# Army Lowers Recruiting Standards to Allow Criminals

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-lowers-recruiting-standards-to-allow-criminals/307657>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [June 9, 2005, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-lowers-recruiting-standards-to-allow-criminals/307657 "2005-06-09T22:14:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-lowers-recruiting-standards-to-allow-criminals/307657/21 "2005-06-12T15:03:45Z")

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> [@sewalk](#):
>
> Have a f\*cking clue before chiming in on this or at least read any cites made in the OP:This is nothing new. How in the hell do you think I became a MP with seventeen traffic citations and an admission of experimental drug use? Waivers. I was interviewed and it was determined that I was young and impressionable and showed potential to overcome past indiscretions. All kinds of minor offences and admission standards shortcomings can be waivered with regards to initial entry and advanced schools like OCS. Perhaps waivers were not being granted commonly in the past but a misdemeanor has never been an absolute bar to commissioning in the US Armed Forces.

You’re right…this is nothing new. My husband joined the Marines in 1962 because the judge told him it was service or jail. During the Vietnam war, there was increasing public opinion against the war, and they pretty much took anyone they could get. The Marines turned out to be a good thing for my husband, but he was a “bad boy” with no other options when he went in.

More recently, my son was going to join the service a couple years ago. The recruiter gave him the stuff to mask marijuana in his system, and told him flat out the reason they wouldn’t take him is because he had two pot arrests; only one arrest would have been acceptable. He scored high on his tests, but was one arrest over the limit. I’d imagine they’d probably take him now if he were to apply again.

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**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-lowers-recruiting-standards-to-allow-criminals/307657/22 "2005-06-12T23:31:50Z")

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I have a friend who basically turned around his life in the Army. He’d grown up in a poor single-parent home and had gotten into lots of petty mischief as a youth. His army stint was in the early '80’s and he was based in West Germany the entire time.

Afterwards, he worked a stint as a substitute teacher in public schools in inner-city Newark (high schools, I think, but possibly junior highs). He’s said that the schools were tougher and more dangerous than the Army! :eek:

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