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From: SSG Hodges
Date: 10/11/03
Time: 5:19:40 PM
Remote Name: 128.8.177.117
I might have a possible solution. Have your adolescent stutterer contact an Army (or Air) National Guard recruiter in his state. The Guard can often give waivers that the regular (Active) Army can't. He goes to the SAME basic training and Advanced Individual training. The only diff is that he returns HOME afterwards and has an obligation to only train one weekend per month and two weeks per year (usu. summer). Of course he can be deployed on Active Duty. The nice thing is that in a lot of states it will pay for most, if not all, of his college education (esp. if he goes for the 6-yr instead of the 3-yr enlistment option.) Then after a year usually, he can apply to go into the Regular Army. In any case, have him continue his therapy, and tell him that I wish him the best of luck. Just so you and he don't have any unrealistic expectations, my stuttering had subsided greatly by the time I was "told" (ordered might be too heavy a word to use here)that I would be the narrator. Plus I had experienced some public speaking at my prep school and as a ministerial student at my first college. Anyway, where there's a will...there's a way. Let me know how it turns out. My email address is: BDEretention@aol.com.