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Look at it this way. The Army can statistically say that XX percentage of those with, for instance, an Op. 40 or 18X contract will fail the pipeline and become subject to "needs of the Army", so they can base their planning and manning around that predictable, historical minimum percentage which will not make it. Now, whether or not they give out contracts with the intent for it to not be fulfilled is another deal entirely. Theoretically, every single contract can be satisfied if everyone was prepared, tried their damndest, and was unGodly lucky with respects to injury and medical conditions.
As far as the words of the SMA, good tidings in my opinion. I am sick of being embarassed by others who wear the uniform even while I'm at the PX or something. I believe the term that the SMA used was "sausages stuffed into uniforms".
"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorius triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."
-Theodore Roosevelt