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Originally Posted by Adm.Lee
Given that, I might agree with you, then. I assumed the "criminal elements" would be posted to the infantry, as that's where the replacements are needed most. And I'm certain more than one officer or NCO saw them as more expendable than anyone else.
OTOH, the idea that women might be "safer" in the front lines might lead to more of them volunteering for that duty, which seems all kinds of weird to me, but if they can stick together, as I mentioned before, that seems to make some kind of sense.
Branching back to the drafted gang-members, I am reminded of something I read about in WWII. I'll look it up, and post more in a bit.
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Adm.,
Probably there should be a clearer caveat. There would likely be some serious incidents of sexual assault, intimidation and discrimination as order and disciple breaks down. This would involve individuals or even groups, with possible subsequent retaliation. Not enough to derail the program (too much need for warm bodies at the sharp end) but enough to show there would be friction. Especially where there are bad characters with not enough supervision.
Criminals in uniform have always been a problem, of course. With the numbers of Americans that are in or have been through the corrections system, it's not hard to see why exceptions seem natural. I don't think we'd see "penal battalions" because it's foreign to our culture but the idea has some allure. I'm not surprised there was a definite criminal element present in WWII, with conscription the bad would be swept in with the good.
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FBI gang investigator Jennifer Simon said in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes this week [in Dec. 2006] that gang members have been documented on or near U.S. military bases in Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea and Iraq.
"It's no secret that gang members are prevalent in the armed forces, including internationally," Simon said, adding that the FBI is preparing to release a report on gangs in the military.
There are no official statistics on gang membership in the military, but some experts have estimated that 1 percent to 2 percent of the U.S. military are gang members, Simon said. That compares with just 0.02 percent of the U.S. population believed to be gang members, she wrote.
"Gang membership in the U.S. armed forces is disproportional to the U.S. population," she added.
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http://libertystreetusa.blogspot.com...n-problem.html
An article in the NYT in 2008 put the number of recruits allowed to enlist through moral waivers for a criminal record at 1 in 10, some sources put it higher at 1 in 8. Mind you, these are just the recruits and not the US military as a whole, so proportionally the numbers are going to be lower overall. But still high, and likely to get higher as standards are lowered and conscription becomes universal.
Tony