Are Younger Enlisted Not Adapting To Military Lifestyle?

While I can not and would not try to speak for my brothers and sisters in the other branches of service, I can voice my opinion of the Soldiers I have seen enlist in the Army since the mid-late '90s. Due to a shift in the way society decided to raise their children and the sense of entitlement that some feel they deserve from the get go, the quality of young Soldiers has declined from even when I enlisted in 1987. Blame our culture where you have a large percentage of single parent households, the relaxing of parental and school discipline and so many other factors, you unfortunately get what society offers. Along with this in the early-mid '90s you had a relaxing of the manner with which DSs could and did enforce discipline with the new Soldiers in IET/OSUT and AIT. Big Army told us, NCOs and leaders, that we had to change to accommodate THEM because we were getting more intelligent troops, it should have never changed, THEY should have been made to change to accommodate US. Along with a relaxing of standards in the barracks, the removal of the barracks from unit control, etc, you get Soldiers that do not really assimilate to the Army culture. My son, a young PFC at Ft. Riley, has a hard time when looking at some of as he puts it "...the stupid shit..." that his unit does because he had a certain expectation of the Army having grown up a brat and watching me serve for may years. It's hard to explain to him what is happening because I spent my last 7 years in TRADOC or in a staff position in Kuwait and can only speculate for him as to wtf is going on. Maybe things will change for the better with the drawdown and the re-tightening of certain standards that were relaxed or forgotten for the last 13-years, I can only hope that they do for my son's sake and all of you still selflessly serving our Army and nation.

          "TREAT 'EM ROUGH!!"