category I could see a recruiter make a good argument for a waiver.
Travel the galaxy! Meet fascinating life forms... And kill them [schlockmercenary.com]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday July 05 2018, @06:40PM (2 children)
It was when I took the ASVAB. It's the only thing I didn't break the needle off on. That was over twenty years ago though, so it doesn't surprise me that it's changed a bit.
Coding speed wasn't referring to computer coding, mind you. More along the lines of picking specific bits of data out of a pile of random data. See here [militaryspot.com]. It wasn't especially well named.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Spook brat on Thursday July 05 2018, @07:56PM
Huh. I'm going to have to dig out my scores from back in the day, I took it about the same time as you. I honestly didn't bother studying my test results much, all I cared about was getting into the unit/specialty I was looking for. I'd be willing to believe that "coding speed" is one of the categories under "paragraph comprehension".
And, yep, I was mistaking "coding speed" for a programming thing when you said it :P
Travel the galaxy! Meet fascinating life forms... And kill them [schlockmercenary.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 05 2018, @11:15PM
I took the ASVAB over 30 years ago. It was given in high school, and it was optional. I took it just to get out of my boring morning classes. You see, they didn't tell us that the test was used to recruit for the military. (My high school guidance counselors were particularly stupid.)
Taking the test proved to be a mistake.
Sure, I got another piece of paper saying, yes, I'm a smartie. I also got every branch of the military calling and calling and calling, begging to recruit me. Even the Coast Guard, which was surprising indeed in my corn-cursed state of residence. My parents, neither of whom wished to see me in the military, were quite cross with me.
The hectoring didn't end until one day I heard my mother in our front yard, screaming at the top of her lungs at two very large Marines who had come to talk to me without bothering to inquire if it were okay first. I headed out to explain to the gentlemen that I would not be joining their fine service... but explanations were not needed, as they saw at a glance that I am quite below the minimum required height to join any of the services. At least they went away.