My wife and I were watching Forrest Gump, ans she asked if the Army (then and now) would have taken someone with his mental challenges? Does the Army (then and now) have standards about who they will permit to enlist? Draft?
(You’ll recall Gump enlisted by a recruiter after college; he was not drafted.)
So, what’s the SD?
Not an answer, but another question:
Didn’t he have polio as a child? Wouldn’t that preclude him on medical grounds? My understanding is that the poliovirus can remain more or less dormant in the system and suddenly reactivate and cause further paralysis - which would seem to be rather inconvenient from the army’s point of view.
Well of course it was a movie, so it was fiction and all that.
But in the Vietnam Era there was a program forced on the military by Secretary Whatshisname requiring the Army to take 100,000 recruits who were subpar on standard mental tests. ‘Project 100,000’ was billed as helping these guys with a leg up.
I would simply point out that after the war, they were drummed out.
The Army has waivers for just about everything - including intelligence. I’ve met people in the Army at and below Gump’s mental capacity.
And I didn’t think he had polio. Just a crooked spine that needed some straightning.
The military does have standards but when you are dealing with hundreds of thousands of individuals, things happen, particularly during times of war.
I was drafted during the Vietnam era, and I would be willing to testify in court under oath I met one or more individuals in the Army at that time that made Forrest Grump look smart.
<nitpick> Crooked legs, hence the leg braces, if he had a crooked spine, he’d have had a back brace </nitpick>
As for the IQ level, how much intelligence does it take to be cannon fodder? I’d imagine that a lot of that was needed during Vietnam. He certainly wouldn’t have qualified for say, helicopter maintenance as his MOS, but for simple infantry, I’d imagine that the ability to take orders, and point the gun in the right direction would be sufficient for the army’s needs at that time.
-Butler
(this is not to say that there were not many intelligent men lost during that war, but rather that his intelligence, or lack of, wouldn’t have been an impediment to his particular role in service)
I’m sure you didn’t mean to be offensive here, but you were. In WWI, General Pershing set the tone that the US military was not cannon fodder, and it has stuck. They have been asked to take extreme risks and dangerous missions, but cannon fodder is not one of them. Mistakes have been made and bad plans have been executed, but no commander has a corps of disposable idiots.
I’d also like to point out that he did have a college degree*. So one would think that if you are smart enough to graduate from college, you are smart enough to do as your told. As it turns out, he was great in the army. I forget the exact quote, but it’s something along the lines of:
“Being in the army’s real easy. You just do what your told, keep your bed made, and answer every question with ‘yes, drill sergeant.’”
*Yes, I realize there’s a good chance he only got his degree because he was a star football palyer, and especially back then, football players have been known to sometimes have things a little easier than toher students.
There was a guy named George, a couple of years ahead of me in high school, who was in the Special Ed track, and was mentally impaired. He had just enlisted in the Navy at the time he graduated, and was wearing his dress uniform as he crossed the stage to receive his diploma. It was touching that he did so to heartfelt applause from all present, or so my brother reported to me, who was playing in the band that night.
It was in 1973 that he graduated, so if any of you Navy vets knew a guy named George who fit this description and came from California, there’s your man.
My sincere appologies. You are right, I did not mean to be offensive, as I hold all our veterans in the highest respect. The military has been quite good to my family.
That was the term that came to mind, and now that I reread it, it’s lousy. Perhaps you can suggest a different term for me, so that I can be more accurate with what I’m attempting to say. I’m attempting to describe, the most basic rifleman/infantry type, one that would be required to be strong, and follow orders, which he appeared to be quite capable of doing, but not require lots of independent thought.
These days, according to my ex who was one of them, they’re referred to in the Army as “grunts,” but it’s not a nice term for non-Army people to use. His nickname was Grunt, even out of the Army, but I wouldn’t use it around most soldiers unless I was in uniform myself.
The Army tests potential recruits and the level required to enter varies with the times. As mentioned, it’s also possible to get a waiver for many requirements and maybe a low test score also. Not sure and maybe not. I do know that it’s easier to get waivers for other things when that test score is gloriously high.
The score required to pass is never real high and I think Forrest would do fine.