re: Jarvis Deberry Speaks on French Quarter Attackers

If the Marines want to set up a program like you want, go for it.

I would advise the Army to stay FAR AWAY from the idea of bringing juvenile delinquents on post for job training and rehabilitation. That's not the Army's mission. That's never been the Army's mission.

The Army doesn't have any place for people of questionable character. The Army doesn't even TRY to "re-hab" or "save" any basic trainee. If the Trainee is not motivated enough to complete basic training, the individual is discharged with an Uncharacterized classification. All the individual has to do is say, "I want out."

So the idea of sending juvenile delinquents into the custody of Active Duty NCOs on Active Duty military installations and then forcing the juveniles to stay there even if they want to quit is something that the Army simply no longer does.

Even qualified basic training recruits with stellar civilian records need only ask to be discharged for it to happen. The Army doesn't try to keep unwilling people in at all -- it is not worth the trouble AND they probably will be terrible at any job that the Army could offer them.

And as for all of the crimes that they would commit, trust me, they would. I know from experience these kinds of crimes would happen to our military families on post. I would not want to be a Commander tasked to explain to some grieving spouse why some juvenile delinquent Re-hab soldier/trainee was on post and had a chance to rape their child.