Grunt

It's my observation that people who don't keep their covenants often think it's "mean and drives people from the church" when you talk about keeping your covenants.

Exactly. The media loves to portray him as an evil mastermind and some people swallow that hook, line, and sinker.

Scary how? Look at the last 4 years, then the 4 years before that. It's not that scary. They just want you to be scared.

We changed stake boundaries about 4 years ago. I don't know what is considered a "larger geographic area", but from my house at the edge of the ward to the other side is about a 50 minute drive.

We wouldn't meet the requirements for a ward today.

Me either.🤓

I think the difference is that many circumstances require us to live with our teams 24/7 and depend on them for our lives. Unit cohesion and trust is important. If you can hump your own gear, not to mention the extra gear a team requires, you're a liability. If you bring your drama to the unit, and the unit isn't allowed to sort it out, you're a liability. If you can't execute your assigned position due to mental or physical ability, you're a liability. If your relationship with a member of the team affects your, or their, ability to execute their assignment you're a liability. Liabilities can lead to mission failure and or team death. You don't have to like the person you're serving with, but you have to be able to operate with them.

I would disagree with a very strong emphasis on "dis"

I do. However, I think LGB is also broken out. But that isn't what we're talking about. We're talking about being physically and mentally fit for duty and combat, specifically the job to which you're assigned. When my peers refer to "woke" in that context, they are generally referring to switching the focus from combat readiness to social politics, which don't have a lot to do with combat readiness.

Sure you could. You have to have a baseline, but 80% of it is mental. Most things we do, the average male could do if they trained.

So there weren't specific requirements because there didn't really have to be. It was self-sifting. Fall out on a ruck march? Infantry isn't for you. Can't score 270 on the APFT? Better get working. The training itself weeded them out. Many people didn't go Infantry because they knew this. As the failure and injury rates have increased, the Army has tried to set standards (requirements). OPAT was used before BCT. ACFT was used after. ACFT is sprint/drag/carry, push-ups, plank, overhead ball toss, dead lift, and run. It's the same test everyone else takes, you just have to score much higher.

This is an issue the Army has been struggling with. As the Army has moved to complete integration there have been issues we didn't seem to have in large numbers. Let's use physical ability and the Infantry as an example, and because Infantry is the best anyway. 😁 Not everyone meets the physical qualifications for Infantry. Historically, Basic Training and Advanced Infantry School weeded many of them out. They've tried several methods of determining fair measurements of qualifications, but if one group meets the requirements far less, it gets junked. OPAT and ACFT are examples.

No, I'm talking about enlisted. Officers are required to have degrees before or shortly after commissioning. Warrants are different. However, I mostly work with senior enlisted and officers. Your study is enlisted only, of which almost 2/3rds are junior (E-5 and below). Most of those Soldiers, assuming they enlisted out of high school, wouldn't have had time to earn a degree yet. Mid-level NCOs, E-6 and E-7, are typically working on degrees if they want to get promoted. I know they exist, but I don't know any currently serving Soldiers in my area at my level that don't have a 4 year degree. Most have, or are working on, a graduate degree. In the section that I manage, 88% have 4 year degrees. Of those, 57% have a graduate degree or higher.

Most of the Soldiers I work with have a minimum 4 year degree and many of us have graduate degrees.

I think it would just be nice if we had qualified Soldiers that wanted to serve. There are many reasons why we don't, but I'm not sure if I have the heart or time to list everything I find wrong with the current military after a lifetime of service.